The need to provide immediate and responsive services to support shipyards building ships equipped with Rolls-Royce products and routine maintenance or overhauls for the growing number of ships owned by local operators has resulted in continued expansion of the Rolls-Royce service capability in China. From a service centre in Shanghai, other service locations have been established in Dalian, Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

Martin Cunningham, VP Service Delivery Asia Pacific and Middle East said: “To better service our broad product range, we have made, and are continuing to make, significant investment in training our service engineers at our European product centres. We are committed to ensuring our teams have the skills and competencies in countries that our customers need, especially in China, where we have a high volume of commissioning work across our product and systems portfolio.

“With our colleagues at MTU we also have a programme of cross-training service engineers to provide a more flexible and reactive resource. Having the right skills ensures we can respond quickly and cost-effectively to those requests where more than one of our products needs servicing. We continue to demonstrate that we can cost-effectively overhaul our products to very tight deadlines and so shorten drydocking times.”
 

Our operations across China are designed to give us the flexibility to carry out a wide variety of work on Rolls-Royce products including azimuth thrusters, CP propellers and tunnel thrusters. When certain skills are in great demand, we can pull in resources from our other China service sites as well as our wider regional and global network and, increasingly in the future, also from MTU. We work collaboratively on customer issues.

Dalian
Chi Xun, Service Coordinator explains:
Located close to the shipyards, a team of engineers work in close cooperation with key customers. The team is very experienced, with field and workshop capabilities across the full marine product range, concentrated mainly on propulsion. 

We are creating a deck machinery support cell to ensure that we have the right repair and overhaul capabilities for a very responsive level of service. Our engineer team is mobile and can travel to where customers are overhauling or drydocking vessels.

Hong Kong
Timothy Lau, Service Sales Manager explains:
Our facility is home to Rolls-Royce and MTU teams servicing customers operating in and around Hong Kong. It is close to the major shipyards and the waterfront, where our engineers can be on site quickly to deal with any unplanned maintenance on visiting vessels. We regularly service products from Z-drives, CPPs and waterjets to control systems and steering gear.

As a large number of fast ferries operating in Hong Kong are powered by Kamewa waterjets and MTU diesels, our engineers work together to offer a cohesive customer service.

Guangzhou
Andy Wu, Service Sales Manager explains:
Our service centre in Guangzhou comprises a 700m² workshop and a team of service engineers and technicians. We maintain a close relationship with our customers operating in South China. We have extended efforts to store spare parts locally, so improving our responsiveness and delivery times.

We have also developed a Bergen engine component exchange programme specifically for customers in the Guangzhou area, whereby we store a pool of Bergen engine components and provide a cost and time efficient exchange solution to benefit customers.

Rolls-Royce has won a contract to supply its 100^th and 101^st Launch and Recovery Systems (LARS). The contract signed with DOF Subsea, will see the latest two systems installed aboard the DOF Subsea Skandi Neptune.

Rolls-Royce Launch and Recovery Systems allow the deployment and recovery of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to a depth of 3,000m plus. The system has highly accurate active heave compensation to cope with severe weather and can automatically launch and recover a ROV to a given target depth and at a given target speed.

Ingve Osberg, DOF Subsea, Group Asset Manager, said: “DOF Subsea have 31 Rolls-Royce Launch and Recovery Systems deploying and retrieving a range of ROVs safely, precisely and reliably in a wide range of operating environments worldwide.”

Bjørn Gjerde, Rolls-Royce, General Sales Manager, said: “DOF are the largest operator of our Launch and Recovery System and their purchase of over 30 of these systems is evidence of our products’ ability to meet our customer’s needs for advanced technology which can operate reliably in even the most extreme conditions.”

Rolls-Royce Launch and Recovery Systems are also used by Farstad, Olympic, REM, Havila, k-Line, Ocean Installer, Eidesvik, GC Rieber, Allseas, COOEC and TechDOF.

About DOF Subsea

The DOF Subsea Group is a specialist subsea service business that provides subsea construction, subsea engineering, inspection, repair and maintenance and survey services, which involve complex and challenging engineering in an international environment.

DOF Subsea owns a large fleet of modern subsea construction, intervention and survey vessels that enable it to offer differentiated positions with its clients and work in long term relationships, which enhance service delivery and reduce the overall risk.

The company’s core business is project management, engineering, vessel operations, survey, remote intervention and diving operations, primarily for the Oil and Gas, Marine Telecommunications and Renewables markets.

Cruise ships are among the most demanding vessels for the propeller designer. With a large number of passengers on board, all of them expecting a high-class cruise experience, comfort and low levels of noise and vibration are established prerequisites for the cruise ship designer. Those requirements are ultimately passed on to the propeller designer.

Mein Schiff 3 and 4, operated by Hamburg-based TUI Cruises and built by Meyer Turku Oy, are sophisticated and highly innovative cruise ships that serve mainly premium German speaking cruise travellers. At 99,500gt, they are 294m long and 36m wide, have 1,253 cabins and can accommodate over 2,500 passengers. Mein Schiff 3 was the world’s first ship to have a fully equipped concert hall. The ‘Klanghaus’ (sound House) is a 270m² room in the centre of the ship with seating for 300 and equipped with the best in acoustic and sound control. 

 “We had no part in the ship design, but our work is vital for the passenger experience,” says Per Arén, Senior Hydrodynamicist at the Rolls-Royce Hydrodynamic Research Centre in Sweden. “For these vessels, the Kamewa fixed bolted propeller design was selected. Each propeller delivers 14MW at full speed, which is over 21 knots, with reduced vibration and pressure fluctuations compared to a four-bladed propeller. Having a concert hall on board and the glass diamond space with important venues at the stern, directly above the propellers, really put our work in the spotlight with the shipyard, Meyer Turku Oy. We had to stretch one step further than we had ever done before to get the propeller characteristics a near-perfect match to the vessel and its operating profile. To achieve the comfort class, every possible aspect was taken into consideration; hull shape, water inflow to the propellers, V-bracket design, propeller design cavitation and propeller-excited dynamic forces.”

