Enhancing the yacht’s design by identifying the best component candidates faster compared to what was previously needed

About the customer

First held in 1851, the America’s Cup (AC) is the oldest competition in international sports and one of the most respected sailing competitions worldwide. One of the competitors in the 37th America’s Cup (AC37), which took place in Barcelona from August to October 2024, is the Italian team Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, who have participated in over five prior AC competitions. The team has experience with Siemens Digital Industries Software solutions, leveraging them to build the best possible boat in the AC75 foiling boat class for the 36th America’s Cup – presented by Prada (AC36). However, in the AC36 competition, the team only leveraged Simcenter™ software simulation tools.

In the AC37, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli took innovation to the next level by using the full spectrum of Siemens technologies – alongside in-person Siemens engineering experts – to ensure they got the best results possible with a strong focus on structural simulation and high-performance computing (HPC).

Their challenge

Each edition of the AC follows a special protocol in which the defending team has the freedom to establish the venue and boat class rules. For the AC37, teams had to use an updated version of the AC75 racing yacht, first utilized in 2021. Another key point in the AC37 protocol is cost reduction, which includes limitations on the number of foils and other boat components that can be used. All competitors and their boats must comply with these rules to ensure an even playing field. Since the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team already built a revolutionary AC75 boat for the AC36, their goal was to identify new areas they could improve to achieve significant performance gains. To identify these opportunities and get ahead of the competition, the team needed to employ a holistic suite of advanced technology that would give them unparalleled insights.

Siemens solutions for a detailed composite structural analysis helped the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team improve the design.

Our solution

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli worked closely with Siemens solutions and on-site experts. The team used Siemens structural simulation tools as they did for the AC36; but for the first time, they were able to take advantage of on-site engineering support. This provided an additional layer of expertise and expanded their technology scope to include HPCWorks™ software. HPCWorks and Simcenter are part of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform of software, hardware and services.

Leveraging HPCWorks tools in the development process helped speed up the component screening process to identify components with the highest potential for optimization. Using HPCWorks tools enabled the team to perform many different optimization tasks at once instead of having to submit one job after another. Based on the optimization results they obtained faster thanks to HPCWorks, the team identified the best component candidates in a fraction of the time compared to what was previously needed. For later development phases, HPCWorks might also be applied when working with data analytics tools to quickly process the vast amount of data collected from real-world trial runs, which drastically speed development and optimization.

In addition to HPCWorks, Digital Twin solutions also helped the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team improve their boat. In a fourstep Digital Twin concept, the team created a virtual representation of the entire boat, which helped them monitor the entire system in real time and create maps of critical areas. Via boat-mounted sensors, the Digital Twin provided the team with real-time information on the entire state of the boat – dubbed as virtual structural health – empowering them to review and improve upon the existing structure.

Using simulation, HPC, and data analytics tools in the development process the engineering team quickly
identified components with the highest potential for optimization.

Results

in-person, on-site expertise – helped the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team improve the design of the boat they used in the AC37. Reduced simulation time freed engineers to conduct more simulation analyses, which helped them improve more parts and find the optimal boat design much faster than before. Thanks to a faster, more streamlined development cycle – enabled by Siemens solutions and experts – the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team gained a competitive edge.

“Leveraging Simcenter simulation, HPCWorks and data analytics solutions supported us and helped us optimize our work on the boat’s structure like never before,” says Alessandro Franceschetti, head of structural engineering at Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. “These cutting-edge upgrades and technology are key to Luna Rossa’s design process.”