Abstract
Our study presents the computational implementation of an air lubrication system on a commercial ship with 154,800 m3 Liquified Natural Gas capacity. The air lubrication reduces the skin friction between the ship’s wetted area and sea water. We analyze the real operating conditions as well as the assumptions, that will approach the problem as accurately as possible. The computational analysis is performed with the ANSYS FLUENT software. Two separate geometries (two different models) are drawn for a ship’s hull: with and without an air lubrication system. Our aim is to extract two different skin friction coefficients, which affect the fuel consumption and the CO2 emissions of the ship. A ship’s hull has never been designed before in real scale with air lubrication injectors adjusted in a computational environment, in order to simulate the function of air lubrication system. The system’s impact on the minimization of LNG transfer cost and on the reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions is also examined. The study demonstrates the way to install the entire system in a new building. Fuel consumption can be reduced by up to 8%, and daily savings could reach up to EUR 8000 per travelling day.
Highlights
Marine engineers and maritime companies have struggled to construct vessels with the lowest possible fuel consumption, in order to achieve the maximization of benefits and reduction of pollutants
The reduction in the skin friction resistance remains proportionate to the wetted surface and the cruising speed, and even small decreases in skin friction have large impacts on the fuel consumption and the reduction of emissions [2]
Our study shows that a computational analysis can provide solutions and affect the evolution of air lubrication systems without demanding and expensive real tests
Summary
Marine engineers and maritime companies have struggled to construct vessels with the lowest possible fuel consumption, in order to achieve the maximization of benefits and reduction of pollutants. Each ship must face three kinds of resistance: wave, pressure and skin friction resistance. Wave and pressure resistances are inevitable and can be confronted by the detailed design of the hull. The reduction in the skin friction resistance remains proportionate to the wetted surface and the cruising speed, and even small decreases in skin friction have large impacts on the fuel consumption and the reduction of emissions [2]. The dominating active method for the reduction of skin friction is the injection of air into the boundary layer underneath the hull, namely air lubrication. The use of air as a lubricant has been proved analytically, experimentally and computationally to decrease the friction between the ship and the seawater
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