“Early in the design process, we made a propeller design and propeller model so we could conduct open-water efficiency tests to validate that the high- efficiency requirements could be achieved while delivering exceptionally low noise,” adds Arén. “At that stage, we also made viscous CFD calculations to validate the propeller efficiency. During sea trials the propellers’ noise and vibration characteristics were validated by pressure fluctuation measurements

in the hull plating above the propellers. Actual cavitation was observed through windows installed in the hull above the propellers. These observations revealed minimal tip vortex cavitation, confirming the model testing.

Gaining a deep understanding of the hydrodynamic issues that affect propeller design requires a lot of experience and historical data to draw upon. The Rolls-Royce Hydrodynamic Research Centre has been undertaking detailed propulsor design studies for over 70 years. More than 1,500 propeller designs have been model-tested to date, and around 40 are undertaken each year.”

With well known, fairly short and repetitive journeys the roro market is ripe to reap the benefits of ship intelligence.  And many ships operating in this market today are old and in need of replacement.

To maintain and even increase traffic on these routes needs a new design philosophy to stimulate new builds and provide more efficient and more environmentally sound vessels.

To prove this Rolls-Royce has developed the “Lean Roro” concept. The concept could save operators up to €2.65m per annum in operating costs when compared to a second hand vessel and €1.65 million when compared to a conventional new build. CAPEX would also be lower - in the region of €3m compared to a conventional new build. 

These savings come from reductions in:

1. Crew costs.  The concept assumes one person on the bridge at all times as part of a three person rotating shift supported by one multi-role mechanic. This would exploit automatic look out with decision support; including object detection, analytic intelligence and sensor fusion including the use of radar, camera, infrared camera, light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and automatic identification system (AIS). Machinery could also be remotely monitored with expert support from an onshore control centre.
   
2. Fuel costs with a modern lightweight ship operating at modest speeds using fewer highly efficient LNG engines combined with hybrid shaft generation to maintain propulsion and hotel electric power. Other improvements would come from the design of the ship and propellers.
   
3. Build costs. A Lean Roro vessel, fuelled by LNG, would not require a steam or diesel system. A smaller crew would mean a smaller deck house. The “Lean Roro” concept would allow the machinery arrangement to be simplified in line with the ship design  A single cargo deck would require no internal (and expensive) roro ramps, would be wider (giving more lanes on the cargo deck ) and not being enclosed would be easier to build. As a consequence the weight of steel and the volume (GT) of such a vessel would be less than conventional roro.
   
4. Operating costs – with all cargo on the main deck, no internal ramps and a wide stern allowing access to nine lanes, loading and unloading would be faster. The reduced weight would reduce tonnage related fees, fuel consumption and emissions.

But there’s a snag. Before such a vessel can become a reality action is needed by both rulemakers and operators. Rulemakers need to look at the areas of vessel operation where the possibility of intelligent applications could play a role in reducing crew size reviewing the rules with a view to adapting them.  Operators would then need to embrace the technology to turn vision into a reality.

As the industry looks to become more cost competitive at a time of reduced margins, adopting new technologies and managing the risks could be rewarding. A Lean Roro concept for short sea shipping might be the place to start.

The Rolls-Royce powered future USS Zumwalt DDG-1000 put to sea for the first time on Monday 7 December 2015. At 8.27 a.m local time she left the dock side at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works Shipyard in Maine, USA, and headed out into the Kinnebeck river.

This advanced destroyer is lead ship in a class of three powered by Rolls-Royce technology. Zumwalt class destroyers provide multi-mission offensive and defensive capabilities and can operate independently or as part of carrier strike groups, surface action groups, amphibious ready groups, and underway replenishment groups.

The future USS Zumwalt, and each subsequent ship in the series, will be powered by a pair of Rolls-Royce MT30 main gas turbine generator sets (MTGs) providing 35.4MW each and two MT5S auxiliary turbine generator sets (ATGs) 3.9MW each, combining to deliver 78MW of total ship power. Zumwalt’s electrical system is configured as an Integrated Power System (IPS), which allows for power generated by the turbine generator sets to be used for propulsion as well as the ship’s weapons, sensors and on-board systems.

In addition, Rolls-Royce Naval is also providing two fixed pitch propellers to this ship, cast and machined at Pascagoula in Mississippi US. Rolls-Royce Naval facilities in Canada have supplied the Multi-function Towed Array Handling System (MTAH) that deploys the anti-submarine warfare towed array sonar and torpedo defence system.

Neil Pickard, Naval Program Director - Americas stated, “Today marks the culmination of the tremendous efforts undertaken by the Naval team. Due to the innovative technology involved with this being the first all-electric ship, we have had many significant challenges to overcome throughout this programme. I would like to thank everyone in Rolls-Royce who has been involved in DDG-1000.”

Alex Greve, Project Engineer Naval said, “DDG-1000’s alpha trials will mobilise nearly 80MW of power on a single vessel. I am proud to be part of the team that will meet this challenge. Our gas turbine generator sets will provide the power density our customer needs to bring tomorrow’s military technology alive.”

Rob Rice, Service Engineer Naval said, “Having served in the US Navy on-board ships powered by Rolls-Royce equipment, I always had a great sense of pride standing on my ship’s deck, porting anywhere in the world! Now, as a Rolls-Royce team member providing an excellent product for our United States Navy and my Country, words will never describe the sense of achievement as I witness USS Zumwalt, light-off, set restricted manoeuvring, cast off lines, and set a course out to sea!” 

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Image top: USS Zumwalt DDG-1000 sea trials - Courtesy US Navy.

In June 2015 the Bergen Viking returned to service following a successful retrofit to convert the vessel from diesel-electric to LNG-electric propulsion.

Bergen Viking is a 95m chemical and product tanker supplying diesel and petrol along the Norwegian coastline. Delivered in 2007, the vessel is part of a total fleet of six vessels owned by Bergen Tankers AS.

The retrofit replaced four of the ship’s original six diesel generating sets with two Bergen 26:33L6AG gas generating sets, one in each of the ship’s port and starboard engine rooms. Each Bergen engine, rated at 1,460kW delivers sufficient power to replace three of the ship’s original diesel generating sets, but two were retained, one in each engine room to provide auxiliary/emergency power.

The engines supply power to all the ship’s electrical equipment as well propulsion. There is a 900kW electric motor on each propeller shaft and a smaller motor powers the bow thruster.

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Rolls-Royce has been selected to design and equip a new Service Operation Vessel for shipowner Østensjø Rederi. The vessel will support wind farm operations for DONG Energy.

The order is the first for a new ship design from Rolls-Royce developed specifically to support operations in shallow waters at offshore windfarms. The vessel will serve as the base for wind turbine technicians while they perform maintenance work on Race Bank Offshore Wind Farm, off the coast of Lincolnshire, UK.

Johan Rokstad, Østensjø Rederi AS, chief executive officer, said, “We have worked closely with Rolls-Royce to develop a design we believe will be well suited to servicing the specific operational demands of supporting offshore wind farms. We look forward to continuing this good co-operation in carrying the project through to completion.”

The ship is designed with a high focus on seakeeping capabilities, excellent station keeping performance, improved comfort and safety on board, and reduced fuel consumption. The UT 540 WP was developed in close cooperation with the customer and benefits from over 40 years of UT ship design experience across 800 vessels.

As well as designing the vessel, Rolls-Royce will supply the diesel electric main machinery, consisting of frequency controlled electric driven azimuth thrusters, super silent mounted transverse thrusters, DP2 dynamic positioning system, power electrical system, deck machinery, and the latest generation Acon automation and control system.

Helge Gjerde, Rolls-Royce, President Commercial - Marine, said, “We are delighted that Østensjø Rederi and DONG Energy have chosen the new Rolls-Royce UT 540 WP design against intense competition. As more wind farms are built further from shore and in more demanding conditions we see opportunities to use our extensive offshore experience to diversify into an exciting new market.”

This vessel will be built at Astilleros Gondan in Spain.

Using data to improve operational efficiency

Big data is all about extracting value from information, leading to more informed decision-making. For vessel operators like Golden Energy Offshore, better decisions mean greater operational efficiency, cost reductions and reduced risk of equipment failure.

With fuel accounting for up to fifty per cent of operating costs, vessel operators increasingly need clear visibility of energy use and emissions. It is also a comparison criterion for charterers. 

Golden Energy Offshore is a fully integrated shipowner and operator of modern specialised offshore vessels for the global oil and gas industry. They take big data seriously. Their operations have grown significantly - from operating two vessels in 2007, the company now owns and operates nine modern vessels. 

Golden Energy Offshore´s goal is to achieve a highly cost effective operation for all of their vessels, and have recently launched a five-year plan to save fuel. They have a management system to keep track of the energy performance indicators that are used to measure energy use on their vessels. 

In the Golden Energy Offshore fleet are two Rolls-Royce UT 776 CD PSVs, with oil spill clean-up capability that operate out of Tanager in Stavanger, Norway. With the need to monitor the vessels fuel consumption, operating profile and emissions, the Rolls-Royce Acon Energy Monitoring system was added to the vessels ACON control and automation system and Rolls-Royce started to collect vessel data earlier this year.

The Acon Energy Monitoring system captures data on board the vessel, processes it and displays it graphically in a variety of forms via a web portal. The team at Golden Energy Offshore can then view the detailed energy consumption performance of their vessels and take any action. The data is updated daily.

“The Acon Energy Monitoring system is an important tool for us to optimise the operation profiles of these vessels,” says Per Ivar Fagervold, CEO of Golden Energy Offshore. “It enables us to monitor the power distribution of the vessels and gives reliable information of general systems condition from monitoring the propulsion machinery. It can also give us insight on machinery that is performing above the normal specification.” 

“We are able to optimise the energy use on board by taking advantage of various switchboard configurations, efficient use of the generators for stand-by sailing and when in DP mode. Accurate fuel consumption measured at an early stage gives us the opportunity to adjust the vessels speed and trim to save fuel.” 

“Focusing on fuel consumption and emissions we believe will give Golden Energy Offshore a competitive advantage,” adds Per Ivar Fagervold. “Saving 1- 2m³ of fuel each day results in significant fuel savings for Charterers which can mount up over a two year period or more. We also have an environmental responsibility and a focus on emissions and sustainability.”

Since the project started in 2014 there has been great commitment and engagement on both sides. 

“We have learned a lot from each other, and the cooperation has paid off,” say Per Ivar. “Choosing the Rolls-Royce monitoring system was the optimal choice for us since we have two Rolls-Royce designed vessels with Rolls-Royce equipment on board. We knew we would not meet any barriers of 3rd party equipment integration. The operational profiles of these two PSVs, with their extremely sophisticated equipment, are quite different from deep-sea vessels.”

Ship design in the modern era has become steadily more and more scientific and mathematical, steadily superseding time-served traditional methods of working to a set of principles and then building a model (or succession of models) to make sure the vessel meets design intent.

The arrival of computers and their growing sophistication has taken the strain when it comes to number-crunching and complicated calculations – and a more recent development in the IT world, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), now allows designers to optimise the design of hulls and their interaction with the water by comparing a wide range of parameters and predicting operational performance.

New or improved designs arrive more quickly, with water tank testing used to verify that the computer-generated data and predicted performance have been accurately captured in the final physical design.

CFD technology itself continues to develop and grow in power too, which means today’s and tomorrow’s designers of ships and marine equipment have not simply a new tool but a whole new toolbox that radically increases the speed, accuracy and comprehensive scope of their work.

