Virtual testing targets ammonia leaks on ships

Classification society ABS, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (HD KSOE) and engineering firm Siemens have agreed to develop digital twin technology to assess ammonia leak risks on ships.

IMAGE: Ship-to-ship ammonia bunkering of an ammonia-capable gas carrier in Japan. NYK Line

The companies will combine virtual replicas of ships and their systems, known as digital twins, with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to simulate how ammonia could spread following a leak.

CFD is a way to digitally simulate and predict how liquids and gases move. In this case, it can show where leaked ammonia is likely to travel and how it could disperse around different parts of a vessel.

Ammonia’s toxicity makes accidental leaks a key safety concern for its use as a marine fuel. ABS said the technology could help mitigate that risk by testing different leak and accident scenarios early in the vessel’s design process.

“By pairing CFD analysis with digital twin technology, this project gives designers a faster, more rigorous way to understand leak behavior,” Patrick Ryan, chief technology officer at ABS said.

HD KSOE will develop ammonia safety systems and lead the testing.

Siemens will provide simulation analysis and digital twin technology, and ABS will develop the safety assessment methodology based on it.

By Konica Bhatt

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