A Simulator Approach for Ship Hybrid Power Plant Concept Studies

The stringent rules and regulations for emission reduction and efficiency improvement drive the maritime industries towards greener and more energy-efficient solutions. The battery-based hybrid power system is considered a promising solution for various vessel types out of different alternatives. However, the addition of energy storage (battery) in a power system also increases the system's complexity as it may require additional power conversion, control and safety systems, and an advanced energy management system. Besides, efficiency analysis for the relevant power system architecture is essential to embrace such new technology. Modeling and simulation can be efficient tools to design, analyze, test, or train such complex systems. At the same time, simulation as a tool can be used to investigate and analyze the system efficiency for a ship's operational profile. Therefore, this work aims to develop a battery-based hybrid power system model and analyze its efficiency for different power system architectures and ship types. The primary objectives of this project are 1. Developing a ship hybrid power system model for conceptual studies in different simulation scenarios, including operational, functional, and failure conditions and high- and low-level control systems implementations. 2. Investigating co-simulation framework and its applications in ship hybrid power system modeling. 3. Investigating system energy efficiency in ship hybrid power systems, including different power system architectures. 4. Identifying and analyzing the impact of battery hybridization in fuel efficiency and emission in various vessel types. The contributions of the work are 1. Development of a battery-based hybrid DC power system model and its applications to demonstrate different energy management strategies. 2. High fidelity DC hybrid power system model development with experimental verification and its application in different simulation scenarios to analyze operational, functional, and faulty. 3. Co-simulation-based development of a hybrid power system model and its application in virtual testing and model fidelity testing. 4. Dynamic efficiency modeling of a ship DC hybrid power system to investigate energy efficiency for various high-level control strategies. 5. System efficiency modeling of a full-scale hybrid power system of a cruise ship to investigate energy efficiency in different power system architectures, such as AC, fixed speed DC, and variable speed DC. 6. Evaluation and analysis of fuel-saving and emission reductions in various vessel types through battery hybridization of their power system.

A ship hybrid power system model is developed and applied for different scenarios to investigate different energy management strategies. The model is further extended to represent the full-scale hybrid power system. Finally, it is applied to study concept studies such as various operational, functional, faulty, and what-if scenarios. The co-simulation framework has been investigated using an open simulation platform and its co-simulation-based modeling tools and applications of co-simulation, such as virtual and model fidelity testing, are demonstrated. The system energy efficiency evaluation methodology is developed and applied to evaluate and analyze efficiency for various high-level control strategies. The work is also used to analyze the energy efficiency in different power system architectures, such as AC, fixed speed DC, and variable speed DC. This work analyzed the fuel consumption and emission reduction potential in four different ship types.

Maritime industry is having a challenging future ahead because of competitive market and stricter regulations that are driving the industry towards new energy efficient and low emission technologies. Both academic institutions and maritime industries are working together to innovate cleaner, efficient and effective solutions. As automobile industry, maritime industry is also moving towards using renewable sources of energy. Advancements in energy storage devices are enabling the realization of hybrid and electric ships. Even though hybrid and eventually fully electric vessels are the future of maritime industry, they are still not fully welcomed due to the lack of experience about behavior and stability of the system. Enough studies for failure modes and their effects in different systems, components and their interrelations in ship hybrid power plant are lacking. Simulation experiments of the hybrid power plants in real ship scenarios generate experience and confidence. Total ship system simulation for achieving realistic behavior is being crucial as the complexity in ship systems are increasing. Use of different tools and simulator software in different phases of ship design is creating difficulties in overall system optimization. The major objectives of this project are • Development a dynamic real time hybrid ship simulator, which can be used for different technological conceptual studies like performance and operational capabilities, AC and DC power grid, high level control, power management, monitoring and human in the loops, and so on. • Mathematical modelling of failure situations in different components and systems to reflect the real risk scenarios in a realistic way such that they can be documented for the proper handling of crisis situation by the crew. • Study of different available dynamic simulator architectures or platforms possibly can suggest improvements in the existing simulator architecture such that it can be used in virtual prototyping.