Design for Maintainability of a Research Vessel’s Engine Room

The Life Cycle Performance Assessment (LCPA) Tool developed by the authors was tested in the herein presented application case dealing with the “Design for Maintainability of a Research Vessel’s Engine Room”. In this relation, we further developed the methods for the estimation of the operational and maintenance costs of a Research Vessel, by using a structured and flexible tool capable of evaluating the investment, operational and maintenance costs for different engine room configurations and of identifying the best solution for elaboration at the design stage (design for maintainability). The engine room space optimisation and accessibility were also evaluated by use of a developed 3D digital mock-up, enabling the assessment of the potential impact on maintenance costs in relation to the clearance space around the machinery and their compliance with specific requirements. After a general introduction to the topic provided in Sect. 5.1 of the chapter, Sect. 5.2 describes the reference vessel used in this Application Case, with a focus on the main characteristics of the propulsion system and electric power generation. Section 5.3, besides an overviewof the standard maintenance techniques, describes the implementation of the Mean Time Between Maintenance (MTBM) in the LCPA tool, based on the best working point of an engine. Section 5.4 identifies the alternative solutions for the propulsion layout, proposed with respect to the base configuration, while analysing the obtained LCPA results in terms of economic and environmental Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Chapter 12: Life Cycle Performance Assessment (LCPA) Tools

In this chapter, the assessment of both the economic and environmental performance of a vessel over its life cycle is addressed, having as a reference approach the Life Cycle Performance Assessment (LCPA) Tool under development in HOLISHIP project. First, on the basis of a literature review, the concepts of life cycle cost and life cycle assessment are briefly recalled. The ideal target is that these two issues shall be integrated and adapted into the ship design process within a circular economy perspective. Then, a separate reference is made to the end of ship's life phase, explaining the possible strategies to be adopted and highlighting the limitation in estimating energetic and economic performances of this phase in an early design stage. The issue is nevertheless of increasing interest to this regard, as well. A brief review of Codes and Rules related to end of life assessment procedures is also presented. After this, the selection of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) adopted for the LCPA tool is discussed. These KPIs have been divided in two separate categories: environmental and economic. A methodology to compare KPIs for different ship configurations is then proposed, with an attempt to perform an integrated assessment of environmental and economic aspects. Finally, the relation between KPIs and vessel characteristics is presented. Depending on the level of detail available, the calculation of KPIs and its accuracy are varying accordingly. Finally, issues of uncertainty of certain parameters (e.g., fuel price, freight rates etc.) and their effect on the KPIs are briefly addressed and ways to their consideration are outlined. Results of application of the HOLISHIP LCPA will be presented in the planned Volume II of the HOLISHIP projec

Innovative Energy Systems: Motivations, Challenges and Possible Solutions in the Cruise Ship Arena

The worldwide effort on the environmental issue in the maritime field has led to always more stringent regulations on greenhouse gas emission (GHG). In this perspective, the International Maritime Organization has developed regulations intended to increase the ship\u2019s efficiency and reduce GHG emissions both in design phase, through the introduction of an Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI), either in management phase, adopting the Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP). In this challenging perspective, several approaches and technologies adopted in land-based engineering can also be advantageous for marine applications. This is the case of the Distributed Energy Resources (DER) solution applied in land-based microgrids, which increases both the system\u2019s efficiency and reliability. This work is primarily focused on methodological aspects related to the adoption of a DER solution on-board cruise ships, with the integration of different energy sources in order to pursue a more flexible, reliable and sustainable management of the ship. In this context, another engineering best practice developed for land-based applications that is further investigated in the paper is related to the on board thermal energy recovery issue, revisited due to the implementation of the DER solution