2014 Ninth International Conference on Ecological Vehicles and Renewable Energies (EVER)

Promising Ships Propulsion Systems with Electric

Motion and Steering Gondolas
Igor Bolvashenkov and Hans-Georg Herzog Alexander Rubinraut Victor V. Romanovskiy
Institute of Energy Conversion Technology Institute of Energy Conversion Department of Electrical Propulsion and
Technische Universitaet Muenchen Technology Technische Automatic of Ships
Arcistrasse 21 80333 Munich, Germany Universitaet Muenchen State University of Maritime and Inland
Email: [email protected], Arcistrasse 21 Shipping Named after Admiral Makarov
[email protected] 80333 Munich, Germany 199106 Sankt-Petersburg, Russia

Abstract-The paper describes the new designs of ships, where In order to solve these objectives, a long-time and complex
instead of a conventional steering wheel, steering rotary gondolas development was undertaken whose results are set out in this
used. In this case there is a combination of propulsion and report.
steering complex. In practice to realize such complex with a
mechanical power is difficult. The most practical to create ships II. ANALYSIS OF MODERN TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS
with steering gondolas with an electric power transmission,
forming electric propulsion system, in which the energetic Currently, the most widespread structural scheme is rotary
connection between the ship's hull with steering gondola carried steering gondola with one-side arrangement propeller. This
by an electric cable. type of system is installed, for example, the Finnish Arctic ice-
class tankers "Uikku" built in the mid-90s in the amount of 4
Keywords-ships electric propulsion, steering gondola, propeller, pieces, fig.1.
coaxial shaft, gas turbine, electric motor of double rotation.

I. INTRODUCTION
Development of new directions in shipbuilding in recent years
has revealed a number of distinct trends that make it possible
to significantly improve the manoeuvrability of ships and their
ecological and economic performance.

Modern science and technology has allowed for a new stage to

talk about the effectiveness of a number of vessels on electric
propulsion systems, allowing achieve higher levels of
environmental performance and profitability, compared with
ships with mechanical drive [1, 2, 3, 4] .

Ships of the 21st century will be equipped with the new, high- Fig.1: Arctic tanker “Uikku”
efficient propulsion system comprising two coaxial propellers. Tonnage is 16000 tons. Electric propulsion system installed
The main characteristic of such propulsion system is the fact on the "Uikku" is called Azipod. The main electric motor is
that the poor energy consumption to impart a rotational arranged in the gondola, rotatable about a vertical axis by 360
movement to the water flow is eliminated. degrees. Electric propulsion system also consists of four diesel
generators: two - with a capacity of 6.2 MW, one -3MW and
The other important features of this propulsion system have one - 2.4 MW.
not been sufficiently investigated till the present day.
The main electric motor capacity of 11.4 MW and a rated
Moreover, it was not clear how to build upthe construction of
speed of 110 revolutions per minute through the converter
the electrical drive of the screw propellers and how will be ACS-600 supplied with voltage of 6 kV. The system designer
equipped the appearance of the constructional design of the of Azipodis a firm ABB.
ship with the new propulsion system.

978-1-4799-3787-5/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

 Another example of successful applicationn of the electrical Another important trend in th he development of modern
propulsion system for the ship is the world's laargest cruise liner shipbuilding is to improve the effiiciency of the propeller. In
"Queen Mary 2", fig.2. this context, are of interest for thee application of propulsion
with two coaxial counter-rotating screws, shown in fig.4. The
main advantage of this is the lack ofo propulsive energy losses
twisting water flow.

Fig.2: Cruise liner “Queen Mary2”

