Consulting - Industry Expertise

Power and Marine

Three leading Western navies—the British, French, and American—have adopted full electric propulsion (FEP) for their new vessels. FEP can significantly reduce through-life costs while providing a more flexible propulsion system. Moreover, an FEP vessel may be more difficult to detect than a conventionally powered vessel.

As a relatively new technology to the armed forces, however, FEP also carries risk. Complex interactions can occur between the electrical power system and other onboard systems. Risk reduction and careful systems integration are, therefore, important for FEP warships. The key to early risk reduction is simulation.

Our consultants are experts in using the latest simulation tools, including Simulink and the Power System Blockset, to develop models of marine power-generation and distribution systems.

Our clients include the British and French navies, both of whom requested that we develop models that would enable them to investigate the behavior of a variety of alternative power system configurations on FEP vessels.

Our services combine electrical machine models with power electronic and ship dynamic models. Control systems can be included for individual systems, and supervisory systems can be modeled. These systems reproduce the action of the platform management system that enables these complex vessels to operate successfully, using smart systems and automation to ease the workload on the ship's complement.

Recent projects include:

• Modeling power systems for:
• Prime movers, such as diesel engines and gas turbines
• Electrical generators and their control loops (governors and AVRS)
• Secondary systems, including the ship's propulsion motors
• Creating a tool, called PIPS (Parameter Identification for Power Systems), that uses advanced optimization techniques to tune model parameters and achieve an optimal fit between measured and simulated data.