ESUS09041FU1

Energy and Sustainability II 449
Analysis of energy conversion in ship

propulsion system in off-design operation
conditions
W. Shi1, D. Stapersma1,2 & H. T. Grimmelius1
1
Department of Marine & Transport Technology,
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
2
Netherlands Defence Academy, The Netherlands
Abstract
In this paper, the ship propulsion system is broken down into components to
estimate their individual activities in terms of energy conversion. For common
used propulsion system of merchant ships, the efficiency of each propulsion
component is presented. In the case study, the interaction between all the
propulsion components in energy conversion is investigated by means of
computer model simulation. Based on a selected ferry, the results demonstrate
that, when operating in off-design conditions, the total energy conversion
efficiency is slightly different from that in design condition, whereas, in terms of
the ton-mile specific fuel consumption and energy index, the part loading of ship
and off-design speed of ship scenarios show different impact, but both are much
different from that in design condition.
Keywords: energy conversion, ship propulsion system, off-design operation, ton-
mile specific fuel consumption, energy index.
1 Introduction
Industrialization and technological development cause people to use increasing
quantities of goods and energy. When looking at the whole transportation
system, shipping transportation is a necessary part in the globalization process
and is in many instances the only means of transporting the goods. Over the last
three decades, the shipping transportation has grown on average by five percent
WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 121, © 2009 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3541 (on-line)
doi:10.2495/ESU090411
450 Energy and Sustainability II
every year (measured in ton-miles), and shipping is by far the most used
transportation mode (90% of all goods measured in ton-miles) [1].
Compared with other transportation modes, shipping transportation is
considered the most fuel efficient one [2]. However, with the increase of
transportation demand, both from economical and environmental points of view,
there is an increasing demand in fuel saving and reducing emissions.
This paper will explore the influence of each component in the ship
propulsion system and, by means of computer simulation, present the interaction
between the individual components in terms of energy conversion from fuel to
ship movement.
2 Power transmission from fuel to ship movement

From the viewpoint of the overall power transmission system, the input is the
amount of fuel (supplied energy), while the output is the ship moving at a
specific speed (demand energy), and the energy conversion is corrected by the
energy conversion efficiency (ηec). To go from the consumed fuel to the ship
moving, the total energy conversion efficiency (ηec) could be divided into four
parts, as shown in fig. 1: the hull efficiency (ηE), propeller efficiency (ηO ·ηR), the
transmission efficiency (ηS ·ηGB) and the engine efficiency (ηE). In the following
section, details of each part are presented.
Figure 1: Power chain: overview of powers and efficiencies [3].
3 Operational characteristics of propulsion components

In this paper, the common used ship propulsion configuration is considered to
reveal the details of energy conversion through the ship propulsion system,
which consists of: the diesel engine (as prime mover), the gearbox and the shaft
(as transmission system) and the propeller (as propulsor). Furthermore, since the
thrust delivered by the propeller is to overcome the ship resistance, which
strongly depends upon the ship hull form, as illustrated in fig. 1, the ship hull is
also involved in this study.
3.1 Main diesel engine
The diesel engine converts chemical energy to mechanical energy by means of

