Improve comfort on board, resetting the vibro-acoustic footprint to protect the marine environment and ensure the wellbeing of passengers and crew. These are the ambitious objectives that kicked off the research and development project ‘SilentShip - Acoustic Black Holes, a new frontier for silent ships’.

The initiative, strategic and co-financed by the Regional ERDF Programme of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, sees the Department of Engineering and Architecture (DIA) of the University of Trieste as a scientific partner, alongside industrial leaders such as Fincantieri and Esteco, with the management support of MareFVG. The project leader is Consorzio Servizi Navali e Industriali - CSNI.

The key to innovation lies in Acoustic Black Holes (ABH), devices based on a particular geometry and applied to parts of the structures. In practice, these geometries cause vibrations to ‘concentrate’ there: mechanical energy slows down and is more easily dissipated by dedicated materials or treatments. This is why ABHs are described as real ‘wells’ of vibrational energy. The use of this technology makes it possible to design light and sustainable solutions to limit the propagation of vibrations generated by the main machinery and, consequently, to contain the noise perceived on board and radiated outwards.

Within the project, the Department of Engineering and Architecture will play a crucial role ranging from theory to experimentation. The research team is led by Giada Kyaw Oo D'Amore, junior researcher at DIA, as scientific project manager and UniTS coordinator and includes Prof. Marco Biot, Prof. Mitja Morgut and Giovanni Rognoni, research assistant at DIA.

UniTS researchers will focus on developing advanced numerical models and performing complex simulations aimed at identifying the most effective ABH geometries and the essential parameters to optimise them. These analyses will also produce useful guidelines to establish where to place prototypes on naval structures to obtain the maximum effect.

The research group will also provide a fundamental contribution in the validation phase, in fact it will design and conduct progressive tests, from the laboratory to naval mock-ups, up to the tests on board the ship. These activities will be used to detect the real stresses that vibrations generate, so as to insert them accurately in numerical models. Tests will also be used to verify the effectiveness of the solutions identified on the computer and to refine the prototypes, ensuring that the expected performance in simulation is confirmed even under operational conditions.

Finally, the commitment of the DIA will extend to sustainability and open innovation aspects. The team will carry out Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of the developed product and will conduct studies to apply Open Innovation solutions consistent with the philosophy of Company 5.0, in which technological progress is oriented both towards improving quality of life and reducing environmental impacts. The Department will also contribute to the definition of the technical specifications of the product and the production process.

The ‘SilentShip’ project has a total funding of € 1,366,685.17, with a regional contribution of € 822,016.20 and EU co-financing of € 328,806.48. The budget available to the UniTS team amounts to € 418 130.20, confirming the importance of the research work carried out by researchers at the University of Trieste.

With a duration of 42 months, the project aims to set a new technological frontier in the naval sector, making vessels not only more comfortable for humans, but also more respectful of the marine environment.