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To cite this article: D Stapersma & Hk Woud (2005) Matching propulsion engine with propulsor,
Journal of Marine Engineering & Technology, 4:2, 25-32
Download by: [Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche] Date: 26 June 2017, At: 00:35
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The basic matching problem of a propulsion engine to the propulsor is discussed and
the influences which should be taken into account. The concepts of sea margin, engine
margin and light running margin are handled and an indication of their values is given.
The methods of calculation to evaluate design and off design conditions are discussed.
Key words: matching, propulsion, engine, propulsor, sea margin, engine margin, light run-
ning margin, off-design conditions.
INTRODUCTION
W
ith the design of a ships propulsion system The propulsion system should not only operate satisfacto-
the correct matching of the prime mover(s) to rily in the design condition of the ship, but also in off-design
the propulsor(s) and the ship is of great impor- situations, which the ship might encounter. Relevant off-
tance. In case the matching problem is not design situations may involve: variation of ship displace-
solved adequately the ship may have problems with regard to ment, increased resistance due to seaway, the influence of the
overloading prime movers, attainable speeds in off design number of driving engines and active propulsors and of a
conditions and an excessive fuel consumption. shaft generator. The methods described in this paper are
extensively discussed.1
R 3
def PO Q
R = = (4)
Pp M p
0.8
Square curve 0.7
1 0.6 10 KQ
resistance curve
O
with higher powers 0.5 O
10 KQ KT
2 0.4
KT
0.3
0.2
0.1
V 0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2
Fig 1: Different types of hull resistance characteristics Advance ratio J
def kp T R Q
t=
kp T leading to R=(1-t) . kp . T (2) torque coefficient: K Q = n 2 D 5 (6)
p
def vS vA
w= leading to vA=(1-w) . vs (3)
vS vA
as function of advance ratio: J = n D (7)
p
The thrust deduction allows for the fact that while a part
of the produced thrust is used to overcome the pure towing
resistance, the remaining part is to overcome the added resist- The open water efficiency can be now expressed in these
ance due to the propeller influence on the hull. The wake frac- three terms:
tion allows for the difference between ship speed vs and
advance velocity vA experienced by the propeller, as a result
1 T vA K T n p 2 D 4 vA 1 KT J
of the boundary layer in the wake of the hull. O = = =
2 Q n p 2 K Q n p D n p 2 K Q
2 5
Propulsor
The open water propeller efficiency relates the thrust power PT In case water jets are used it is not customary to receive
to the propeller power PO in open water condition, ie, without open water diagrams from the manufacturer. One gets a dia-
the influence of the hull: gram as shown in Fig 3. This diagram gives the same infor-
def P 1 T vA mation as an open water diagram: thrust and torque as func-
O = T =
PO 2 Q n p , tion of impeller speed and ship speed but now for the installed
condition in the hull.
where Q is the torque in open water condition and np the rota-
tional speed of the propeller. Propulsion plant
In reality with the propeller behind the hull, the actual The propulsion system consists of a number of propulsors, a
propeller torque Mp and power Pp are slightly different. transmission installation and driving engines. An example is
The ratio between actual and open water values is called shown in Fig 4. This plant has two identical propellers (kp=2)
the relative rotative efficiency: and per shaft line two identical engines (ke=2), combined
cavitation limit
n=100 75% m1
turbocharger limit
continuous 90
50% m1
operation
80
70 25% m1
60
V1
n??? n??? n???
M1 design point
M1 100% m1
n=100
75% m1
90
80
70 50% m1
60
V1 25% m1
Fig 3: Example of a performance diagram of a water jet/hull
combination n??? n??? n???
P 2 1
MCR 3
operating
envelope
propeller
load
ne
Fig 8: Operational envelope of diesel engine with three
propeller load curves
Fig 7: Operational envelope of a gas turbine with free power
turbine propeller load at
P 1 [ %] design conditions
operating envelope
have come with solutions to improve the operational enve-
MCR propeller load at
lope. They apply eg, sequential turbocharging, which results 100 trial conditions
in a much broader envelope. 90 EM
CSR
Fig 6 gives an indicative overview of diesel engine torque 80
capabilities for different types of turbocharging. Please note SM
70 power during
that the figure is given on a non dimensional basis.
