Testing the world’s largest bulk ship

At the beginning of the year, designs for the world’s biggest cargo carriers were tested and improved at MARINTEK’s Ocean Laboratory. The vessels will be 360 m long and 30 m high, with a 10 metre diameter propeller and a capacity of 400 000 tonnes of cargo. The ships will carry iron ore from Brazil to China, and the Chinese shipping company Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. will build no fewer than 12 bulk carriers of this type.

Since the vessels will both operate on the open sea and be required to manoeuvre in shallow water in narrow channels, the design has to meet very stringent demands. “That is why this  vessel type has to undergo an unusually comprehensive programme of tests, which has involved building four models with which we can documents its characteristics,” says MARINTEK’s project manager Bjørn Ola Berge.