Electric propulsion of a liner includes twoo fixed and two

rotary steering gondolas. Total system pow wer is 118 MW. Fig.4: propulsion with two coaxial counter-rotating screws
Capacity of the four main electric motorrs locatedin the
gondola right andleft aftis 86 MW, allowing tthe ship to ensure The results of calculations were con nfirmed in practice through
speed of 29 knots. The system desiggner is a firm the tests by the company “Volvo Peenta”, which has developed
“Alstom”.Achievements companies ABB annd Alstom were a mechanical drive with flange--mounted motors for the
demonstrated on the stands of the world exhibbition SMM 2012 propulsion system with two coaxial,, counter-rotating propellers
in Hamburg. and installed it in small fishing cutteers and motor yachts.
As can be seen from figure 4, the mechanical
m engine located at
Fig.3 shows a dip steering gondola system Azzipod, new series the stern, and in submersible stteering gondola are only
XO. As the figure shows, the gondola desiggn allows staff to mechanical transmission elements.
service the main electric motor, during m movement of the
vessel as well as if the motor is located in the traditionally
stern of the ship. III. TWO PROPELLERS EFF
FICIENCY ANALYSIS
Analytical comparison of mech hanical motion systems and
electric propulsion systems for veessels with a conventional
propeller and propeller consisting g of two coaxial counter-
rotating propellers has been perform
med in [4].
A number of important propertiees of the new propulsion till
now been insufficiently studied. Fuurthermore, it was not clear
how it will look structural arrangemment of vessel with a new
propulsion.Solution of these problem
ms have been devoted many
years of development, the main ressults of which are given in
this article.
For research was compiled mathematical
m model of the
propeller with two coaxial counter-rrotating screws. The model
allowed analysing the efficiency of the propeller depending on
basic size and other parameters off the screw. Feature of the
developed model is that it establishes a relationship between
the energy loss caused by circumferential
c and axial
components of the velocity of th he water flow through the
propeller. As a result of analysis, it
i was determined how the
energy loss caused by the axial component
c of the velocity
depends on the propeller speed.
Fig. 3: Azipod XO steering gondola
These results are summarized as shown in figure 5, which
compares the: the dependence of efficiency of the propeller
with two screws on the rotational speed, with the analogous maximum value, and its value is 0.92. Thus, by reducing the
dependence for the traditional propulsion with a single screw. rotational speed propulsion, propulsion system efficiency can
be still further increased by 10-13%. Therefore, the installation
on ships this type of propulsion will reduce fuel consumption
by 20-23%.

IV. FEASIBILITYOF PRACTICAL REALISATION

The studies showed the relevance of introducing new
economical propulsion for large tonnage ships sea and river
fleet. Considering the experience of the firm Volvo Penta, in
our opinion, the creation of a mechanical transmission with
steering submersible gondola for high powerengines will be
bound with significant structural complexities that can be
avoided by using the electric power transmission to the
propellers.
For practical implementation of such a solution, as shown
our calculations, it is sufficient to improve the system electric
propulsion Azipod. Studies have shown that the electric
propulsion system “Azipod” from ABB which has many value,
can be seriously improved. At the same time, will be saved
basic structural concept of ABB's “Azipod” system: a rotary
steering gondola with installed in it synchronous electric
motor.
In the first phase of Azipod modernization can be saved
traditional scheme of ABB's electric power generation, diesel
generators and frequency converters. At a more deep
modernization is useful to consider the use of gas turbo electric
generators, and in the future, hydrogen generators and fuel
cells.
To rotate a new propulsion system, which has two instead
Fig.5: Screw diameter (a) and efficiency (b)
one coaxial shaft, it is proposed to install in the gondola
Change in diameter of screws, which is necessary to synchronous electric motor of double rotation (EMDR), the
maintain the output power at each screw, and equal to half the detailed description of the construction of which is given in
rated power, the red curve shown in figure 5a. Change in the [5].
diameter of single screw, shown in blue curve Figure 5a. The
analysis allowed us to formulate a method that allows you to
create a new quality of marine propulsion, with a high value of
efficiency.
As seen in figure 5b, propulsion with two propeller screws
while keeping constant rotational speed (point 1 Fig.5b) has an
efficiency of 0.8, instead of 0.7, as is the case for conventional
single screw (point 2 Fig.5b). This occurs by reducing
practically to zero the circumferential velocity component of
the water flow. Further increase of propulsion efficiency can be
obtained by reducing the axial velocity component of the water
flow. For this it is necessary to reduce frequency of rotation the
Fig.6: Electric motor of double rotation
propellers.
At the rotational speed reducing to a value equal to 0.8 Electrical system, developed by firm ABB for Azipod drive
times of the nominal, efficiency of the propeller reaches a consisting of diesel and frequency converters, remains
value 0.88 (point 3 Fig.5b). In this case, the diameter of the unchanged.
screw remains unchanged, and for to save the ship's speed, the Figure 6 shows a construction schema the drive motor
screws step of the propeller should be correspondingly which has two rotors, rotating in opposite directions. The drive
increased by 1.25 times. has an inner rotor arranged on an inner drive shaft, and outer
It was also found that the optimal rotating speed propeller rotor provided on an outer drive shaft. The outer rotor
with two screws is 0.68 of the nominal speed single screw encompasses the inner rotor in a cup shaped manner with a hub
(point 5 Fig. 2b). Thus, efficiency of the propeller reaches a and is provided at an inner hub with a coil of an inductor, while
the inner rotor has a coil of an anchor. Slip rings or sliding costs for the installation of the new propulsion system within 8
contacts for the coil of the outer rotor are arranged on the outer to 10 months.
drive shaft.
V. CONCLUSION
The main advantage of the double rotation motor consists
in that the electromotive force (EMF) induced in the winding is Mathematical modeling results confirmed the possibility of
twice higher than that of conventional engine performance. a significant increase in the efficiency of ship propulsion
system by installing two coaxial counter-rotating screws and
This makes it possible to reduce the active length of the reduce their rotational speed.
motor two times. Thus, accordingly, reduced the weight and
dimensions of electric motor, reduced energy losses and For practical implementation of this solution is the most
therefore increase efficiency from 95% to 98%. optimal variant with electric power transmission on the screws
By reducing the length of the motor, it is possible to set the with an electric motor of double rotation.
axis of the gondola system Azipod, additional bearing is For the modernization does not require substantial changes
required for the proposed motor. Thus, dimension of gondola, in the system Azipod.
remain unchanged. Figure 7 shows schematically how it will
look the Azipod’s gondola after improvements. In order to further improve the efficiency of the proposed
system of electric propulsion, it is advisable to consider the
application as a source of electric energy, steam and gas
turbine combined systems [2,6], as well as autonomous
hydrogen generators [7] and fuel cells.

