Shipboard DC systems, a Critical Overview: Challenges in Primary Distribution, Power Electronics-based Protection, and Power Scalability

This article gives an overview of challenges in primary distribution, protections, and power scalability for shipboard dc systems. Given that dc technology is in development, several aspects of shipboard systems have not yet been sufficiently devised to ensure the protection and efficiency demanded. Several issues in dc systems arise from the...

Naval engineering and ship control special edition editorial

Editorial Special Issue: Naval Engineering and Ship Control II

A digital twin approach for maritime carbon intensity evaluation accounting for operational and environmental uncertainty

Maritime industry has set ambitious goals to drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions through stipulating and enforcing a number of energy assessment measures. Unfortunately, measures like the EEDI, EEXI, SEEMP and CII do not account for the operational and environmental uncertainty of operations at sea, even though they do provide a...

Transient performance of alternatively fueled internal combustion engines for naval applications

Navies worldwide are exploring the use of alternative fuels for their vessels, aiming to cut down greenhouse gas emissions and lessen their reliance on fossil fuels. This effort also seeks to reduce their environmental impact and emissions signatures. However, combustion engines running on low reactivity fuels, including most alternative fuels...

Numerical methods for monitoring and evaluating the biofouling state and effects on vessels’ hull and propeller performance: A review

Monitoring and evaluating the biofouling state and its effects on the vessel's hull and propeller performance is a crucial problem that attracts the attention of both academy and industry. Effective and reliable tools to address this would allow a timely cleaning procedure able to trade off costs, efficiency, and environmental impacts. In...

Energy transition for the replacement Air Defense and Command Frigate

Progressing targets on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction urge the Netherlands Ministry of Defense (NL MoD) to reduce GHG emissions, without sacrificing striking power. The Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) is investigating the replacement of the Air Defense and Command Frigate (LCF) between 2030 and 2040 by a Large Surface Combatant. As it...

Artificial Intelligence-based short-term forecasting of vessel performance parameters

Deterministic models based on the laws of physics, as well as data-driven models, are often used to assess the current state of vessels and their systems, as well as predict their future behaviour. Predictive maintenance methodologies (i.e., Condition Based Maintenance) and advanced control strategies (i.e., Model Predictive Control) are...

Operational data-driven energy performance assessment of ships: the case study of a naval vessel with hybrid propulsion

Ship designers hardly ever receive feedback from the actual operation of their designs apart from sea acceptance trials. Similarly, crews operating the vessels do not receive a clear picture of the energy performance and environmental footprint of different options. This paper proposes a methodology based on operational data from continuous...

Physical and Data-Driven Models Hybridisation for Modelling the Dynamic State of a Four-Stroke Marine Diesel Engine

Accurate, reliable, and computationally inexpensive models of the dynamic state of combustion engines are a fundamental tool to investigate new engine designs, develop optimal control strategies, and monitor their performance. The use of those models would allow to improve the engine cost-efficiency trade-off, operational robustness, and...

Physical, data-driven and hybrid approaches to model engine exhaust gas temperatures in operational conditions

Fast diesel engine models for real-time prediction in dynamic conditions are required to predict engine performance parameters, to identify emerging failures early on and to establish trends in performance reduction. In order to address these issues, two main alternatives exist: one is to exploit the physical knowledge of the problem, the...

Hybrid Modelling Approach of a Four-stroke Medium Speed Diesel Engine

Diesel engines will remain a fundamental component of propulsion systems due to their maturity, reliability, and power density. Building Digital Twins of the propulsion system is one feasible solution to pursue the optimal propulsions system operation, estimating system states and efficiency. This work will investigate a modelling approach that...

Autonomous control for adaptive ships: with hybrid propulsion and power generation

Shipping plays a crucial role in modern society, but has to reduce its impact on the environment. The commercial availability of power electronic converters and lithium-ion batteries provides an opportunity to improve performance of ships energy systems while reducing their environmental impact. However, the degrees of freedom in control for...

Ship diesel engine performance modelling with combined physical and machine learning approach

Condition Based Maintenance on diesel engines can help to reduce maintenance load and better plan maintenance activities in order to support ships with reduced or no crew. Diesel engine performance models are required to predict engine performance parameters in order to identify emerging failures early on and to establish trends in...

Adaptive pitch control for ships with diesel mechanical and hybrid propulsion

Shipping urgently needs to reduce its impact on the environment, both due to CO₂, NO_x and particulate matter (PM) emissions and due to underwater noise. On the other hand, multifunction ships such as offshore support vessels, anchor handling and towing vessels, naval vessels and wind farm construction and support vessels...

Design and control of hybrid power and propulsion systems for smart ships: A review of developments

The recent trend to design more efficient and versatile ships has increased the variety in hybrid propulsion and power supply architectures. In order to improve performance with these architectures, intelligent control strategies are required, while mostly conventional control strategies are applied currently. First, this paper classifies...

Pitch control for ships with diesel mechanical and hybrid propulsion: Modelling, validation and performance quantification

Ships, in particular service vessels, need to reduce fuel consumption, emissions and cavitation noise while maintaining manoeuvrability and preventing engine overloading. Diesel mechanical propulsion with controllable pitch propellers can provide high fuel efficiency with good manoeuvrability. However, the conventional control strategy with...