internal combustion. There are two parallel ways to assess the performance of a
diesel engine:
- From the inside of the engine. When looking at a single cylinder cycle,
starting with the fuel injection, with the fuel injected into the combustion
chamber an amount of energy (Qf) is input to the combustion process. The
energy contained in the fuel is corrected by the combustion efficiency: ηcb. The
amount of released energy (heat) that actually is available to perform work is
corrected by the heat input efficiency: ηq. The cycle efficiency is expressed in the
thermodynamic efficiency: ηth. Thus, the net work (Win) produced by a single
cylinder cycle (including both output work and gas exchange work) is found:
Win = Q f ⋅ηcb ⋅ηq ⋅ ηth (1)
- From the outside of the engine. The engine performance could be
described by the so called effective efficiency: ηE, which represent the ratio
between the engine effective work (the real output work of the engine) and the
total input energy (the energy contained in the injected fuel).
Wef
ηE = Qf
(2)
Two other important efficiencies, which indicate engine performance, are the
indicated efficiency ηi and the mechanical efficiency ηm.
ηi = Win Q = ηcbη qηth (3)
f
ηm =
Wef
=
ηE (4)
Win ηi
The indicated efficiency ηi represents the thermodynamic performance of the
engine including heat and combustion losses, while the mechanical efficiency ηm
indicates the mechanical performance of the engine.
(a) (b)
Figure 2: Diesel engine efficiencies in propeller load operation.
Fig. 2(a) and (b) illustrate the diesel engine efficiencies when operating in
propeller load [4]. Due to the large air/fuel ratio, generally the combustion in a
diesel engine is considered complete, thus, ηcb is 100%, as shown in fig. 2(a).
Also, fig. 2(a) illustrates that both ηq and ηth increase when decreasing the engine
speed. Because of the lower cylinder temperature in low speed operation
conditions, the heat losses due to heat transfer to the cylinder walls during the
combustion become a smaller fraction, which makes the heat input efficiency
increase slightly with decreasing engine speed. Meanwhile, in low speed
conditions, due to the decrease of injected fuel, the total heat input to operation
process decrease, and, since the smaller account of air also results in smaller
compression work, which increase the net output work relatively. So, although
both output work+gas exchange work and input heat decrease in low speed
conditions, in terms of the ratio between work and heat, (ηth), the value increases,
representing better combustion process.
When looking at the overall operation of the engine, due to the improvement
of the combustion process in low speed operation conditions, ηi slightly increases
when decreasing the engine speed, as shown in fig. 2(b). Concerning the
mechanical losses, although in high speed operation conditions, the mechanical
losses is absolutely larger than in low speed operation conditions, however, in
terms of the mechanical efficiency, in low speed operation condition, ηm drops
dramatically, since the mechanical losses account for a larger fraction of total
output power than that in high speed operation conditions. Thus, the benefit of
improved combustion in low speed conditions is counteracted by the deteriorated
ηm, resulting in big drop of ηE.
In this study, the engine efficiencies map is implemented in the simulation
model by means of lookup tables to present the engine operation conditions.
3.2 Gearbox
If a medium or high speed diesel engine is installed on a ship, a reduction

gearbox is required to provide a speed-torque conversion. In general analysis, the
power losses in gearbox is 1~2% for single stage reduction gearbox and 3~5%
for complex gearbox, with two or three reduction stages [3]. It is generally true
that a gearbox when fully loaded will exhibit higher efficiency than when it is
partially loaded.
Figure 3: Gearbox efficiencies in design and off-design conditions.
In [5], it is demonstrated that the most significant sources of power loss in a

spur-gear system (one reduction stage gearbox) are the gear-mesh Pm (including
the sliding frictional component and a hydrodynamic rolling component), gear-
wind-age Pw (the power required to rotate the pinion and gear in the air-oil
atmosphere present within the gearbox) and support-bearings Pbr (bearing
friction). As illustrated in fig. 3, ηGB is determined by the speed and load.
ηGB = PS P = ( PB − Pm − Pw − Pbr ) P (5)
B B
However, one should note that, although the gearbox efficiency decreases fast
in low load conditions, as shown in fig. 3, the difference is very small, at full
speed about 3% between full load and minimum load. Thus, in general analysis,
the efficiency drop of gearbox in off-design conditions could be neglected.
3.3 Shaft
Shafts are used to connect prime mover, gear box and propulsor. They transfer
both speed and torque through the entire propulsion system. The main source of
power loss in shaft transmission is the friction in the support-bearing. Because of
the high transmission efficiency of shafts in all load and speed conditions, the ηS
is set as 99.5% for each single shaft and remain constant in this study.
3.4 Propeller
The propeller is used to generate thrust to overcome the ship resistance.

Normally, an open water diagram is used to determine the propeller operational
behaviour, in particular its open water efficiency ηO. However, refer to the open
water diagram, the fact is that propellers are tested in an open water tank or
tunnel, in which the flow in front of the propeller is uniform during the whole
test, apparently, this is rarely the case in reality, thus, relative rotative efficiency,
ηR is introduced in fig. 1, to convert the open water propeller power to realistic
propeller power.
Figure 4: Four quadrants open water diagram: Dprop = 4.8m, AE/A0=0.7.

