PROPELLER AND SHIP MAIN EGINE SELECTION IN CORRELATION

WITH OVERALL EFFICIENCY PROPULSION COEFFICIENT

IMPROVEMENT
JOVO DAUTOVI
Technical Test Center, Vojvode Stepe br. 445, Belgrade; e-mail jovodaut@gmail.com
VOJKAN MADI
Technical Test Center, Vojvode Stepe br. 445, Belgrade; e-mail vmadic@gmail.com
SONJA URKOVI
Military Technical Institute, Bulevar vojvode Bojovica br.2, Belgrade; e-mail sonja.djurkovic@yahoo.com

Abstract: This paper presents propeller selection method when the power of the ship engine is known and also influence
of correct propeller selection on a significant improvement in overall efficiency propulsion coefficient. After that it
shows the method of main engine selection in case of vessel modernization, i.e. replacement of one type with another
type the drive when retain the old propellers. Main engine selection, in that case, is shown in the case of selection
electric motor drive of the ship KOZARA in the process of its modernization during which diesel engine propulsion is
replaced by diesel electric propulsion. In the end, power shaft measurement results on the shaft lines is shown which
confirms main engine correct selection.
Keywords: propeller selection, electric motor selection, propeller curve, shaft power measurement, performance
recording.
and drive engine should be such that the operating point
of the diesel engine always is inside the diesel work areas
for which the engine is designed, in order to increase the
overall efficiency coefficient [1].

1. INTRODUCTION
During designing of the ships special attention should be
paid to the appropriate propeller and drive engines
selection and their mutual pairing.

For proper utilization of the possibilities for the engine, it

should be possible to achieve maximum revolution per
minute (rpm) speed at which the engine has maximum
power.

During operation of the ship it is usually to do

modernization after years of use, which often includes
replacement of the one type drive engines with the other
one. In this case, usually retain the old propellers, and
attention should be paid to the proper selection of the new
drive engines and they must be matched with the
propellers.

If propellers match with maximum rpm in reducing rpm

of a percentage, engine power will be reduced in
accordance with the propeller curve. In other words, the
shaft torque curve will not be in accordance with the
engine torque curve than the lower the full power of the
engine would never be used.

An example for this case is the modernization of ship

"Kozara", which was carried out during 2011 and 2012.
During this period diesel engine propulsion was replaced
with diesel electric propulsion (DEP). DEP is consisting
of two diesel engines, two electric drive motors with
gearboxes and bow thrusters. That type of modernization
was performed for the first time on a Serbian warship.
The main difference between diesel propulsion and DEP
is that in a diesel propulsion system propeller is driven by
diesel engine and in DEP system propeller is driven by
electric motor. Electric motor power supply is realized
from the generators which are driven by diesel engines.

Figure 1 shows the corresponding characteristic of diesel

engine and propeller curves [2].
For constant torque (ie. max torque):
2

(2.1)

which indicates that the power is proportional to the rpm

(figure 1). If the torque is not constant, it is
assumed that the power changes per cubic parabola curve
as a function of number of revolutions
2
, which means that the torque is proportional to the
square of rpm.

2. PROPELLER SELECTION
Significant improvements in overall efficiency coefficient
on ship standard drive systems mainly achieved by proper
selection of the propeller. Mutual working of propeller

(2.2)
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PROPELLERANDSHIPMAINEGINESELECTIONINCORRELATIONWITHOVERALLEFFICIENCYPROPULSIONCOEFFICIENTIMPROVEMENT

which means that the torque coefficient

is constant

). If it is known that the fixed blade

(
), then
propellers advance ratio is constant (
is also constant
the propeller thrust coefficient

(
). If
is constant then
, but if
and
(or
for
J is constant then
is
permanently reduce thrust force
).
assumption in the normal speed range of displacement
ships, and power formula is:

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Note also the upper rpm limit on the (design) line 1 say
point D at 105% maximum rpm. At this point the full
available power will not be absorbed in the clean hullcalm water trials, and the full design speed will not be
achieved. In a similar manner, if the ship has a light load,
such as in ballast, the design curve 1 will move to the
right (e.g. towards line 1a ) and, again, the full power
will not be available due to the rpm limit and speed will
be reduced.
These features must be allowed for when drawing up
contractual ship design speeds (load and ballast) and trial
speeds.

