May 20 2026

Design solutions are being tested on digital twins before physical production begins.

Simulation of technological processes opens up new opportunities for the shipbuilding industry. This opinion was expressed by Professor Sergey Soldatenko, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics and Head of the Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction Department at the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), at the POLAR 2026 conference, as reported by a PortNews correspondent.

The central element of the institute’s infrastructure is the experimental ice basin, which allows for the creation of artificial ice with specified properties and the testing of vessel and platform models under controlled conditions. This very place became the testing site for the ice-resistant self-propelled platform “North Pole” and the new scientific expedition vessel “Ivan Frolov».

“I’ve already mentioned that our institute has a unique pool where we can create environments that simulate the Arctic and Antarctic. Here, we use various methods for modeling technological processes in shipbuilding. That is, how ships withstand the ice loads that can occur in high latitudes. Processing this information ultimately involves creating digital twins—of both vessels and structures. This ultimately allows us to assess how various devices, including vessels operating in northern latitudes, should look technologically, so as to minimize their environmental impact,” explained Sergey Soldatenko.

Design solutions are tested on digital twins before physical production begins. Artificial intelligence is used to optimize these solutions based on field test data, and remotely controlled azimuth thrusters automate the testing process.

Source: https://portnews.ru/news/391774/