Novel Concept of Inverter-less Electric Drive for Ship Propulsion System

抄録

Electric propulsion systems are found to be a more effective way of propulsion, especially in several applications such as supply vessels, shuttle-tankers, ice-breakers, etc., where a varying velocity profile is preferred. At the same time, the conventional design includes inverters to control propeller rotational speed and/or controllable pitch propeller, thus making the total system very expensive, complex and with additional space requirements. In this study, the authors propose a novel concept of electric propulsion direct drive consisting of a diesel engine and a synchronous generator which directly feeds the induction motor connected to a fixed pitch propeller. By changing the voltage applied to field windings of the generator and rotational speed of the diesel engine an inverter like control of propulsion motor rotational speed can be achieved. This paper presents general concept of a Direct Drive Electric Propulsion (DDEP) system and the simulation results of a complete diesel-electric propulsion system model.