(2.3)

The basic assumption is made that

is defined by
the engine manufacturers as the Propeller Law and they
design their engines for best efficiency (e.g. fuel
consumption) about this line. It does not necessarily mean
that the propeller actually operates on this line, as
discussed earlier.
It is important to match the propeller revolutions, torque
and developed power to the safe operating limits of the
installed propulsion engine. Typical power, torque and
revolutions limits for a diesel engine are shown in Figure
2, within ABCDE [2].

Figure 1. Matching of propeller to diesel engine

It should be noted, however, that the speed index does
change with different craft (e.g. high-speed craft or very
, where x
slow displacement ships), in which case
will not necessarily be 3, although it will generally lie
between 2.5 and 3.5.
Typically it is assumed that the operator will not run the
engine to higher than 90% of its continuous service rating
(CSR).
The marine diesel engine characteristics are usually
based on the propeller law which assumes
,
which is acceptable for most displacement ships. The
basic design power curve passes through the point A.

Figure 2. Typical diesel engine limits (within ABCDE)

It should be noted that the propeller pitch determines at
what revolutions the propeller, and hence engine, will run.
Consequently, the propeller design (pitch and revolutions)
must be such that it is suitably matched to the installed
engine.

When designing the propeller for say clean hull and calm
water, it is usual to keep the actual propeller curve to the
right of the engine ( line), such as on line 1 , to allow
for the effects of future fouling and bad weather. In the
case of line 1 the pitch is said to be light and if the
design pitch is decreased further, the line will move to
line 1a , etc.

3. ELECTRIC ENGINES SELECTIONS ON

THE SHIP KOZARA
For the correct selection of electric drive engines on the
ship Kozara it was necessary to calculate the power
which engines deliver to the propellers. The first step was
to calculate power which was delivered to the propeller
by old diesel engines. The transmission of power from the
diesel engine to the propeller produces shaft transmission
losses which are expressed by shaft transmission
. For calculation of shaft transmission
efficiency
efficiency next coefficients are taken into account: thrust

As the ship fouls, or encounters heavy weather, the design

curve 1 will move to the left, first to the
line and then
to line 2 . It must be noted that, in the case of line 2 , the
maximum available power at B is now not available due
to the torque limit, and the maximum operating point is at
C, with a consequent decrease in power and, hence, ship
speed.

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DSHIPMAINEGINESELECTIONINCO
ORRELATIONWITHOVERALLEFFICIENCYPROPULSIONCOEFFICIENTIM
MPROVEMENT

bearing (0.999), steady beearing - 9 pieces

p
(0.995)) and
bulkhead stuuffing box - 3 pieces (0.995). In this way shaft
transmission efficiency is
.

(3.4))
hich power iss
EM calculated poower is 287.66 kW. EM wh
w estimatedd
250 kW is chosenn for ship proopulsion. It was
that ship with 2550 kW EM will achieve the requiredd
speed. In the asseessment was ttaken into acccount the factt
that ship with thhe new drivve engines has a smallerr
n of the drivee
displlacement. Thee influence onn the selection
EM has had a huuge differencee in the purchase price off
seleccted EM and EM
E higher poower. If selected power EM
M
enterred in the aboove formula itt can be obtaiined power off
the engine
e
whichh can be perm
manently delivered to thee
prop
peller and that equals
=238 kW.

Delivered poower in case of classic dieesel drive is given

g
by:
(3.1)
where

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nominal dieseel engine pow

wer.

Figure 3 shows an old shiip propulsion system with diesel

d
drive engine.. Left and righht drive system
ms are identicaal.

After calculating the electric m

motor power itt is necessaryy
to seelect the type of electric mootor. Asynchrronous motorss
havee been selectedd because of iits advantagess compared too
the other
o
electric motors.
m

Figure 3. Diesel engiine drive proppulsion system

m
1 diesel enngine; 2 thruust bearing; 3 , 5- first part of
o the
propeller shaaft steady bearrings; 4 bulkkhead stuffingg box
I;6, 8 seconnd part of the propeller shaaft steady bearrings;
7 - bulkheead stuffing box II; 9, 10 - third
t
part of thhe
propeller shaaft steady bearrings; 11 - bullkhead stuffingg box
III; 12 sterrn tube;13 stern boss; 14 bracket bearring.

Two
o electric motoors, each havinng a power off 250 kW typee
B6A
AZJ 354-04 prroduced by K
Koncar GIM, are installedd
in th
he ship Kozzara. The traansfer of pow
wer from thee
electtric motor to the propeller is carried ou
ut through thee
gearb
box. An elecctric motor drives a propeeller. Electricc
moto
ors speed and
a
torque control is carried outt
autom
matically via voltage frequeency converteers.

