Digital twins are transforming the de-cision-
making and planning processes
in the offshore oil and gas, renewables
and maritime sectors. As virtual replicas
of physical assets, digital twins make it
possible to realistically simulate complex
offshore installations, train for and an-ticipate
multiple operational scenarios
months or weeks in advance and yield
significant safety and cost benefits.
Using fully connected simulations, op-erators
can even glimpse a few minutes
into the future during an actual opera-tion.
Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC)
was an early adopter of digital twin
technology. The Dutch offshore oil and
gas marine contractor owns and oper-ates
a fleet of specialised crane and
construction vessels and has been us-ing
digital twin solutions from Norway’s
Kongsberg Digital (KDI) at the Heerema
Simulation Centre to support complex
heavy-lift projects.
By applying KDI simulators to explore
and test challenging and critical in-stallations
in the lab before going off-shore
to start the project, HMC says
it can reduce risk and simultaneously
improve safety and efficiency, provid-ing
its workforce with a clear picture
in advance of operations commencing.
This had led HMC to label KDI’s digital
twins as a ‘force multiplier’ for offshore
operations.
“By adopting this methodology, HMC
can subject new and innovative con-cepts
to rigorous pre-testing in the
virtual realm before committing to the
expense and logistical issues involved
when turning such concepts into real-ity,”
says HMC simulation and visual de-sign
team lead Dave Woessner.
HMC’s Kongsberg Digital simulators
use a DNV-GL-certified K-Sim offshore
simulator facility with two offshore
crane operator domes, winch operation
stations and a full mission bridge that
has DP simulation capability.
Using the K-Sim Offshore technology
as a platform, Kongsberg and HMC de-veloped
detailed models of the HMC
deep-water construction vessels Sleip-nir,
Thialf, Balder and Aegir in addition
to several support assets and vessels.
Used for operator training, the mod-els
are constantly being improved and
refined with data captured from live
operations. The fidelity of the models
ensures that HMC can trial any planned
operation in its simulators and find out
exactly what will happen at sea under
various conditions.
Mr Woessner says: “The simulators
also enable concepts to be safely de-veloped
PAGE 10 THE MARITIME SIMULATION NEWSLETTER | DECEMBER 2019
away from harsh offshore en-vironments,
where operations can be
seriously compromised by unpredict-able
weather patterns.” He adds: “By
the same token, the simulators enable
comprehensive training programmes to
be pursued – a crucial preparatory step
when evaluating complicated project
plans. KDI’s digital twins also allow HMC
to run through failure cases and create
mitigating actions, thereby minimising
the risk of unexpected issues arising.
This in turn improves execution predict-ability
and timing. The logical outcome
of these stringent, pre-emptive, simu-lated
scenarios is that operational effi-
DIGITAL TWIN
Digital twins yield safety and
cost savings for Heerema Marine
THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN OFFSHORE SUPPORT JOURNAL’S DECEMBER 2019 ISSUE
PHOTO: Dave Woessner and the team at Heerema Marine Contractor’s (HMC) simulation center are using digital twin technology delivered by Kongsberg
Digital to realistically simulate complex operational scenarios. To HMC, the digital twins are a “force multiplier” for the company’s offshore operations.