60 sea trial
Gas turbines 50
A gas turbine, with a free power turbine, has a much wider 40
operational envelope than a diesel engine. The reason is due 30
to the fact that a gas turbine behaves almost as a constant 20
power machine, whereas a diesel engine behaves in principle 10 ne
as a constant torque machine but with a significant reduction ne
0
due to turbocharging. Fig 7 shows the operational envelope in 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 ne [%]
terms of power/speed.
Such a gas turbine only has three limits of the envelope: Fig 9: Fixed pitch propeller matched with turbocharged diesel
maximum power turbine speed, maximum and idling fuel flow. engine
In reality the engine is also limited on power by ambient
air temperature. typical operational envelope of a turbocharged diesel engine.
This picture clearly shows the problem of a turbocharged
BASIC MATCHING PROBLEM diesel engine in combination with a fixed pitch propeller:
When an engine is to be matched with a propulsor the follow- When the propeller pitch is not properly chosen the max-
ing two criteria should be met: imum engine output will not be available in the design
The engine is able to develop full power, or nearly full condition: either the pitch is low and the maximum avail-
power, at the design condition able power is limited by the maximum speed limit or the
The propulsion plant functions satisfactorily in all design pitch is high and the maximum available power is limited
and off design conditions, ie, delivers the required speed by the turbocharger limit.
or thrust without exceeding any limits imposed by the In off design conditions the full engine power will never be
operational envelope. available because of the maximum speed limit in light con-
A third criterion might be: dition and the turbocharger limit in heavy condition.
The operation of the plant is optimised with regard to fuel A good match for such a case is shown in Fig 9. It is
consumption. assumed that the resistance/ship speed relations for trial and
service condition are known. Trial condition refers to the sit-
Diesel engine matching with fixed pitch propeller uation of a clean hull, calm sea, deep water and unloaded. The
Matching of a diesel engine with a fixed pitch propeller may con- service condition refers to the mean service conditions that
sider three propeller load curves: the design condition, a heavy the ship will encounter in its operational life. Good practice
condition (eg, due to a heavy sea way) and a light condition (eg, involves some hull fouling (eg, two years), sea state 2 or 3,
due to sailing in ballast). Fig 8 shows these three load curves in a deep water and design displacement.
7000
Single shaft operation
O 1.00
10 KQ Design condition
10 KQ 6000
0.60
4000
KT
O 24 knots
0.40 3000
2000 20 knots
0.20
Ship
1000 16 knots
0.00
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6
0
Advance ratio J 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Engine speed in rpm
Fig 12: Open water diagram with KT,ship curves for design
condition and single shaft operation Single shaft operation
2 engines/shaft
The situation would have been quite different in case the Change of number of driving engines
propulsion plant used gas turbines instead of diesel engines. In this off-design condition both shafts are in operation but
Fig 14 shows the operational envelope of a gas turbine again each shaft is driven by only one engine. This is an off-
with the design load curve and the single shaft operation load design condition that has no influence on the operational
curve. Now there is in single shaft operation sufficient room point of the propeller (in J,KT-terms). Consequently it can
for acceleration and increased resistance. A fixed pitch pro- be solved without use of the propeller open water diagram.
peller is then a good choice. The propeller load curve (in Pp,load,np-terms) has not
changed. But instead of two engines this load has to be car-
ried by one engine. This means that at the same engine
7000 speed the required brake power for the operating engine has
doubled. Fig 15 shows what happens.
6000
This situation proves to be fully unacceptable. The load
curve lies completely out of the envelope. A good solution
Engine power in kW
5000
might be to adopt a gearbox with two different gear ratios
4000
or again a controllable pitch propeller. For a gas turbine
with a much wider envelope, the load curve would still be
24 knots acceptable.
3000