Based on experimental data, refer to [6], the Maritime Research Institute
Netherlands (MARIN) developed CT*, CQ* versus β diagram to describe the
entire four quadrants open water diagram of propellers within Wageningen B-

Screw Series. Then, the open water efficiency ηO could be calculated as:
PT 1 Tprop ⋅ v A C*
ηO = = ⋅ = 0.35 ⋅ T * ⋅ tan β (6)
PO 2π Q prop ⋅ n prop CQ
Fig. 4 shows an example of the four quadrants open water diagram of a
controllable pitch propeller.
On the basis of [7], where a neural network prediction is presented to produce
four quadrants diagram of any propeller within Wageningen B-Screw Series, in
this study, lookup tables are used in the model to simulate propeller operations.
In [8], the relative rotative efficiency ηR is calculated as:
for single screw ship:
η R = 0.9922 − 0.05908 AE A + 0.07424(CP − 0.0225lcb) (7)
0
for twin screw ship:

η R = 0.9737 + 1.11(CP − 0.0225lcb) − 0.06325 P D (8)
Eqns. (7) ~ (8) illustrate that, ηR is dependent upon ship body parameter and
propeller properties, thus, it remains constant for a specific ship.
3.5 Ship hull
As illustrated in Fig. 1, ηH represents the ability of the conversion from thrust
power to effective towing power.
Rship ⋅ vS
η H = PE P = Tprop ⋅ v A
=1− t
1− w
(9)
T
The thrust deduction factor (t) and the wake factor (w) are mainly dependent
upon the ship hull and the ship speed. And also, these two factors could be
affected by external disturbances, such as the sea state, the fouling, the ship
loading and the depth under keel. Based on [8] and [9], Fig. 5 illustrates an
example of the relationship between hull efficiency and ship speed, without any
external disturbances.
4 Model simulation
4.1 Model structure
In order to investigate the interaction between all propulsion components in off-

design operation conditions, based on the previous analysis on individual
propulsion components, a simulation model is built in Matlab Simulink®, as
shown in fig. 6. Also, refer to [10] for more details of ship operation simulation.
There are two input signals to determine the ship operation condition. The
desired engine speed (n_engine_set) is the command signal to control the ship
speed, and the ship loading factor (x) represents the ship loading condition.
To achieve the dynamical balance of this ship propulsion system model, two
dynamical systems are introduced to connect the propulsion components:
- Shaft rotation system, which deals with the dynamic balance between
supplied torque and demanded torque, generating shaft revolution speed.
Figure 5: Hull efficiency.
Figure 6: Block diagram of ship propulsion model.
- Ship translation system, which deals with the dynamic balance between
propeller thrust and ship resistance, generating ship speed.
4.2 Case study
4.2.1 Ship and modelling profile

Ship
A cargo/passenger ferry, with which the detail information is available, (see
table 1), is selected as an example to execute the simulation and explore the
details of energy conversion through its propulsion system.
Modelling Voyage Profile
A simplified scenario is used to indicate the voyage profile. As shown in fig. 7,
the voyage profile is represented by the desired engine speed. Put into words,
first the ship is manoeuvring in the original port for 30mins, then, sailing to the
open ocean for 4 hours, and then, when approaching the destination, spending
another 30 mins manoeuvring before stopping. Thus, total simulation period is
Figure 7: Modelling profile.

Table 1: Details of the selected ferry.
NAME: Stena Jutlandica
CLASSIFICATION: 100A1
DIMENSIONAL PARAMETERS MAIN DIESEL ENGINE
Length of waterline, (m): 169 Type: MAN 9L40/54
Breadth, (m): 27.8 MCR, (kW): 4*6480
Draught, (m): 5.8 Rated speed, (rpm): 550
Dead weight, (ton): 5640
Mass Displacement, (ton): 17326
GEARBOX PROPELLER
Type: NDSHL 2600 Type: CPP
Reduction: 550:150 Diameter, (m): 2*4.8
5 hours, including 1 hour transient operation (20%) and 4 hours steady-state

operation (80%).
4.2.2 Operation in design condition

The design operation condition in this case study is set as the condition where,
the ship is fully loaded, and the engine is running at 80% MCR.
As shown in fig. 8(a) ~ (f), it is evident that, in transient conditions, there are
large fluctuations in terms of energy conversion efficiencies from the fuel to the
ship moving. On the other hand, looking at the steady-state operation, the
propeller open water efficiency (ηO) and indicated engine efficiency (ηi) make a
larger contribution than others to the entire energy conversion efficiency (ηec).
tmsfc = ∑ =∑
m f m f
(10)
∑ (w ⋅ v ) ∑ (w ⋅ Dis)
s
=∑ =∑

Q Q
IE f f
(11)
∑ (w ⋅ v ) ∑ (w ⋅ Dis)
s
where w is the weight of benefit loading, refer to [11].