Recognising these benefits, Rolls-Royce has always employed CFD as fully as possible within all of its businesses – with its marine designers using it for ship design, propulsor development and a range of other applications.  Though extensive use is made of commercial software, the company also develops its own codes for specific technical areas of interest.

And Rolls-Royce is also leading an EU-funded technology programme, Streamline, which in today’s environmentally-conscious world is investigating radically new propulsion concepts and systems.  A central raft of the research – which was launched in 2010 and scheduled to run until 2014 – is to develop advanced CFD tools that can simulate, analyse and optimise the hydrodynamic performance of these new propulsion concepts.

CFD is an increasingly powerful and flexible tool for both innovative research into future designs and the very real world of today’s shipping projects.

It can develop new products and refine existing ones, ensuring the in-service realisation of performance predictions; it can evaluate alternative shapes, positions, hull forms and integrated propulsion systems to ensure optimum water flow.  This is important in meeting overall vessel efficiency goals required to meet prescribed Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) targets.

And more and more variable design factors can be stored in the computer databases, such as the effects of wind on various ship types and configurations, including the secondary effects of on board equipment such as cranes, helicopter decks and other superstructure.  Wind tunnel testing then validates resulting calculations.

Such detailed data is another vital contribution to the CFD databases that help ensure that individual vessels move, manoeuvre and position themselves precisely as they are designed to do.

The supply of a complete subsea module handling system for Aker Wayfarer marks the next step in deepwater subsea lifting using fibre ropes. It also continues a longstanding cooperation between the same partners with more than 600 operations carried out offshore Brazil in the last five years.

A similar system was installed in 2009 on the AKOFS operated subsea support vessel Skandi Santos, which has now been on contract with Petrobras for five years. During that time Skandi Santos has been installing and retrieving subsea X-mas trees and modules, including subsea structures and manifolds in water depths up to 2,200m.

Between March 2010 and August 2014 several hundred operations were successfully completed using the fibre rope system, a far higher level of productivity than any other solution. So much so that in 2014 the number of installations of this type made by Skandi Santos increased from 28 per cent to 44 per cent of the Petrobras total.  Petrobras found the vessel to be one the most efficient and reliable subsea vessels in its fleet, reducing installation time by 50 per cent with 98 per cent availability.

Compared with the same operation carried out from a drillship, this type of work can be done with a subsea equipment support vessel such as Skandi Santos equipped with the Rolls-Royce module handling and fibre rope system. The time saved is approximately 10 days, saving about US$ 5 million per well, according to Petrobras.

Key to this productivity is the handling system. A typical subsea X-mas tree is made up of a number of elements for the safety and control of the well. These include flow regulation valves, connections to pipes or risers and monitoring systems.  Before the complete tree can be lowered and mated with the well, two or three heavy sections have to be assembled into a vertical stack weighing 60-80 tonnes. Sections are secured until needed to pallets on skidways on the aft deck. When required, a section on its pallet is shifted along or across the deck and placed in one side bay of the tower. A winch and cursor in the tower allows it to be hoisted and the next module moved in.  With a similar station on the other side of the tower two trees can be built up and tested at the same time.

Once ready for installation, the completed stack is moved to the centre of the tower over the moonpool. The tree is then lowered with the fibre rope deployment system (FRDS) based on the Rolls-Royce patented Cable Traction Control Unit (CTCU) technology, and guided by the main cursor system until safely clear of the ship. Then the FRDS deploys it safely to the seabed where mating of X-mas tree and well is carried out in active heave compensation mode, assisted and supervised by ROVs. Skandi Santos at the same time manoeuvres using its dynamic positioning system and the subsea orientation equipment system (SOES) to ensure the X-mas tree is landed exactly on the well and at the correct heading, many meters below.

FRDS comprises eight individually driven and controlled sheaves that work together increasing the pull on the rope at each sheave, to give a final pull of 5 to 125 tonnes, depending on the frame size. The CTCU is a traction winch, not a direct pull drum winch and is syncronised with a storage reel with capacity suited to the water depth. With fibre rope neutrally buoyant there is no intrinsic limit. The capacity of the Aker Wayfarer system is 7,000m of 88mm diameter rope.

Based on its experience with the technology, Petrobras has renewed its charter agreement with AKFOS Offshore for Skandi Santos. The five-year extension was a direct continuation of the existing contract, while Aker Wayfarer will be deployed in Q4 2016 on a five-year charter carrying out subsea intervention services offshore Brazil.

A highly advanced subsea and construction vessel, now part of the Farstad Shipping ASA fleet, is equipped with the latest DP3 technology and propulsion from Rolls-Royce

The recent commissioning of Far Sleipner marked the first delivery of a vessel equipped with the latest generation DP3 dynamic positioning system from Rolls-Royce. Designed and built by Vard (Vard 3 07), the vessel is also equipped with Rolls-Royce bridge controls, Bergen engines and propulsion equipment.

Børge Nakken, Farstad Shipping, Vice President Technology & Development, said: “The DP3 positioning system onboard Far Sleipner ensures that the vessel stays in position, even in the event of an unforeseen situation, for instance if one out of two separate machinery systems fails. This enables the vessel to complete its task in a safe and efficient manner.”

The main difference between a DP2 and DP3 dynamic positioning system is related to redundancy and tolerance for system failure. All key components of the systems are doubled up in a DP3 system. This ensures that for instance neither a flooding nor a fire in one part of the vessel will make it lose position and require the operation to be halted.

Jann Peter Strand, Rolls-Royce, Product Manager Automation & Control, Marine, said: “It’s been a privilege to work closely with both Farstad and Vard on this project. We’ve walked several paths together towards innovation before, but this is probably one of the most advanced projects we’ve worked on so far. When all components in a ship system must be able to function and be controlled independently across fire zones, the complexity of the automation and control systems increases significantly.” 

