Research Summaries

Back Decoupling the Engine from the Engine Room

Fiscal Year 2020
Division Research & Sponsored Programs
Department NPS Naval Research Program
Investigator(s) Didoszak, Jarema M.
Papoulias, Fotis A.
Sponsor NPS Naval Research Program (Navy)
Summary Ship design has long been driven by the need to reserve precious interior space for the prime mover and associated gear train, shafting and other associated equipment near the stern of the vessel. Recent efforts to decouple this design constraint have focused on optimizing the location of the power systems components such as the electric generator sets, power conversion and distribution network equipment. While perhaps a better option than the former, this still limits the interior space arrangement and power available to power hungry mission systems since the power generation is installed within a fixed location. By decoupling the engine from the engine room, the ship can be configured to deploy with and optimized power generation capability and greater mission capabilities than fixed power and systems provide. In 2018 a preliminary design was conducted by the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Total Ship Systems Engineering (TSSE) student design program in which a large displacement unmanned surface vessel offered a scheme wherein a basic hull structure was filled with hundreds of containerized hydrogen fuel cell and power modules similar to standard twenty-foot equivalent units. These power units were interchangeable with like-sized mission modules, conceivably eliminating the need for specifically assigned single use spaces. The current effort evaluates how these modular, high power density, low maintenance units are configured for various operational demands such as specific high-power electric mission, cargo focused tasking, and multi-purpose deployments at various mission profiles. Analysis of the space, weight, power, cooling and other constraints are performed. Robustness, adaptability, survivability and overall mission performance of the proposed system are investigated with respect to anticipated costs, potential hazards and schedule impact through the systems engineering processes.
Keywords Energy Security SWAP-C adaptive shipboard systems all-electric ship alternative energy compartment arrangement flexible ship design power configuration ship design shipboard power resources management
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Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal