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Design of ship-engine-propeller simultaneous

matching and development of a propeller and
engine selecting system

Article · January 2015

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 VI International Conference on Computational Methods in Marine Engineering
MARINE 2015
F. Salvatore, R. Broglia and R. Muscari (Eds)

DESIGN OF SHIP-ENGINE-PROPELLER SIMULTANEOUS

MATCHING AND DEVELOPMENT OF A PROPELLER AND ENGINE
SELECTING SYSTEM
Shiyao Lin*, Jianglong Sun† and De Xie*
*
School of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China
†
Hubei Key Laboratory of Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering Hydrodynamics
Wuhan 430074, Hubei, China

Key words: Simultaneous Matching, N-V Curves, User Interface, Selection Pool

Abstract. A process to design ship-engine-propeller simultaneous matching is proposed in

this paper. The design process treats the whole system as an assembly of the ship-propeller
subsystem and the engine-propeller subsystem in which relationships between rotational
speed of the propeller and advancing speed of the ship are found and expressed as N-V curves.
Furthermore, databases of propellers and engines are established and connected to self
developed user interface to calculate simultaneous matching conditions in loops and the
matching points are collected to form a selection pool where user can conduct selection. An
example to select a propeller and an engine for a 25,000t bulk carrier using the developed
selecting system is described and the outputs are listed and analyzed. The selected pair of the
propeller and the engine is efficient and comprehensive compared with other instances in the
databases.

1 INTRODUCTION
Design of ship-engine-propeller matching condition is decisive to ship performance and
economy in sailings. For example, life fuel consumption of KCS SIMMAN container ship
was successfully decreased by 10.36% through a successful design by Nelson [1]. On the
other hand, the 053H frigate in the 91287 troop of the China Navy increased propeller
diameter without corresponding matching design, and as a result, surges and winds
overloaded the engine as well as damaged the shafts in a military exercise [2].
The traditional matching design follows a step-by-step match-check process. In the first
step, propeller diameter and pitch ratio are determined according to force balance between the
ship resistance and the propeller thrust. Hence the rotational speed and input power of the
propeller is obtained. In the next step, usually as a check step, the rotational speed is
compared with that of the engine and input power is compared with the engine output power.
If these two key factors are matched up, the simultaneous matching design process would be
finished. Otherwise, the diameter and pitch ratio have to be adjusted and the whole process
has to be performed again. The traditional propeller design with series charts is mainly based
upon this approach [3]. Referring to this process, many softwares to design propellers and
engines are developed, including the ENGINE 78, a part of the HYDROCOMP and the online
interface of the Mercury Marine company [4,5]. However, according to Nelson [1], in actual
 S. Lin, J. Sun and D. Xie

sailings, this step-by-step design results would sometimes be too idealized to achieve, thus
may be inefficient in harsh sea conditions.
In this paper, a simultaneous ship-engine-propeller matching design process is proposed.
This process preserves the match step regarding the ship and the propeller while substituting
the check step by a parallel match step concerning the propeller and the engine. To be more
specific, the whole ship is treated as a combination of a ship-propeller subsystem where force
balance has to be obtained and an engine-propeller subsystem in which power conservation
should be followed simultaneously. Different from the match-check process, whose aim is to
design propellers or engines, the proposed process is to predict simultaneous matching
conditions with known engines and propellers.
Based upon the proposed design process, matching conditions of multiple pairs of engines
and propellers can be predicted. Therefore, if there are enough pairs, abundant matching
conditions are calculated for designers to select. The propeller and engine selecting system is
developed to achieve this goal. First, databases of propeller and engines are constructed and
the proposed process is applied on these data. Matching conditions are predicted and stored in
the selection pool which users can choose matching conditions from. Finally, the
corresponding information is exported to the selection database where each instance is under
ship-engine-propeller simultaneous matching condition.

2 SHIP-ENGINE-PROPELLER SIMULTANEOUS MATCHING DESIGN PROCESS

The force balance and power conservation in the ship-engine-propeller system are
illustrated in figure 1.

Figure 1: Forces and powers in ship-engine-propeller system

It can be generalized that, at the same advancing speed, the resistance acting on the ship
hull is equal to the thrust generated by the propeller and that at the same rotational speed, the
power input of the propeller is equal to the power output of the engine. Following these basic
laws, predictions of matching conditions are conducted as follows.

