Investigation of drivetrain losses of a DP vessel

Abstract

Traditionally the efficiency of the drivetrain of a marine vessel is evaluated at rated power and speed. However, the thrust and power consumption of the thrusters are low during DP operation. In this study, the loss energy during one month is investigated. The distribution of the loss energy is shown as a function of speed and power. The results show that considerable losses are occurring at low speed and power. This motivates the need to optimize drivetrain for operational profiles, instead of optimizing them for full load operation.