When looking at the ton-mile specific fuel consumption, the mean value of
the entire simulation voyage is 18.80g/ton-mile, (refer to eq. (10)), while in
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
(e) (f)
Figure 8: Operation profile in design condition.
terms of energy index, based on [2], an extended energy index is used in this
study, with the expression as eq. (11). Thus, in the design condition, the mean
value of the energy index is 0.041.
4.2.3 Operation in off-design condition

According to the definition of the design operation condition in the previous
section, the off-design operation conditions consist of 2 categories: ship is part
load and the engine is running at off-design speed.
- Ship is part load. Details about ship behaviour and the corresponding fuel
consumption, exhaust emission in part loading conditions are presented in [11].
In this section, the effort is to reveal the impact of ship loading condition on the
energy conversion.
(a) (b)
Figure 9: Ship operation profile in part loading condition.
Table 2: Fuel consumption and energy index in different loading
conditions.
tmsfc (g/ton-mile) IE
steady-state/mean value steady-state/mean value
100% loading 19.34/18.80 0.043/0.041
80% loading 38.06/37.08 0.084/0.082
60% loading 185.73/182.41 0.409/0.402
The results present that, for the selected ferry, in steady-state condition, when
decreasing the ship loading, the ship resistance decreases, resulting in an increase
of ship speed at the same engine speed setting (fig. 9(a)), and a slightly increase
of energy conversion efficiency (fig. 9(b)).
In terms of ton-mile specific fuel consumption and energy index, the results
of steady-state condition and the mean value of the whole simulation voyage are
both illustrated in table 2. It is evident that, the loading condition has a strong
impact on the ton-mile specific fuel consumption and energy index, since they
are both dependent upon the benefit loading conditions. In this study, the
simulated manoeuvring stages, during which the ship is operated in relative low
engine (ship) speed condition, account for 20% of the total duration, accordingly,
the consumed energy (fuel) and covered distance by ship only account for small
fraction compare to steady-state condition, thus, refer to (10) and (11), the mean
value of both the ton-mile specific fuel consumption and energy index are only
slight different from those in steady-state condition, in other words, in analysis
of energy conversion during long voyage, the manoeuvring stage (or transient
operation) could be neglected.
- Off-design speed of engine or off-design speed of ship. It is argued that,
the ship often may operate at low speed for fuel saving or at high speed to meet
(a) (b)
Figure 10: Ship operation profile in off-design speed condition.
Table 3: Fuel consumption and energy index at different speed.
tmsfc (g/ton-mile) IE
steady-state/mean value steady-state/mean value
100% eng. speed 31.52/30.47 0.069/0.067
85% eng. speed 21.73/21.09 0.048/0.046
75% eng. speed 16.84/16.20 0.037/0.036
the schedule. Thus, in real life, the ship is always sailing at off-design speed, say
different speed from the recommend service speed. The impact on energy
conversion is explored in this section.
As shown in fig. 10(a), the low speed operation strategy could save fuel in
terms of the fuel consumption rate, in unit of g/s. When looking at the ton-mile
specific fuel consumption, (ship remains full load in this case) and the energy
index, as shown in table 3, it is demonstrated that, the low speed operation could
improve fuel saving and lead to better energy index, only with small penalty in
energy conversion efficiency, as shown in fig. 13(b), say, 1.5% decrease of
energy conversion efficiency when decreasing engine speed by 15% ( or 13% of
ship speed), and 3% decrease of energy conversion efficiency versus 25%
decrease of engine speed (or 27% of ship speed).
5 Conclusion
The ship propulsion system is broken down into components to estimate their
individual influence in terms of energy conversion. The results demonstrate that,
in off-design conditions, (low brake power condition for the engine, low load for
the gearbox, low speed for the propeller and low speed for the ship), the engine
and gearbox efficiencies are lower than those in design conditions; for the
propeller, the relative rotative efficiency is independent upon operational
condition, while the open water efficiency is dependent upon propeller
revolution speed and ship advance speed; in terms of ship hull efficiency, it is
determined by the ship hull and the ship speed, and also could be affected by
external disturbances.
In the case study, by means of a computer simulation model, the interaction
of each propulsion components on energy conversion is presented. When
operating in off-design conditions, the overall energy conversion efficiency does
not change a lot. In other words, roughly, in analysis of ship operation, the
energy conversion efficiency through the entire propulsion system could be
treated as a constant value.
Concerning with the ton-mile specific fuel consumption and energy index, the
simulation results illustrate that, due to they are strongly dependent upon the
weight of transferred cargo, the part loading operation is not recommended, but,
in low speed condition, the results show good fuel economy and energy index,
which agree with realistic ship operation experience. When investigating a long
voyage, in which the transient operation only accounts for a small fraction, the
mean value could be used in analysis of steady-state operation.
References
[1] International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), Air Pollution and
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Ocean-Going Ships: Impacts, Mitigation
Options and Opportunities for Managing Growth, Mar. 2007
[2] Shi, W., Stapersma, D., & Grimmelius, H.T., Comparison study on energy
and emissions of transportation modes, Computer and simulation in modern
science, Vol 2, WSEAS Press, pp.186~195, Oct. 2008
[3] Woud, J.K., & Stapersma, D., Design of propulsion and electric power
generation system, IMarEST Publication, London, reprinted in 2003
[4] Stapersma, D., & Grimmelius, H.T., Comparison, the influence of
turbocharger matching on propulsion performance, in Proc. INEC08,
Hamburg, German, Apr. 2008
[5] Anderson, N.E., & Loewenthal, S.H., Spur-Gear-System Efficiency at Part
and Full load, NASA Technical Paper 1622, Technical Report 79-46,
Cleveland, US, Feb. 1980
[6] Kuiper, G., The Wageningen Propeller Series, MARIN Publication 92-001,
The Netherlands, 1992
[7] Roddy, R.F., Neural network predictions of the 4-quadrants Wageningen
propeller series, Hydromechanics Department Report, NSWCCD-50-TR-
2006/004, 2006
[8] Holtrop, J. & Mennen, G.G.J., An approximate power prediction method,
International Shipbuilding Progress, Vol. 29, 1982
[9] Holtrop, J. & Mennen, G.G.J., A statistical power prediction method,
International Shipbuilding Progress, Vol. 25, 1978
[10] Shi, W., Stapersma, D., & Grimmelius, H.T., Simulation of the influence of
ship voyage profiles on exhaust emissions, in Proc. IMECE08, ASME
conference, Boston, US, Oct. 2008
[11] Shi, W., Stapersma, D., & Grimmelius, H.T., Simulation of the influence of
loading fraction on operational shipping fuel consumption and emissions, in
Proc. WMTC2009, Mumbai, India, Jan. 2009