2.1 Ship-propeller subsystem matching prediction

Resistance curve and propeller open water curves are used in the matching prediction in
the ship-propeller subsystem. First, p rotational speed N1…Np (r/min) are used, and so are q
advancing speed V1…Vq (kn) for the prediction. With regard to each rotational speed Ni (i=1,
p), calculation with each member of the advancing speed group is performed. Take N1 for an
example, advance coefficient is computed

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 S. Lin, J. Sun and D. Xie

0.5144  (1   )  V1...q
J1,1...q  (1)
( N1 / 60)  D
where ω is the wake fraction, D (m) is the diameter of the propeller. According to J, effective
thrust of the propeller T1,1…q (kgf) propeller is obtained in equation (2) with the help of the
open water curves
N
T1,1...q  K T 1,1...q    ( 1 ) 2  D 4 (kgf) (2)
60
in which KT is the thrust coefficient, ρ (kgfs2/m4) is the density of water.
In the same manner, the rest of the rotational speed group are used for calculations and
finally a group of thrust Ti,j(i=1, p; j=1, q) is acquired.
With advancing speed V used as x coordinates and thrust T used as y coordinates, p curves
are drawn and each curve is labeled with a rotational speed N in figure 2. At the same time,
ship resistance characteristic curve is overlapped on the same figure.

Figure 2: Force balance in the ship-propeller subsystem

It should be noted that Vxi represent x coordinate of the intersecting points where force
balance is attained. Rearrange these points in ascending order with regard to rotational speed,
the N-V curve of the ship-propeller subsystem is obtained, as shown in figure 3.

Figure 3: The N-V curve of the ship-propeller subsystem

Attention should be paid that every single point on the N-V curve follows the force balance
law in the ship-propeller subsystem.

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 S. Lin, J. Sun and D. Xie

2.2 Engine-propeller subsystem matching

The matching prediction in the engine-propeller subsystem is in the same fashion as that in
the ship-propeller subsystem. Referring to advancing velocity Vj (j=1, q), a computation is
performed with every member of the rotational speed group. Also, aided by open water curves,
the input power of the propeller is calculated
N N
2 ( i )  K Q i , j    ( i ) 2  D 5 / 75
PS i , j  60 60 (hp) (3)
 R  S
where KQ is the torque coefficient and ηR ，ηS is the relative rotative efficiency and the shaft
efficiency.
Use N as x coordinate and PS as y coordinates, q curves are drawn while each of them is
denoted by an advancing speed. Then superimpose the power characteristic curve of the
engine on the same figure.

Figure 4: Power conservation in the engine-propeller subsystem

In figure 4, Nxj is read from every point of intersection and each of them satisfies the law of
power conservation. Rearrange these points to obtain the N-V curve of the engine-propeller
subsystem which is shown in figure 5.

Figure 5: The N-V curve of the engine-propeller subsystem

2.3 Assembly of the subsystems

The force balance and power conservation relationship of the two subsystems are

4
 S. Lin, J. Sun and D. Xie

expressed by the N-V curves. Draw the two curves illustrated in figure 4 and figure 5 in figure
6.

Figure 6: The simultaneous matching condition

Special attention should paid that every point on the N-V curve of the ship-propeller
subsystem is force-balanced and that on the N-V curve of the engine-propeller subsystem is
power-conserved. The intersecting point of the two curves should be both force-balanced and
power-conserved, which is the very meaning of ship-engine-propeller simultaneous matching.
The whole process of this proposed ship-engine-propeller simultaneous matching design
process is generalized in figure 7, from which the simultaneity and symmetry can be seen.

Figure 7: The simultaneous matching design process

3 THE PROPELLER AND ENGINE SELECTING SYSTEM

On the basis of the previous section, ship-engine-propeller simultaneous matching
condition can be predicted using the proposed process. In order to fully practice this process,
The engine and propeller databases are established and every instance in the database are read
into a loop to carry out the process cyclically until each of the instance in the two databases is
computed. In each loop, a matching point, if the simultaneous matching condition exists,
would be generated. After the running of the whole program, several matching points
regarding different pairs of engines and propellers would be calculated. To ease the selection
of the users, the concept of the selection pool is proposed which is made up with all those
available matching points. Users can choose satisfying matching conditions in the selection
pool and relevant information including diameter and pitch ratio of the propeller as well as
rated power and rotational speed of the engine are rearranged and exported. The program
process is illustrated in figure 8. The user interface is shown in figure 9.

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 S. Lin, J. Sun and D. Xie

Figure 8: Process of the selecting system

Figure 9: The user interface of the selecting system

The interface is made up with three parts. The left one is to input ship resistance data and
set the hydrodynamic parameters. The middle part of the interface is to demonstrate the
selection pool for users to conduct selection. Target rotational speed and advancing speed are
set to help selection. The right part is used to show the open water curves, the engine power
curves and the N-V curves of the subsystems and to output matching data.

4 EXAMPLES
The propeller and engine selecting system is used for a 25,000t bulk carrier whose
parameters of the interface are well-known [6]. The instances in the databases are listed in
table 1 and table 2. The interface during the usage is shown in figure 10.

