Marine Propulsion System Failures—A Review

Goran Vizentin,Lech Murawski,Naman Recho,Josip Orovic,Goran Vukelic

doi:10.3390/jmse8090662

Abstract

Failures of marine propulsion components or systems can lead to serious consequences for a vessel, cargo and the people onboard a ship. These consequences can be financial losses, delay in delivery time or a threat to safety of the people onboard. This is why it is necessary to learn about marine propulsion failures in order to prevent worst-case scenarios. This paper aims to provide a review of experimental, analytical and numerical methods used in the failure analysis of ship propulsion systems. In order to achieve that, the main causes and failure mechanisms are described and summarized. Commonly used experimental, numerical and analytical tools for failure analysis are given. Most indicative case studies of ship failures describe where the origin of failure lies in the ship propulsion failures (i.e., shaft lines, crankshaft, bearings, foundations). In order to learn from such failures, a holistic engineering approach is inevitable. This paper tries to give suggestions to improve existing design procedures with a goal of producing more reliable propulsion systems and taking care of operational conditions.

Highlights

In order to limit the occurrence of fatalities, environmental damage and economic losses, marine structures are to be designed, built and operated in such manner that the probabilities of overall structural rigid body stability and failures are reduced to a minimum [1]
In order to better understand the causes of failures, a failure analysis branch of engineering [4] has developed over the years, serving as a help in the design optimization process
Ships operate in aggressive workload and environmental conditions so proper assessment of the technical condition is crucial from the perspective of safety of maritime navigation

Summary

Introduction

In order to limit the occurrence of fatalities, environmental damage and economic losses, marine structures are to be designed, built and operated in such manner that the probabilities of overall structural rigid body stability and failures are reduced to a minimum [1]. The strength of a structure decreases with time and true insight into the strength state strongly depends on inspection and maintenance procedures [2]. In order to better understand the causes of failures, a failure analysis branch of engineering [4] has developed over the years, serving as a help in the design optimization process. This discipline uses analytical, experimental and numerical tools in order to resolve failure causes. Particular effort has been invested in researching the causes of marine structural failures.

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Conclusion