Ingeniacity Leverages HyperWorks to Reduce Yacht Bowsprit Weight by 65%

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Ingeniacity S.L., a Spanish engineering service provider, was tasked by Juan Yacht Design to optimize the structural design of a new Swan 50 class yacht, with a particular focus on designing a new bowsprit made of composite material. The challenge was to create a structure that offered the highest possible stiffness while also being as light as possible. The bowsprit, a spar that attaches the forestay forward to the hull, is a critical part of the yacht's structure. The design and optimization of the bowsprit presented unique challenges due to the need to take into account the characteristics of the composite material to leverage its lightweight and stiffness potential. The engineers also had to consider buckling modes due to the thin walls of the bowsprit, which were necessary to keep the weight low. This required the use of sophisticated computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools and optimization technologies that could handle all necessary disciplines efficiently and deliver accurate results promptly.

Ingeniacity S.L. is a Spanish engineering service provider that offers innovative solutions for engineering challenges and develops new ideas and methodologies. The company provides its services to various industries by offering a 'problem abstracting' technique that enables it to cover many different applications. Ingeniacity has extensive experience in structural design and analysis, applying finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques, and specializes in the design of composite materials for industries such as shipbuilding and automotive.

To meet this challenge, Ingeniacity turned to Altair's HyperWorks suite of CAE tools. The suite's tools allowed for a streamlined design and optimization process of all materials and were particularly well-suited for composite materials. The key tool used was OptiStruct, which enabled the designers to lighten and stiffen the bowsprit as desired. OptiStruct takes a three-step approach: determining the optimal location of ply drops and ply build-ups, developing the ply cut-out patterns, and defining the optimal stacking sequence. The engineers followed this approach to design the composite-made bowsprit. The load cases applied for this optimization had a pretension of 4500 N at the bobstay and more than five tons of weight from the rig at the same time. Thanks to HyperWorks, the engineers were able to create a new bowsprit design that was 34 kg lighter than the previous model.

• The use of Altair's HyperWorks suite of CAE tools and its optimization tool OptiStruct allowed Ingeniacity to perform high-level simulations without having to go through an expensive physical test stage. The ability to change the plies of the laminate and easily iterate between different models without having to modify the rest of the model setup was key to a short and streamlined development process. The engineers were able to virtually test various variants and come up with the best possible result before the first prototype was built. This not only saved significant development time and costs but also resulted in a bowsprit that met the required stiffness while being significantly lighter than the previous model.

• Reduced the weight of the bowsprit from 54 kg to 19 kg, a reduction of 65%
• Created a new bowsprit design that was 34 kg lighter than the previous model
• Performed high-level simulations without the need for expensive physical testing