6
 S. Lin, J. Sun and D. Xie

Table 1: The engine database

rate rotational speed rate power

engine
(r/min) (hp)
Sulzer RD 159 29000
Sulzer 6RLB56 118.5 12000
Mercury 400 140 20580
Mercury 414 130 15379
Hamilton 318 140 17840
Hamilton 362 160 32770

Table 2: The propeller database

propeller pitch ratio diameter (m)

AU5-65 0.782 5.75
AU5-65 0.782 5.9
AU5-65 0.782 6
MAU4-55 0.7 4.77
MAU4-55 0.7 4.82
MAU4-70 1.2 4.7
MAU4-70 1.2 4.76
MAU4-70 1.2 4.8

Figure 10: The user interface during usage

In this case, target rotational speed ranges from 110-135 r/min and advancing speed ranges
from 15-17kn. There are 18 matching points in total in the selection pool where the

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 S. Lin, J. Sun and D. Xie

highlighted point is the chosen one. Rearrange those points and list the top ten ones in table 3
and 4.
Table 3: The selection pool (in a descending order of the efficiency)

rotational advancing Open water

propeller engine
speed (r/min) speed (kn) efficiency
AU5-65_0.782_5.9 Sulzer RD 116.571 16.09 0.553442
AU5-65_0.782_5.75 Sulzer RD 116.088 15.8095 0.552805
AU5-65_0.782_6 Hamilton 318 102.566 12.4767 0.523005
AU5-65_0.782_6 Hamilton 318 94.04 11.3382 0.519016
MAU4-55_0.7_4.82 Sulzer 6RLB56 154.834 13.0015 0.481997
MAU4-55_0.7_4.77 Sulzer 6RLB56 151.733 12.416 0.475699
MAU4-55_0.7_4.77 Sulzer 6RLB56 142.849 11.4867 0.468679
MAU4-70_1.2_4.7 Hamilton 318 129.788 15.9245 0.465998
MAU4-70_1.2_4.76 Mercury_Marine414 127.771 15.8024 0.46415
MAU4-70_1.2_4.8 Mercury_Marine400 125.236 15.5749 0.463046

Table 4: The selection pool (in a descending order of the matching margin)

rotational advancing Open water

propeller engine
speed (r/min) speed (kn) efficiency
MAU4-70_1.2_4.8 Mercury_Marine 400 125.236 15.5749 0.463046
MAU4-70_1.2_4.76 Mercury_Marine 414 127.771 15.8024 0.46415
AU5-65_0.782_5.9 Sulzer RD 116.571 16.09 0.553442
AU5-65_0.782_5.75 Sulzer RD 116.088 15.8095 0.552805
MAU4-70_1.2_4.7 Hamilton 318 129.788 15.9245 0.465998
MAU4-70_1.2_4.7 Mercury_Marine 414 106.919 12.7343 0.454499
MAU4-70_1.2_4.76 Mercury_Marine 400 104.057 12.592 0.455722
AU5-65_0.782_6 Hamilton 318 102.566 12.4767 0.523005
MAU4-55_0.7_4.77 Sulzer 6RLB56 142.849 11.4867 0.468679
MAU4-70_1.2_4.8 Hamilton 362 101.152 12.3792 0.456835
The naming rule of the propeller is “type-blade area ratio_pitch ratio_diameter”. The
chosen propeller is the AU5-65_0.782_5.75 and the engine is the Sulzer RD. At the
simultaneous matching condition, the shaft rotational speed is 116.088r/min, advancing
velocity is 15.8095kn and the open water efficiency of the propeller is 0.552805.
Attention should be paid that open water efficiency and matching margin are two of the
most important factors to take into account. From table 3, the matching pair of the highest
efficiency is not that of the greatest matching margin. Nonetheless, matching margin is
decisive to ship overall performance, especially in harsh conditions [7]. As a matter of fact,
these two parameters are not likely to be maximized in one design. In a comprehensive sense,

8
 S. Lin, J. Sun and D. Xie

the selected matching pair of the AU5-65_0.782_5.75 propeller and the Sulzer RD engine
would be the second most efficient pair and the fourth most versatile pair.

5 CONCLUSIONS
- The proposed ship-engine-propeller simultaneous design process is to predict
simultaneous matching conditions which is more versatile than the traditional step-
by-step design;
- The self-developed propeller and engine selecting system is efficient. The more
instances the databases have, the more comprehensive the selection pool would be;
- Efficiency and matching margin are two most important factors in the matching
design, which are often not likely to be maximized at the same time.

REFERENCES
[1] Nelson M, Temple D W, Hwang J T, et al. Simultaneous optimization of propeller–hull
systems to minimize lifetime fuel consumption[J]. Applied Ocean Research, 2013, 43: 46-
52.
[2] W Chen. Ship-engine-propeller matching[C]. The 7th national conference on ship repair
technology of China, 2004.
[3] John Calton. Marine propellers and propulsion[M]. City University London; November
2010.
[4] The advanced HYDROCOMP CAD software system, http://www.shipol.com.cn/
[5] Propeller Selector. Mercury Marine: http://www.mercurymarine.com/propellers/prop-
selector/
[6] Z Sheng, Y Liu. Basic ship theory[M]. Shanghai Jiaotong University, 2004
[7] Z Tang, S Ding, F Du, et al. Method for match of two-stroke piston engine and set
propeller[J]. Journal of Aerospace Power, 2010, 25: 379-383

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