After calcullating of pow

wer which old
o diesel enngines
delivered to the propelleers it was staarted with electric
drive enginess power estim
mation.

Two
o gearboxes ZF W350-1 produced by ZF
F
Fried
drichshafen AG
A of Germanny, the transmiission ratio off
1: 3,,968, are instaalled in the shhip in order to
o transmit thee
poweer from the EM
M to the propeller.

Figure 4 shoows a diesel electric

e
propuulsion system. The
new propulsion system allso consists of
o an identicaal left
and right system. In addiition, the figuure 4 also shoows a
bow thruster.

Com
mpared to thee other variannts of power transmissionn
from
m the drive engine
e
to proopellers, electric drive hass
several advantagees that can bee seen from th
he diagram inn
Figu
ure 5 [3].

4 Diesel electtric drive proppulsion system

m
Figure 4.
1 dieseel engine; 2 generator; 3 electric drivee
engines; 4 gear box; 5 bulkhead stuuffing box I; 6,
6 7
propeller shaaft steady bearrings; 8 bulkkhead stuffingg box
II; 9 stern tube;
t
10 sterrn boss; 11 bracket
b
bearinng; 12
boow thruster
At the beginnning, the lossses in the trannsmission of power
p
from the eleectric motor to the propelller are estim
mated.
Gear box efficiency (ttogether witth thrust beearing
(0.98) andd shaft transm
mission efficiency
efficiency)
(0.97) aree taken into acccount.
Delivered power
p
in case of DEP is givven by:
(3.2)
which indicaates that electrric engine pow
wer is calculated by
the formula:

Figure 5. Propeller, diesel enngine and elecctric motor

curvees
- electric motoor curve;
- diesel motor curve;
overloaded propeller
p
curvee;
- propelller curve

(3.3)
mula is entereed
instead of
w be
it will
If in the form
calculated thhe electric mottor (EM) pow
wer
, in ordder to
DEP gave thhe same deliveered power too the propeller like
diesel enginee:

It caan be seen on diagram that drive diesel engine,

e
whichh
is most
m commonlyy used on inland waters caan change thee
speed in the rangee from about 440%
to 100%
(from
m
idlin
ng regime to 100% of nominal rpm). Speeed above thiss
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PROPELLERANDSHIPMAINEGINESELECTIONINCORRELATIONWITHOVERALLEFFICIENCYPROPULSIONCOEFFICIENTIMPROVEMENT

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values of power

range can be increased only in the short term, usually up

. It is not possible even to reduce the rpm
to 110%
below this range, because it can cause the engine stop.
The ship load curves are often very different. The
example is loaded or unloaded push boat or a tugboat in
free run regime or in tow regime. The figure 5 shows two
cases of propeller curve, one when propeller is overloaded
and the other when the propeller curve has shape of cubic
parabola as a function of rpm.

Number
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Shaft speed
(min-1)
101
202
301
375
393

Torque
(Nm)
510,68
1925,27
4123,54
6425,7
6758,64

PowerP
(kW)
5,4
40,7
129,9
252,2
278

Figure 7. shows diagrams of torque and shaft power as

function of the rpm.

At the electric engine transmission power increases

linearly with the propeller speed of rotation up to a
nominal value, but from that point it is possible to
increase the speed of rotation up to 60% above nominal
value, with power at a nominal value. As a result, the
electric motor can operate at 100% power for all cases
propeller curve, unlike the diesel engine in case of
propeller curve for overloaded propeller can be operated
at speeds from idling to speed n1. This is the biggest
advantage of electric motor as the drive unit.
4. PROPELLER SHAFT TORQUE

MEASUREMENT AND PERFORMACE

RECORDING
Figure 7. Diagram of shaft power and torque
measurement

By measuring propeller shaft power can be checked is

propeller accurate chosen according to engine. Figure 6
shows an acquisition system for the shaft power
measurement.