Rolls-Royce supply complete systems that meet the positioning requirements of many types of vessel that are equipped with suitable propulsor/thrusters arrangements – from simple systems – to those meeting the strictest redundancy arrangements, including DP2+ and DP3.

These DP systems are made up from two main elements – one is the Icon DP control system that takes information from position reference systems such as DGNSS and laser radars, processes it and issues commands to the propulsors and thrusters to move the vessel to the desired position and heading, then ensuring it is held accurately in position despite the wind, waves and current trying to drive it off station. 

The other element is the Icon DP operator station, the effective and functional interface between the operator and the system, designed to simplify DP operations and to bring the system physically closer to the operator, enhancing both performance and safety. Icon DP uses the Rolls-Royce Common Controls Platform system, architecture, hardware and software.

Far Sleipner is the first of three new subsea vessels to be delivered to Farstad Shipping. It is primarily designed for subsea construction missions and can also perform IMR (Inspection, Maintenance and Repair) operations down to 3,000 meters water depth. It has an overall length of 142.6 meters, beam of 25 meters and a deck area of 1,800 m². 

The vessel’s diesel-electric propulsion system comprises four Bergen B32:40L9 engines of 4,190kW, with two Azipull 120 azimuth thrusters rated at 2,500kW, a CP propeller via a gearbox, and for optimum manoeuvrability a swing-up TCNS 92/62 thruster and three TT2650 tunnel thrusters with CP propellers. Service speed is 14 knots.  

As well as two deck cranes with heave compensation, the vessel is equipped with a ROV hanger and is arranged for the simultaneous operation of three ROV’s (Remote Operating Vehicles) through the moonpool and over the side. Accommodation is provided for 130 people in single cabins. Following commissioning Far Sleipner went straight into a charter arrangement with Technip.

Award for interaction design and user interfaces

The Rolls-Royce Unified Bridge and Icon DP have been awarded the Norwegian Design Council 2015 award for design excellence. The awarding jury said: “In a conservative business with many class regulations, it is a challenging task to develop innovative solutions for user interfaces. This solution appears significantly better that competing solutions, and the quality of the interaction design is high. The user interface is based on modern navigational principles. The work surfaces are layered, which enable navigation on one surface, and with the touch screen reduces cognitive load for operators.”

Ready for the LNG revolution

The marine industry relies on fuel oils for almost all current powering needs, but tighter emission regulations and the need to go ‘green’ are starting to convince vessel operators to consider the alternatives. That’s where Rolls-Royce is in place to help.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is being widely hailed as the marine fuel of the future. For Rolls-Royce, engines fuelled solely by natural gas have been in production since 1991. Since the introduction of the Bergen lean burn technology more than 650 gas engines have been delivered for operation on land or at sea. More than 23 million running hours of experience have been accumulated.

Exhaust emissions from ships came into sharper focus because of national and international antipollution rules phased in since 2005. As emission control areas (ECAs) were introduced in the Baltic, North Sea, and later the United States, the hunt was on for cleaner fuels.

Deep sea vessels have mainly used heavy fuel oil (HFO). In the late 1970s the quality of this fuel deteriorated as crude oil was more intensively refined for valuable fractions, and ships were encouraged to burn the cheap residue, the engine manufacturers working hard to develop engines capable of using it. High sulphur HFO is not usable in ECA areas around many coastlines without expensive exhaust cleaning systems.

The rules for using light distillate liquid fuels are also becoming stricter, with a probable increase in fuel price as the forthcoming SOx restrictions will encourage a higher uptake of ultra low sulphur fuel. Nitrogen oxide emissions are also very much in focus, with states increasingly imposing penalties. In the case of Norway, a tax on NOx emissions has been given a positive aspect by turning tax into a fund, which is used to encourage NOx reduction measures, subsidising and rewarding practical reductions.

With the use of liquid fuels for marine propulsion becoming more expensive and problematic, attention has turned to LNG. LNG is mainly methane, and its chemical composition leads directly to lower CO2 emissions. LNG is also virtually sulphur-free. With suitable engine technology, NOx emissions are also dramatically reduced, and the gas burns cleanly without smoke and with few particulates. It is now more abundant than oil and less expensive, although its price compared with liquid fuels varies around the world.

It is projected that this differential on an energy equivalent basis will continue, and may even increase.
This has opened up an opportunity for significant fuel cost savings for operators. When the shipping industry began to take an interest in LNG, Rolls-Royce was there with well proven medium speed engine technology.

Helping Hands

Last year Rolls-Royce became a supporter of Mercy Ships, an international charity with the mission to increase global access to healthcare through a fleet of hospital ships. A comprehensive service for the equipment on-board the Africa Mercy is provided as well as access to training facilities.

Mercy Ships bring free, quality medical care to the poorest nations of the world through its fleet of hospital ships, the largest of which is the Africa Mercy, a converted rail ferry. It is also the largest non-government owned hospital ship in the world. Onboard are five operating theatres, recovery and intensive care and low dependency wards, which make up a total of 82 patient beds.

The partnership with Rolls-Royce will help ensure the continued, uninterrupted operation of the Africa Mercy.

Because 75 per cent of the world’s population lives within 100 miles of a port, modern hospital ships can provide in a small way for the people who lack access to medical care, clean water and reliable electricity. Before Africa Mercy departed for its eight-month visit to Madagascar, the ship’s bow thrusters were overhauled by Rolls-Royce while in drydock in the Canary Islands. It was the first time for Rolls-Royce engineers on the vessel since the partnership began.

What does it take to be the Master of such a unique vessel and responsible for nearly 500 people?

Timothy Tretheway, Master Africa Mercy explains:

In the mid 1980s I heard that the Mercy Ships original flagship, the Anastasis, was seriously short of seafarers, and so I volunteered as a seaman. Deeply moved by personal experiences with the people the ship came to serve, I made the commitment to focus my career toward helping suffering people by serving in Mercy Ships. 

