A TOpti simulation for finding fuel saving by optimising propulsion control and power management

The optimisation of load shares between parallel power sources is essential for fuel-efficient propulsion systems. A more complete power management problem can be formulated by including the propeller and its propulsion control. Not only does this allow for a reduction in the propeller load under the changing operating conditions of the vessel, but also it enables the minimisation of the machinery’s fuel consumption at load- and speed-dependent efficiency models. The need to optimise the design of the machinery in marine vessels has motivated the authors of the current article to develop a design tool for this purpose. The present case study gives an overview of the tool’s features and compares the optimal power management of a fishing boat with different propulsion control variants. Compared with a controllable pitch propeller, which is operated at a fixed speed, reductions in fuel consumption were achieved with reduced propeller speeds. The best fuel savings, approximately 11%, were achieved using a two-speed gearbox with a controllable pitch propeller.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Optimising design and power management in energy-efficient marine vessel power systems : a literature review

The conventional marine vessel power systems typically have the potential to improve their fuel consumption and their emissions. This can be done by redesigning the system configuration, the machinery and the power management strategy. The addition of options in power management allows for the running of individual power sources closer to their optimal operating point. However, this immediately raises questions about how to redesign the system and how to operate it to maximise the benefits. The information needed to answer these questions is often scattered around separate sectors of the marine industry. The system integrator needs to be able to combine the complex dependencies of these individual sectors to formulate the big picture that describes the whole power system. Numerical optimisation algorithms provide solutions to develop methodologies to solve multi-variable and potentially multi-objective problems. This literature review presents the authors' findings of design and power management optimisation cases in marine vessel power systems.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

TOpti : a flexible framework for optimising energy management for various ship machinery topologies

In the early stages of the ship design process, the system designer must choose which type of machinery system will be used to power the ship. Hybrid power systems, which are familiar in the automotive industry, have started making a breakthrough in the marine industry. However, defining the length of the financial payback period is not trivial for ship designers, which makes it harder to adopt these more expensive technologies. The shortage of on-board machinery integration software for maritime engineers has motivated the authors of this article to develop a tool that can assist ship designers in making the right choices early in the design process. Discovering the optimal power system design for a specified vessel’s operation requires optimal machinery control. This article presents a novel method to optimise the machinery control of a system specified by the tool user. A case study is presented using a fishing boat with both diesel-mechanical and hybrid electric power systems.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

A Systematic Mapping Study on Edge Computing and Analytics

The vast amount of data provided by the Internet of Things and sensors, have given rise to edge computing and analytics. In edge computing and analytics, data processing and analysis on sensor input is performed in edge devices prior to sending the results to the cloud. This reduces required processing in the cloud while minimizing communication network utilization and allows cloud resources to be used for other tasks such as decision making. In this paper, we present a comprehensive, unbiased overview of state-of-the-art research on edge computing and analytics. Of the 47 identified papers, several have targeted task scheduling and power optimisation, while data management and engineering, image and facial recognition as well as anomaly detection were not well studied. Simulation remains the most used approach for validation, and research results based on implementations of edge systems in real life environments are still sparse.publishedVersionPeer reviewe