GEAR | P&O Ferries awards contract for hull stress monitoring systems

Light Structures, a supplier of fibre optic condition monitoring systems based on Fibre Bragg Grating technology (FBG), has been selected to provide a hull Stress monitoring system for two new hybrid-power, double-ended Ro-Pax vessels under construction at Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) in China for P&O Ferries.

Delivery, installation, and commissioning will be completed within 2022. At 230 metres in length with 3,600 lane meters and a passenger capacity of 1,500, the ferries will become the largest vessels to operate on the route between Dover and Calais when they enter service in 2023.

Light Structures’ proprietary monitoring system will be used to monitor stress loading on the ferries’ advanced new hulls, providing precision data in real-time, which will also contribute to optimising maintenance windows based on real-world fatigue. The data collected by the sensors will also be used to validate integrity of the hull design over a sustained period, enabling improvements for future iterations.

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