I served in many capacities over the years, including able-seaman and all the different officer levels. At various times I have been the master or senior deck officer on most of the ships in the Mercy Ships fleet and became Master of Africa Mercy in 2008.

Many people dream of changing the world, of helping others have a better life, yet for many they do not see how their profession or skill can be a benefit to a poor person suffering unimagined pain or disfigurement or blindness.  I was the same.  I also was exploring my personal faith in God and wondered how I might be able to help bring hope and healing to others.

I discovered that my maritime skills could provide a platform for helping such people. I am continually refreshed to witness the blind see, the lame walk, and hope made tangible to the poor. What could be a better legacy?

Crystal's blog

To help Rolls-Royce employees gain an insight of life onboard Africa Mercy, Crystal Kuan joined the vessel in Toamasina, Madagascar. Here are some excerpts from her blog:

I’m so impressed by the people on board. It takes about 400 crew members and 200 local day crew to keep this hospital ship running. The day crew are employed to give them work experience and to help with a range of support activities, including translation. Some are fluent in Malagasy, Mandarin, French and English.

I am amazed that the volunteer crew have to pay for their own room and board in addition to giving their time, and that does not result in a lack of staff. Today I saw patients who have already been assessed in a reception point on the dockside and have an appointment for surgery. I did rounds with a Maxillofacial Surgeon. He signed up for three months with Mercy ships 28 years ago, after medical school before starting ‘real work’ and has never left.

The following day I met a young girl with a disfiguring large tumour under her chin, she uses a shawl to hide it. Although the tumour is benign, it will continue to grow - eventually restricting airways. In the West, these tumours are found by dentists before they grow, not so here. I am dressed in scrubs and invited to witness this life-changing operation.

It has recently been announced that Africa Mercy will return to Madagascar in August 2015 after a short refit in Durban, South Africa.

Rolls-Royce and the Aircraft Carrier Alliance have successfully completed the installation of the first Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbine into the Royal Navy’s latest aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, at Babcock’s Rosyth shipyard in Scotland.

The gas turbine alternator was installed into the ship in one day, halving the time taken to install them into sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The MT30, at 36 megawatts (around 50,000 horsepower), is the world’s most power-dense marine gas turbine, a key feature for naval ships where high power in the minimum space is essential.

Two MT30s are installed in each ship and will provide two thirds of the 109 megawatts needed to power the 65,000 tonne ships – enough energy to power a town the size of Swindon.

Each of the Gas Turbine Alternators (GTA) consist of a Rolls-Royce MT30 gas turbine and an alternator supplied by GE. They also include an alternator and gas turbine enclosure, which together weighs a total of 120 tonnes.

Jim Bennett, Power & Propulsion Director for the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, said: "The Power & Propulsion Sub-Alliance is immensely proud of this significant milestone in the Queen Elizabeth Class (QEC) project. It has been the culmination of many years of hard work to ensure the timely delivery of both complete MT30 gas turbine alternators to HMS Prince of Wales, in a single day, which will deliver around two thirds of the electrical power generated onboard. Congratulations to all involved, this is British engineering at its best!"

Angus Holt, Delivery Director, HMS Prince of Wales, said: “The successful achievement of this major milestone is systematic of the progress we are making with the build of the second Queen Elizabeth Class carrier. To have successfully lifted the most powerful engine in the Royal Navy onto the biggest ship ever built for the Royal Navy, using one of the biggest capacity gantry cranes in Europe, is an important event in the construction of HMS Prince of Wales. Everyone involved should take huge pride in their contribution to this national endeavour.”

Don Roussinos, Rolls-Royce, President - Naval said: “The installation of the MT30s for HMS Prince of Wales marks yet another significant milestone in the Queen Elizabeth Class programme. These aircraft carriers will be the backbone of the Royal Navy’s capability for decades to come and we’re proud to be working alongside such a strong team in the Power & Propulsion sub Alliance, as these highly capable ships get closer to entering service.

“We installed the very first marine gas turbine more than 60 years ago, and are delighted to continue that long and proud history of delivering advanced marine gas turbine and propulsion technology to the Royal Navy.”

The installation involved the lifting of the MT30 gas turbines and associated ancillary equipment – housed in steel packages known as the gas turbine enclosures – onto the ship structure. With the enclosure in place, the large alternator, which is driven by the gas turbine to produce electrical power, was then hoisted into place.

Once operational, the GTAs will supply high-voltage power to the four propulsion motors as well as the 13 ship service transformers. These transformers distribute low-voltage power to the weapons systems, mission systems equipment and navigation systems, as well as power to the hotel services required to run the ships.

Rolls-Royce is leading a new €6.6 million project that could pave the way for autonomous ships. The Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications (AAWA) Initiative will produce the specification and preliminary designs for the next generation of advanced ship solutions.

The wide ranging project will look at research carried out to date before exploring the business case for autonomous applications, the safety and security implications of designing and operating remotely operated ships, the legal and regulatory implications and the existence and readiness of a supplier network able to deliver commercially applicable products in the short to medium term.

The project is funded by Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation) and will bring together universities, ship designers, equipment manufacturers, and classification societies to explore the economic, social, legal, regulatory and technological factors which need to be addressed to make autonomous ships a reality.

A specific technology work stream will look at the implications of remote control and autonomy of ships for propulsion, deck machinery and automation and control. It will use, where possible, established technology to for rapid commercialisation.

The project will combine the expertise of some of Finland’s top academic researchers from Tampere University of Technology; VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd; Åbo Akademi University;  Aalto University; the University of Turku; and leading members of the maritime cluster including Rolls-Royce, NAPA, Deltamarin, DNV GL and Inmarsat.

The project will run until the end of 2017.

The Kamewa stainless steel series waterjets continue to evolve.

Improved performance

The Kamewa mixed flow waterjet pump is already an efficient device. Intensive CFD & FEM analysis has signifiicantly improved propulsive efficiency, especially in the 30-40 knot speed range. The new Steel-series Kamewa waterjets provide improved efficiency over a wider speed range.

