About

connecting marine engineering, hydromechanics and controls

About

Hello, I am Arthur Vrijdag, the founder of AVR Maritime. As a maritime professional, I began my career in the Royal Netherlands Navy and was trained as officer of the watch at the Royal Netherlands Naval College. During my time on board, I became fascinated by the interaction between operators, propulsion systems, and the marine environment.

My interest led me to pursue various academic degrees in ship hydromechanics and advanced ship propulsion simulation and control. I focused on the interaction between machinery, propulsion controls, and hydromechanics of naval ships, conducting extensive simulation studies, Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) activities, and full-scale trials with experimental propulsion control systems.

After completing my doctorate, I worked in the Naval Systems Team of Rolls-Royce in Bristol, UK, where I was involved in the conceptual design and sales support of naval and governmental power and propulsion systems. This experience provided me with a broader perspective on the maritime industry from a commercial standpoint, as well as the opportunity to collaborate internationally in a large multinational company.

In 2011, I joined Damen Shipyards at their Headquarters in The Netherlands as a member of the R&D department. I worked on various projects, including performance predictions, development of prediction tools, and ship trials worldwide, focusing on noise and vibration, manoeuvring behaviour, and system performance. I initiated a small HIL capability at the shipyard, which has since developed significantly.

From 2015 to 2020, I was a member of the Marine Engineering Department of Delft University of Technology, where I focused on the dynamic behaviour of ship (propulsion) systems. During that time, I was involved in several innovative projects, such as connecting simulated propulsion concepts to model-scale hydrodynamic test equipment in a towing tank, full-scale parameter identification of ship propulsion systems, and combining haptic technology developed at the Delft Haptics Lab with maritime applications.

Throughout my career, I have noticed that the integration of ship systems is becoming increasingly challenging due to rising system complexity and the lack of good multidisciplinairy communication tools. Proper integration, when done systematically and correctly from an early stage, can improve the quality and performance of the total system, saving time and cost during the commissioning and sea-trials phase and throughout the whole life cycle. To this end, I have found that pragmatic use of MBSE and SYSML diagramming techniques can help significantly.

With AVR Maritime, I offer my knowledge, skills, and experience to the maritime market. My passion lies in multidisciplinary innovation, both theoretical and practical, and I enjoy collaborating with individuals from different backgrounds and disciplines.

If you would like to learn more about my experience, please visit my LinkedIn profile, and don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. References are available upon request.