Integrating Modular Hydrogen Fuel Cell Drives for Ship Propulsion: Prospectus and Challenges

Abstract

Electrical power system of ship is consisted of power generators, consumers and distribution system. All parts of power system onboard, with or without its own controllers, are interconnected with control system – hardwired or field bus. That provides enormous possibilities for advanced overall control system functionality. The Power Management System (PMS) is a critical part of the control equipment in the ship. It is usually distributed on various control stations that can operate together and share information between each other or independently in case of special emergency situations in which ship have to operate. The equipment within the PMS includes the engines, generators, switchboards and controls along with the automation equipment that perform the calculation algorithms. The design of future ship will require the development of new and increasingly sophisticated methods for the modeling and simulation of the complex systems that must be integrated in order to produce the total ship. Control architecture for power distribution systems has to be hierarchical, distributed and easy to adapt. A complete logistic chain of this control architecture will be modeled by Colored Petri Net (CPN), which connects effective agents for autonomous control of complex distributed systems with agents for the control of power management systems. After introducing the basic Petri Nets concepts, the cooperation and optimization process among the agents is modeled by the CPN Tools developed. The interdependency between these agents is mainly related through information and orders. The goal is to develop the model necessary to study the characteristics of complex systems and support the validity of the integrated control architecture. The results should show that the CPN model provides an effective simulation environment and enhances the power management system on ships.