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 fixed combinator curves limits control freedom in trading-off performance characteristics. In order to evaluate performance of current state-of-the-art and future alternative propulsion systems and their control, a validated propulsion system model is required. To this end, this paper proposes a propulsion model with a Mean Value First Principle (MVFP) diesel engine model that can be parameterised with publicly available manufacturer data and further calibrated with obligatory FAT measurements. The model uses a novel approach to predict turbocharger performance based on Zinner blowdown, the Büchi power and flow balance and the elliptic law for turbines, and does not require detailed information such as compressor and turbine maps. This model predicts system performance within 5% of actual measurements during Factory Acceptance Tests (FAT) of the diesel engines and Sea Acceptance Tests (SAT) of a case study navy ship. Moreover, this paper proposes measures of performance that objectively quantify the fuel consumption, acceleration rate, engine thermal loading and propeller cavitation during trial, design and off-design conditions in specified benchmark manoeuvres, within an hour simulation time. In our experiments, we find that, depending on the control strategy, up to 30% of fuel can be saved, thermal engine loading can be reduced by 90. K, and acceleration time by 50% for a case study Holland class patrol vessel.

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The Diesel A model has been developed with the idea of looking at overall engine cycle performance in a larger system. As such, the goal has always been to provide an acceptable prediction of the engine performance without sacrificing the computational performance of the model. The simplest form of the Diesel A model has only a single integrator that is used to estimate the charge pressure based on the available heat at the end of the closed cylinder process. This method has recently been improved by adding a more realistic estimation for the charge pressure through the Buchi equation. This has proved to be an improvement but has also created a new problem: the need for a second integrator to close an algebraic loop in the model. This second integrator represents the time delay of the outlet receiver building up pressure but it has no direct physical derivation. Furthermore this method is still not suitable for advanced turbocharging strategies, and thus an improvement is proposed in this report.@en

Autonomous shipping is considered a highly promising development in the shipping industry. Technologically it is believed to be possible, but there are several challenges that still need to be solved before autonomous shipping can become a reality. In this paper the main challenges for autonomous shipping are identified. This is done by taking the main functions of the ship and combining them with the crew tasks. That way it is possible to identify where problems occur when the crew is no longer on board. Combining the challenges found with prior research on autonomous shipping leads to three elements into which little to no research has been conducted. However, they are important for the operation of an autonomous ship. The elements that need to be further investigated are; navigation and situational awareness, ship-to-ship communication, physical intervention of the crew on the ship and its systems, and maintenance and repair.@en