Installation

Steel series waterjets can be supplied in three configurations to suit the owner and yard preference:

• A skid mounted unit in steel, aluminium or FRP – a simple to install baseplate with transom and all waterjet components installed as a unit that can be bolted into the hull aperture
• Inlet duct with mounting, with waterjet pump and manoeuvring system shipped as a separately.
• Pump and manoeuvring system as a unit, with drawings for the inlet for shipyard build.

Maintenance

The new waterjet range is designed for easy and infrequent maintenance. The mean time between overhauls is up to 15,000 hours or five years. Hydraulic cylinders and feedback sensors located inside the hull simplify maintenance and minimise the risk or oil leakage to sea.  The shaft seal is a robust unit made of duplex stainless steel for corrosion resistance, so zinc anodes are not needed for some models. The offer the best combination of performance, capital cost and economical operation.

Model standardisation

Kamewa waterjets have now been standardised into two product families, steel and aluminium. Steel models have mixed flow pumps with a stainless steel impeller and well proven aluminium jets have axial flow pumps with a stainless steel impeller. The new range includes the former A3 series, now the smallest models in the steel family. It starts with the 25 and spans 19 frame sizes with powers from around 450kW to over 30,000kW.

What will ferries look like in the future?

Like any diligent business, Rolls-Royce delivers a view of the future for customers by maintaining a strong focus on the future requirements for key market sectors.  The Rolls-Royce Blue Ocean team investigated how ferries of the future are likely to look and operate – and th team emerged from its study with some innovative answers.

Using a typical ferry mission as its baseline – a 120 nautical mile route in an Emission Control Area (ECA), operating at 19 knots – the team generated two design concepts, code named Clear Blue and Dynamic Blue.

Clear Blue takes a minimalist approach in terms of ship design, while Dynamic Blue seeks to enhance the passenger experience while minimising operating costs.Importantly, both aim to deliver strong economic benefits to future ferry operators, reducing fuel consumption and delivering energy savings of up to 25 per cent.

Clear Blue

The Clear Blue concept fundamentally aims to minimise initial capital costs low by removing non-essential elements and simplifying other on-board features.  This 24,500-tonne, 152-metre long design has a wider profile, allowing extra vehicle lanes and U-turns as all vehicle movements are over the stern and there is no moving ramp. 

It also incorporates a high degree of modularisation to reduce build costs.  Two decks of cabin blocks – containing all passenger facilities including restaurant, bar and shop – are installed on rather than inside the hull.  This allows them to be installed as modules pre-outfitted with heating, ventilation and air conditioning and other auxiliary services.

Stores for each voyage are brought aboard and parked alongside the galley in refrigerated containers, which eliminates the need for unloading and on-board stores.

Clear Blue’s main propulsion centres on a 7,600kW Bergen B35 series gas engine driving a single controllable-pitch propeller through reduction gear equipped with a hybrid shaft generator.  Two 3,700kW gas gensets provide electrical power, and aft of the propeller is an electrically-driven Azipull thruster that provides vectored thrust for nimble manoeuvring, augmented by two bow tunnel thrusters for extra agility. 

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) road trailers – suitably anchored to the open deck centrally aft – will take the place of internal gas tanks.  This further underlines the guiding principle of Clear Blue based on minimising complexity, on-board installation and construction costs.

Dynamic Blue

The second concept developed by the Blue Ocean team, Dynamic Blue, takes a different approach by utilising technology to reduce operational costs while maintaining passenger comfort.

This 27,500-tonne, 170-metre long vessel embodies a novel non-symmetrical layout, with services, shopping and deck-to-deck access concentrated on the port side, leaving the starboard side uninterrupted for passengers and the various on-board facilities they want to use.  This part of the deck is cantilevered out over the lower decks, with a glazed roof, providing extra light and a spacious feel.

For propulsion, four engines use LNG bunkered in two fixed tanks.  A single 7,600kW Bergen engine drives the central shaft connected to a Promas integrated propeller/rudder.  Two electrically-driven Azipull thrusters flanking the main propeller can be used to augment propulsion in transit or for manoeuvring.

Three 3,700kW Bergen gensets supply electrical power, and a waste heat recovery system improves efficiency further still.  The overall configuration allows the crew to ensure optimum performance by selecting mechanical, electrical or hybrid modes according to operating conditions, and the LNG fuel additionally provides cooling for ship’s services.

Fuel savings

Both designs are expected to carry around 1,000 passengers with Clear Blue containing 128 passenger cabins and Dynamic Blue 166 cabins.  Comparison studies indicate that the cheaper-to-commission Clear Blue design will produce an annual energy saving of 15 per cent, while Dynamic Blue will save 25 per cent compared to the baseline vessel.

Norwegian ferries set new standard

Two new LNG-fuelled ferries powered by Rolls-Royce engines are setting new standards of comfort and efficiency on a route between Norway and Denmark.

“We are delighted with our two new vessels – the MS Bergensfjord and MS Stavangerfjord,” says Fjord Line’s President and Chief Executive Ingvald Fardal. “They put us in a sound competitive position and we have only positive feedback from our customers who appreciate the fact that the ships are much quieter than conventional vessels.”

Linking Bergen and Stavanger with Hirtshals in northern Denmark, the 1,500-passenger cruise ferries then call in Langesund on Norway’s Skagerrak. The two ferries each have 306 cabins and capacity for up to 600 vehicles.

With hulls built in Poland, the ships were outfitted at Bergen Group’s Fosen Shipyard in Rissa, Norway. Fjord Line chose gas-only engines from Rolls-Royce rather than dual-fuel propulsion units capable of burning oil or LNG. Mr Fardal explains why.

“We examined various options – in fact, the two ships were originally designed with conventional engines capable of undergoing conversion to LNG power at a later date,” he explains. “But when we looked into it, we found that the Rolls-Royce Bergen engines are more fuel-efficient, more flexible, more responsive and simpler than equivalent dual-fuel engines.”

