DNV Software hosted a series of conferences around the world during the final quarter of 2006, giving us the opportunity to meet many customers and ensuring that our development plans continue to meet market expectations.
The continued support for such conferences illustrates the importance of providing this forum. Our objective is to show the industry our strong commitment to providing the best tools, to add quality and productivity to the daily work, and to demonstrate how DNV Software brings value to business.
The conferences allow us to provide updates to users on the current status and strategic direction of our products and solutions. They also provide a valuable insight into the latest technologies and features in our software for the maritime, offshore and process industries, helping attendees to become more proficient users through the discussions and presentations included.
We were pleased with the aggregated attendance of the 300+ delegates. Based on this unprecedented success, we plan to extend the number of meetings in 2007. A number of these will be coordinated with all product lines – Sesam for the offshore industry, Nauticus for the maritime industry, and Safeti for the process industry – in addition to product-specific events. Check our event pages for a full overview.
Safeti on the agenda
Four major conferences were scheduled in Mexico, Philadelphia, London and Shanghai.
Presentations were made on a wide range of issues relating to the Safeti product suite. Topics covered recent releases and future developments, the recently released Phast Financial extensions for Financial Risk and Consequence Analysis, ongoing enhancements to our mathematical modelling capabilities and plans for the next-generation architecture, focusing on the implementation of Phast. A number of topics of particular local interest were on the agenda, together with supplementary presentations on creating a live connection to an AutoCAD drawing, and features available for modelling releases from long pipelines and associated risks.
Philadelphia, USA
Three user presentations were given by Rohm and Haas. Art Dowell presented his paper entitled ‘A Real-Life Example of Choosing an Inherently Safer Process Option using Phast Consequence Modelling’, while Marc Rothschild gave presentations on ‘A Screening Tool using Phast for Quick Evaluation of Indoor Toxic Releases’ and on ‘Modelling of Pressure Vessel Burst using the TNO and CCPS Approaches’.
All three presentations were very well received, and we would like to thank Art and Marc for their contributions. We would also like to extend our gratitude to Rohm and Haas for hosting the US User Conference yet again.
London, UK
Brian Bain from DNV Energy presented his work on the ‘Development of Simple Consequence Tools using Results from Phast’ and Mark Paton from Air Products presented his paper on the ‘QRA of a Chlorine Transfill Facility using Safeti’.
“We were very happy to hold the European, US and Mexican conferences in the region, and we are pleased with the feedback from the market regarding the future direction of our products,” says Jeremy Linn, Regional Manager UK, BeNeLux and Americas. “We would also like to thank the presenters from Rohm and Haas, Air Products and DNV Energy for their contributions to the success of the meetings.”
Shanghai, Greater China
DNV Software Greater China hosted the conference for the Safeti product suite at its Shanghai office. This was the first-ever DNV Software Conference for Safeti held here. Given the positive feedback, we plan for this to become an annual event in the important growing market for Safeti.
The two-day conference included a diverse range of both practical and technical presentations by our staff and local customers. The Safeti Product Marketing Manager, Dr Nic Cavanagh, kicked off the conference with a keynote address entitled ‘The overall strategy and future plans for the Safeti product suite’.
Further presentations followed on a wide range of topics, including an example of using Safeti to manage LPG storage risks, an overview of the content of recent and scheduled releases, integration with CAD, use of Safeti QRA for pipelines, Financial Risk extensions to Safeti, and the next-generation Safeti architecture.
Zhang Guohui from SINOPEC and Li Yuhua from DNV Energy Shanghai gave presentations on their experience of Safeti; these prompted lengthy discussion and debate, as did the user presentations at the earlier meetings. The presentation from SINOPEC focused on ‘Dispersion area calculation for an LNG tank rupture’, while the DNV Energy presentation gave an overview of Safeti used in a project.
We would like to thank both presenters for their valuable contribution to the meeting. In addition, Colin Yeh from DNV Software Taiwan took the opportunity to introduce the Orbit+ suite through his presentation on ‘Orbit+ in a Safeti Context’, outlining DNV Software’s total process safety solution capabilities.
We also included the traditional open user feedback forum with a panel of DNV Software experts available. A daily session was dedicated to this. “I was pleased with the level of interest and the positive feedback received for this first Safeti conference in Region Greater China,” says Øystein Goksøyr, Regional Manager, DNV Software Greater China. “I would like to thank all who attended and contributed to making this a successful event.”
Nauticus on the agenda
Kobe, Japan
This year’s conference was well attended with participants from major Japanese shipyards. The agenda included a number of plenary sessions focusing on Nauticus Hull, our software solution supporting the Common Structural Rules (CSR) for Tankers and Bulk Carriers. A large share of the world’s bulk carriers are built in Japan, and the new CSR Rules will have a big impact on the Japanese shipbuilding industry.
Other topics were improvements and new features in Nauticus Hull, and the introduction of GeniE as the new FEA tool in Nauticus Hull.
Nauticus and Sesam on the agenda
Shanghai, Greater China
The conference was a coordinated meeting for both Nauticus and Sesam, attended by users from China’s maritime and offshore industries. The conference was organised in four different sessions. Main topics were Nauticus Hull for the new Common Structural Rules (CSR), Nauticus Machinery Torsional Vibration for rotating machinery, and Sesam for semisubmersibles and other offshore floaters. Reflecting the high demand for DNV Software’s state-of-the-art hydrodynamic software in China, a session on hydrodynamic analysis and direct strength assessment was performed separately.
“We are very pleased that so many users were able to participate at this year’s conference, taking the busy times in China into account,” says Øystein Goksøyr, Regional Manager, DNV Software Greater China. “We believe this signals DNV Software’s strengthened position in the market since we established our local office in 2005.”
Sesam on the agenda
Houston, Texas, USA
This annual meeting, hosted by Rune Nysveen, DNV Software’s Regional Sales Manager, brought existing and potential clients to Houston.
Presentations covered a wide range of issues relating to the Sesam product suite, including strategy, news and plans, and the new tool covering hydrostatic, hydrodynamic and structural analysis. The ability to perform a complete analysis and code checking of framed structures was especially welcomed by the engineers.
Significant resources have been invested in GeniE to make it a common tool for modelling and analysis of both plate and frame structures, highlighting the benefits of using concept modelling technology rather than the more traditional finite element or geometry modelling. In addition to the flexibility of GeniE for changes in structural and load layout, the unique way of modelling compartments to be filled with content, solid or liquid, was demonstrated.
A detailed demo of the program showed that a complete solution for hydrostatic and stability analysis is in place, in addition to our traditional strong tools for hydrodynamic analysis. The case study was a semisubmersible with several tanks subjected to intact and damaged conditions. A complete stability analysis and code check according to IMO MODU and NMD was performed and the results presented.
London and Aberdeen, UK
With increased activity in the use of Sesam in the UK, DNV Software was pleased to be hosting two similar conferences in London and Aberdeen. The main focus was on closing the design/reassessment loop for fixed and floating structures, task integration, Best Engineering Practice – modelling our own processes, and asset integrity management of structures.
In particular we looked at how GeniE, HydroD and the new Brix Explorer are evolving to meet these needs. We introduced Field Life Cycle Manager, a system linking structural integrity with the inspection management processes.
Says Nigel Winder, the host for these meetings: “Our goal is to provide the offshore industry with functional, integrated and quality software designed to meet our customers’ business needs. We want to help our clients add quality and productivity in their daily work, by eliminating the need for writing in-house software to deal with interfaces to other applications, for post-processing and other requirements. This frees the analyst’s time to be spent on engineering tasks.”