Fatigue damage represents a key failure mode in ship structures. Such damage typically begins at vulnerable points in the structure, like welded joints, stress concentration areas, and cracks. Cyclic loading, particularly from waves, encountered by ships during their operational life is a major cause of fatigue damage, which is the main focus of this study. There are various methods to address different sea state conditions, though they can sometimes be approximate. This paper aims to review the most commonly used methods to highlight their strengths and weaknesses and to provide essential background knowledge for developing reliable theoretical and numerical models for predicting the fatigue life of ship structures exposed to various sea states over their lifetime. The primary theoretical approaches discussed include energy spectral methods in both time and frequency domains, which are used to quantify wave-related energy and amplitude characteristics and evaluate wave loads for predicting the fatigue life of structures and welded joints. The discussion also covers the determination of cyclic stress in specific structural details of the hull girder and welded joints to identify the relevant maximum stress range for subsequent fatigue studies conducted using finite element analysis.

Design and optimization of the propulsion system is a crucial task of the ship design process. The behaviour of the propulsion system, in transient conditions as well as in steady state, is greatly affected by the capability of the control system to manage the available power and to achieve the desired performance in the shortest time. The selection of a proper control scheme is a trade-off between different and conflicting needs. Two of the opposites are: increasing the ship operability by adding more functions and more controls; and reducing the control system development and installation time and cost. In this paper, the rapid prototyping and testing procedure for the development of the propulsion controller of the new Italian aircraft carrier Cavour is presented, using real-time hardware-in-the-loop (RT-HIL) simulation. The procedure is based on a wide use of simulation technology. First, a complete dynamical model of the ship propulsion plant was developed. Then, batch simulation was used to develop the best possible control scheme. Finally, RT-HIL simulation was used to debug the real controller software and to tune the controller parameters before sea trials. The application of the procedure led to a significant reduction in the development phase of the controller design. Furthermore, the adoption of the RT-HIL technology greatly reduced the time spent to tune the control system during the ship delivery phase.

From the working data of a dual-fuel marine engine, in this paper, we optimized and compared two waste-heat-recovery single-pressure steam plants—the first characterized by a saturated-steam Rankine cycle, the other by a superheated-steam cycle–using suitably developed simulation models. The objective was to improve the recovered heat from the considered engine, running with both heavy fuel oil and natural gas. The comparison was carried out on the basis of energetic and exergetic considerations, concerning various aspects such as the thermodynamic performance of the heat-recovery steam generator and the efficiency of the Rankine cycle and of the combined dual-fuel-engine–waste-heat-recovery plant. Other important issues were also considered in the comparison, particularly the dimensions and weights of the steam generator as a whole and of its components (economizer, evaporator, superheater) in relation to the exchanged thermal powers. We present the comparison results for different engine working conditions and fuel typology (heavy fuel oil or natural gas).

The performance of a marine dual-fuel engine, equipped with an innovative hybrid turbocharger producing electric power to satisfy part of the ship’s electric load, is presented by a simulation comparison with the traditional turbocharging technology. The two distinct fuel types, combined with the hybrid turbocharger, involve a substantial change in the engine control modes, resulting in more flexible and efficient power management. Therefore, the investigation requires a numerical analysis depending on the engine load variation, in both fuelling modes, to highlight different behaviours. In detail, a dual-fuel engine simulation model is validated for a particular application in order to perform a complete comparison, reported in tabular and graphical form, between the two examined turbocharging solutions. The simulation analysis is presented in terms of the engine working data and overall energy conversion efficiency.

Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) marine systems represent a valid solution for the ship energy efficiency improvement, especially in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) propulsion applications. Compared to traditional diesel fuel oil, a better thermal power can be recovered from the exhaust gas produced by a LNG-fueled engine. Therefore, steam surplus production may be used to feed a turbogenerator in order to increase the ship electric energy availability without additional fuel consumption. However, a correct design procedure of the WHR steam plant is fundamental for proper feasibility analysis, and from this point of view, numerical simulation techniques can be a very powerful tool. In this work, the WHR steam plant modeling is presented paying attention to the simulation approach developed for the steam turbine and its governor dynamics. Starting from a nonlinear system representing the whole dynamic behavior, the turbogenerator model is linearized to carry out a proper synthesis analysis of the controller, in order to comply with specific performance requirements of the power grid. For the considered case study, simulation results confirm the validity of the developed approach, aimed to test the correct design of the whole system in proper working dynamic conditions.