Shaft power measurement confirm electric motor power

and the possibility that the motors run in overload of 10%
over a period of one hour.
Based on the results of measuring the torque and power to
the propeller shaft in the expression for calculating the
propeller characteristic:

it is determined coefficient K = 0.00476. The expression

for the ship Kozara propeller characteristic is[7]:

Figure 6. Propeller shaft torque and rpm measurement

It is a multi-channel mobile measuring system SPIDER 8
manufacturer HBM (HBM - Hottinger Baldwin
Messtechnik) SPIDER 8 is connected with the
corresponding sensors strain gages type XY21 6/120 [4]
and optical rpm measuring system AO1 type [5]. By this
measuring system propeller shaft torque and rpm are
measured. Based on the measured propeller shaft power it
could be drawn propeller curve and find a constant
that depends on the characteristics of the propeller.

0,00476

(4.3)

Table 2. Value of power to the propeller shaft , calculated

on the basis of the measured torque P and power
calculated on the basis of the propeller characteristic .

Shaft torque and rpm measurement is made on the left

intermediate shaft behind gear box.
Shaft power, i.e. propeller absorbed power is calculated
by the formula:

Table 2 shows the value of power to the propeller shaft,

calculated on the basis of the measured torque P and
power calculated on the basis of the propeller
characteristic .

Propeller shaft torque measurement on diesel-electric

drive ship Kozara was performed 09.05.2012. during
test trailing at the river Danube.

2
60

(4.2)

(4.1)

Number

Shaft speed
(min-1)

P (kW)

1.

101

5,4

4,9

2.

202

40,7

39,2

3.

301

129,9

129,8

4.

375

252,2

251

5.

393

278

288,9

(kW)

Figure 8 shows diagram power to the propeller shaft,

calculated on the basis of the measured torque P and
power calculated on the basis of the propeller
characteristic , as a function of the propeller speed.

Shaft torque measurement results at different propeller

rpm are shown in table 1 [6].
Table 1. Shaft torque measurement results and calculated
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PROPELLERANDSHIPMAINEGINESELECTIONINCORRELATIONWITHOVERALLEFFICIENCYPROPULSIONCOEFFICIENTIMPROVEMENT

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1. Results of shaft power measurements confirm good

choice of electric drive engine and the possibility that
the motors run in overload of 10% over a period of
one hour.
2. Good matching of measured and calculated shaft
power results fully confirms the results validity and
measurement power methods
3. Shaft power result measurements also confirm correct
operation of frequency converters. Although there
were possibility to be problems with THD voltage
distortion it turns out that it is not necessary to apply
any filters to reduce voltage high harmonics in the
network[8].

References
[1] V. J. Gitis, V. L. Bondarenko, T. P. Jefimov, J. G.
Poljakov, B. M. urbanov, Theoretical basis of the
exploitation of marine diesel engines (translated
from Russian ) SSNO , Belgrade, 1973.
[2] A. F. Molland_ S. R. Turnock, D. A. Hudson, Ship
resistance and propulsion _ practical estimation of
ship propulsive power-Cambridge University Press
(2011).
[3] B. Bilen, Z. Nikoli, Z. ovagovi, D. Bulovan,
Improvement of the driving characteristics of the
ships with electrical transmission, Institute of
Technical Sciences SANU, Belgrade.
[4] HBM - An Introduction to Measurements using
Strain Gages.
[5] Instructions for measuring the torque on the propeller
shaft of the ship, TOC, C.33.003.
[6] The results of the test vessel, Handover record, the
Ministry of Defence , Belgrade 2012.
[7] J. Dautovi, Diesel electric drive of river military
ships as a method of improving ship maneuvering
characteristics, PhD thesis, Belgrade 2016.
[8] D. Vueti, I. Vlahini, The impact of the serial
inductance to reduce harmonic distortion of power
line commutated inverter electric propulsion system
of the ship , Maritime. god 19. 2005, p. 65-75.

Figure 8. Diagram power to the propeller shaft,

calculated on the basis of the measured torque P and
power calculated on the basis of the propeller
characteristic , as a function of the propeller speed

5. CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that for the proper functioning of the
ship drive system it is important to match the propeller
revolution speed with torque and power of the drive
engine. The propeller pitch determines propeller
revolution speed and also engine revolution speed.
According to this, the propeller (pitch and rpm) must be
designed to be matched with the drive engine.
In the case of ship "Kozara" modernization is shown the
way of drive engine type changing and retain the old
propellers. Drive engine calculating power method is also
shown and acc. to this electric motor type is chosen.
In order to check the accuracy drive engines selection
during the ship trial shaft torque measurement was
performed. Based on the results of torque measurements
electric engine power delivered to the propeller was
calculated.
Based on the shaft torque (power) measurement results on
the ship "Kozara" it can be concluded the following:

181