“For us, though, there was one deciding factor. From next January, all ships operating within the boundaries of Europe’s Emission Control Area (ECA) will have to burn fuel with a sulphur content of less than 0.1%,” Fardal says.

“This means that the owners of conventionally-powered ships will either have to pay a huge premium for their fuel or install costly scrubber technology.”

Mr Fardal continues. “But LNG has a fantastic emissions profile compared with fuel oil and diesel. It contains virtually no sulphur or particulates, nitrous oxide emissions are cut by 90% and greenhouse gas by a quarter. That is why we are seeing LNG propulsion being adopted by the owners of a growing number of ships, and ship types, in the existing ECAs of northern Europe and North America.”

But what about the availability of LNG?

Mr Fardal admits that has proved something of a “catch 22”. LNG bunkering infrastructure has not been put in place until there is sufficient demand. And there are, as yet, relatively small numbers of gas-powered ships in operation, mostly in Norway. However, Norway leads the way on the build-up of LNG bunkering facilities and there is a growing number of supply sources along the country’s coast. 

At present, the two ferries are supplied with LNG by truck at the Risavika ferry terminal in Stavanger and in Hirtshals in Denmark. But from September, a newly constructed and dedicated LNG pipeline just a few hundred metres away, will feed fuel to the ships in Risavika from the LNG storage terminal there.

It is now fifty years since the first Aquamaster azimuth thruster was delivered, the start of a development that has built in size and scope to become a major contributor to today’s Rolls-Royce propulsion product portfolio.

At that point the principle of the azimuth thruster was well known. John Ericsson, the innovator of many technologies in the 19th century, had patented a deck mounted outboard engine, other patents were issued in the US and UK in the 1870s and demonstrated as through hull units on a large scale. In World War II barges were equipped with over-the-stern thrusters with deck mounted engines. But there was not yet a convincing commercial demand. This emerged in the 1970s and has widened ever since.

Aquamaster thrusters began as a diversification for the Hollming shipyard in Rauma, Finland. The yard had originally been established to build vessels as war reparations to the Soviet Union, and was looking for something to even out market fluctuations. This first product was a steerable propeller with a deck-mounted diesel engine, installed on a hopper barge also devised by the yard, and largely made up from tractor and vehicle components. For the first few years production volumes were small , 2-10 units per year in sizes from 100-300hp. The market was there, but the main difficulty was sourcing components. The first exported units went to Germany, then Sweden specified units for propelling rod link ferries.

In England Yorkshire Dry Dock built many small coastal cargo vessels each with two 400hp units. As the expor t market grew, a good name was needed for the product, and it became known as the ’Aquamaster azimuth thruster’. Aquamaster is still a registered trade name within Rolls-Royce. By 1975 thrusters were offered in four sizes from 100 to 800hp and as well as Europe the market had expanded to include the US, Canada and Japan while sales volumes were growing rapidly and marketing companies and agencies were being set up around the world.

It was clear that the market was interested in bigger azimuth htrusters. The problem was in finding durable large bevel gears and other components to handle high powers. Special gears could be prohibitively expensive to buy, and other design constraints might pose a long term maintenance cost. So the R&D problem was to overcome these difficulties, at the same time trying to raise the efficiency of azimuth thrusters above the level of conventional propulsion systems.

A big step came at the beginning of the 1980s with the design of the first unit to be rated at over 1,000hp. This was the Aquamaster 1250. The Finnish oil comapny Neste ordered three tugs equipped with these thrusters and these vessels became a very good reference in the years that followed.

At the other end of the size range the first Aquamaster azimuth thrusters rated at more than 10,000hp were developed in the early 1990s, the initial application being a very demanding one. Ice-strengthened ARC 1 units. Two per ship were supplied to the multipurpose icebreakers Fennica and Nordica, providing both main propulsion and excellent manoeuvring in open water or thick ice. The two vessels are still operating in the same way, providing icebreaking services in the Baltic in winter and acting as offshore support vessels in summer.

The conventional thrusters have also grown in power, and in recent years have proved very attractive for propulsion and positioning of semi-submersible drilling rigs, drilling ships and many other vessel types. The Aquamaster business was restructured and enlarged several times in the years following its birth in the Hollming yard, most significantly when it was merged with the Rauma Repola deck machinery business. This was bought by Vickers plc in 1995 and combined with Swedish Kamewa. From 2000 the thruster and deck machinery product lines have been integrated with products from other origins and further developed to provide today’s comprehensive range of Rolls-Royce thrusters.

Thinking the unthinkable

Sometimes what was unthinkable yesterday is tomorrow’s reality. So now it is time to consider a roadmap to unmanned vessels of various types. Steps have already been taken, mainly in the naval area. On the way, certain functions will be moved ashore.

Engine/equipment monitoring and some underwater operations in the offshore sector could be the first. A growing number of vessels are already equipped with cameras that can see at night and through fog and snow, and have systems to transmit large volumes of data.

Given that the technology is in place, is now the time to move some operations ashore? Is it better to have a crew of 20 sailing in a gale in the North Sea, or say five in a control room on shore?

When ‘fleet optimisation’ is considered, the advantages compound. The same person can monitor and steer many ships. As conditions ashore are often preferred, it will also help retain qualified and competent crew, and is safer.

Many facilities and systems on board are only there to ensure that the crew is kept fed, safe, and comfortable. Eliminate or reduce the need for people, and vessels could be radically simplified. Attitudes and ways of working will need to change, but safe operation is possible, particularly for vessels running between two or three fixed points.

Shipping’s approach is usually about complying to regulations in the most cost efficient way while addressing the key cost issues of fuel, finance, cargo handling and crew. They can all be influenced by holistic ship design. In the future, we must not think of a ship as a number of separate processes or systems, but as a whole where all aspects affect the other. Only by thinking the unthinkable can we truly affect costs.

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