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Energy and Sustainability II 449

Analysis of energy conversion in ship

2 Power transmission from fuel to ship movement

Figure 1: Power chain: overview of powers and efficiencies [3].

3 Operational characteristics of propulsion components

3.1 Main diesel engine

The diesel engine converts chemical energy to mechanical energy by means of

If a medium or high speed diesel engine is installed on a ship, a reduction

Figure 3: Gearbox efficiencies in design and off-design conditions.

In [5], it is demonstrated that the most significant sources of power loss in a

The propeller is used to generate thrust to overcome the ship resistance.

Figure 4: Four quadrants open water diagram: Dprop = 4.8m, AE/A0=0.7.

entire four quadrants open water diagram of propellers within Wageningen B-

for twin screw ship:

In order to investigate the interaction between all propulsion components in off-

Figure 5: Hull efficiency.

Figure 6: Block diagram of ship propulsion model.

4.2 Case study

4.2.1 Ship and modelling profile

Figure 7: Modelling profile.

5 hours, including 1 hour transient operation (20%) and 4 hours steady-state

4.2.2 Operation in design condition

where w is the weight of benefit loading, refer to [11].

4.2.3 Operation in off-design condition

Figure 10: Ship operation profile in off-design speed condition.

Table 3: Fuel consumption and energy index at different speed.

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