REFERENCES

[1] I.M. Bolvashenkov, V.V. Romanovskiy, I.L. Shegalov. Methodology of

the ice going ships main electric traction drives efficiency estimation.
Leningrad, Shipbuilding, 1989, № 4, pp. 31-32.
[2] I.M. Bolvashenkov, I.L. Shegalov. Gas turbine electric drive or diesel
drive? Marine Fleet, Moscow, 1987, № 10, pp. 46-48.
[3] V.V. Romanovskiy, D.A. Tkachenko, Maneuvering characteristics of
ship electric propulsion systems with steering gondolas. Operation of
maritime transport. Moscow, 2009, № 3(65), pp. 54-59.
[4] A.M. Rubinraut. Prospects for the use of superconducting electric
motors for ship propulsion. Electricity, Moscow, 1996, № 9, pp. 42-47.
[5] A.M. Rubinraut. Electromotive propeller drive. German patent
DE102006049817, 01.03.2007.
Fig.7: Gondola with electric motor of double rotation
[6] K. Kosowski. Marine turbines: cogeneration and combined propulsion
New propulsion system consists of a front propeller, which system. International Conference European Shipbuilding, Gdansk, 2004,
is installed on the inner shaft and the rear propeller, which is Vol.15, pp.97-110.
installed on the outer propeller shaft. Design of support - thrust [7] I. Bolvashenkov, D. Buecherl, C. Bertram, H.-G. Herzog. Theoretical
bearing at the end of the inner shaft remains unchanged. On the evaluation of the efficiency of centrifugal electrolysis and opportunity of
its use on board the vehicle. International Conference & Exhibition on
opposite side, the inner shaft is installed in the support bearing Ecologic Vehicle & Renewable Energies EVER’11. Monaco, 2011.
and is connected to the hub of the front propeller. The outer
shaft is installed in the support bearing, support-thrust bearing -
and connects to the rear propeller hub.
The proposed upgrading saves space inside the gondola to
provide access to the bearings and the sliding contact block
during the operation of the ship.
Economic efficiency of the ships equipped with the new
propulsion system has been confirmed by multiple
calculations. If, for instance, a new propulsion system would
be installed on the ferryboat of the line “Smyril line”
connecting Denmark with the Faroe islands, where the ship
“Norröna” is in use at present, having the following data: gross
registered tons – 35966, main engine - 4 x Caterpillar
6M32with total power 21.600 kW, the saving for one tour (135
tons of fuel to 700 miles) would amount to 34 tons, in other
words, the fuel consumption would be reduce to 101 tons. This
allows save 5000 tons of fuel in one year, compensating for the