The Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) has presented its annual RNLN Van Hengel-Spengler Award to Kelly Villena. She developed a method that uses a mathematical model to determine an optimal planning for ship-to-shore transport.

The core of an amphibious operation is the safe and rapid transport of personnel and equipment from the sea to land or vice versa. These operations are currently planned manually, which is a time-consuming and complex process. In Villena’s research, a new method has been developed to determine an optimal planning for the ship to shore transport problem. This method uses a mathematical model to find the optimal solution in a considerably shorter time than was previously possible.

The RNLN presents its award to research the results of which lead to new insights, concepts or innovations that contribute to a better operational deployment of naval units. The award was presented at the Maritime Awards Gala on 4 November in Rijswijk, the Netherlands.

Other Nominees

With her planning method, Villena beat the other two nominees Joris Rusman and Maarten Klapwijk:

  • Rusman investigated the effect of advanced turbocharger configurations on the efficiency and acceleration performance of diesel engines. The study has shown that by using these configurations, the efficiency and acceleration performance of diesel engines can be improved. This can make a significant contribution to the RNLN’s goal of reducing its logistic dependence and environmental impact.
  • Klapwijk investigated whether the rising exhaust fumes from an underwater outlet of diesel-electric submarines and their disturbance on the water surface could be calculated using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). An error analysis showed that the surface disturbance can be predicted with a numerical error margin of around fifteen per cent. From this comparison, it was concluded that CFD is well able to predict the pulsating behaviour and the order of magnitude of the disturbances.

Maritime Awards Gala

Taking place at the “Bread Factory” (Broodfabriek) in Rijswijk, the Netherlands, on 4 November, once again five maritime awards were presented at the Maritime Awards Gala. In addition to the RNLN Van Hengel-Spengler Award, these were the KNVTS Ship of the Year Award, KVNR Shipping Award, Maritime Designer Award, and Maritime Innovation Award. Almost 900 maritime professionals, politicians and press attended the event. Honorary guest of the evening was Rotterdam’s mayor Aboutaleb.

Picture: Van Hengel-Spengler Award winner Kelly Villena in the middle, with nominee Joris Rusman to her left and nominee Maarten Klapwijk to the right. On the far left jury president Colonel Paul Flos and to the far right Commander of the Royal Netherlands Navy Rob Kramer (picture by SWZ|Maritime/Gerrit J. de Boer).