China’s Intelligent Workhorse of the Seas

A comprehensive approach to ‘smart’ ship technology has been adopted by Chinese shipbuilding industry in a recently delivered handysize bulker, writes David Tinsley.

China’s determination to be a front runner in the production and operation of ‘smart’ ships has crystallised in the commissioning of the handysize bulk carrier Great Intelligence.

In construction, hull form, configuration and powering, the 38,800dwt newbuild delivered by Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard is a further example of the energy efficient Green Dolphin 38 design, which has generated multiple, mainly export orders across the Chinese shipbuilding industry.

The difference with the Great Intelligence, making the project a landmark for all concerned, is the extent to which the vessel incorporates and integrates cyber technology, with the associated endorsements by the classification sector.

Instigated in 2015, China’s intelligent ship project was prompted by concerns over the competitive threat posed by smart ship technology initiatives in Europe and Japan. The pilot scheme using a handysize bulker platform was launched under the Innovation Plan of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), the state-backed southern Chinese conglomerate, with the project steered by Shanghai Ship Design & Research Institute (SDARI).

The adaptation of the Green Dolphin design as a ‘smart’ handysize unit was conducted by SDARI in collaboration with CSSC’s System Engineering Research Institute (SERI) and classification bodies Lloyd’s Register (LR) and China Classification Society (CCS). The vessel has entered service in Asia Pacific trade under lease to shipping and logistics group Sinotrans, but the CSSC lettering along both sides of the hull identifies the shipbuilding group as the project’s motivator.

As a mark of the advance of shipboard digital technologies, Great Intelligence has been assigned LR’s cyber-enabled ship (CES) descriptive notes Cyber AL2 Safe, Cyber AL2 Maintain, and Cyber AL2 Perform. Overall, these embrace the navigation system, main and auxiliary machinery, and energy management. In addition, the intelligent ship notation figures among the array of CCS class descriptions conferred on the vessel.

SMART MILESTONE

LR has been in the vanguard of the development of guidance and notations of cyber-enabled vessels, or ‘smart’ ships. The society regards the project as “another step forward in our digital journey as an industry as well as a milestone for smart shipping in China”.

Huangpu Wenchong has indicated that Great Intelligence denotes the start of the yard’s smart ship developmental journey, rather than ranking purely as a one-off project. Although based on an existing, well-proven design, the newbuild was conceived from the outset with digitalisation as the central, integrated theme, rather than simply as a standard vessel with ‘add on’ smart systems, so as to optimise whole-ship performance. Significantly, through the application of artificial intelligence (AI) software, the vessel’s systems can continually ‘learn’ from historical data and forecast future anomalies or variations from the norm, generating solutions before issues arise.

The categorisation as a ‘smart ship’, though, does not imply an autonomous vessel, although autonomy is the ultimate objective of the Chinese partners as it is of their industrial counterparts and shipboard system vendors around the world. Increased safety, economy and efficiency are the oft-stated goals.

In the pilot application, the advanced systems embedded in Great Intelligence are intended to provide real-time data, advisory and decision support services for the crew, rather than to displace personnel and dispense with human control and intervention. Clearly, though, the development constitutes a major step in the digital revolution at sea and in the roll-out of autonomous ship technology, which must ultimately bring fundamental changes in operating and manning arrangements.

A defining element of Great Intelligence is the Ship Operation and Management System (SOMS), which utilises advanced sensor technology to build the vessel’s network. Developed by CSSC-SERI with support from LR, SOMS embraces energy efficiency management, equipment health management, and an intelligent integration platform. The latter is the core of the smart ship intelligence, integrating data from the energy efficiency and health management systems. The platform provides the functions of data management, analysis and forecasting, providing user support, and features machine-learning capabilities. The vessel will, in effect, become ‘smarter’ as it accumulates more data.

INTELLIGENT NAVIGATION

The ship’s intelligent navigation system (INS) collects real-time data from the vessel and from shore-based service stations, conducting analysis against baseline voyage information in order to identify opportunities for route optimisation, such as making route alterations to avoid adverse meteorological conditions. It also provides smart functions such as route optimisation to reach the destination in the shortest time possible with minimise fuel consumption. Nonetheless, the INS is intended to augment, and not to replace existing vessel systems, or abrogate the duties or actions of the bridge crew.

LR’s guidance and assessments in the sphere of cyber-enabled shipping is distinguished by a non-prescriptive approach, which accords more case-by-case flexibility and which acknowledges the rapid advance of cyber technology and marketisation and sophistication of shipboard systems.

Formal presentation of the LR cyber-enabled ship descriptive notes in December last year had been preceded by the society’s issue in September of the first type approval procedure for cyber-enabled components. The initiative promises a faster and easier classification process for shipboard cyber systems where these include type approved products.

The introduction of the TA procedure denotes a critical point in the evolution and implementation of ‘smart’ technology in the marine and offshore industries. It delivers an assurance system to provide confidence among shipyards and designers in the supply of cyber-enabled components. Manufacturers of components will be able to demonstrate that a product meets LR’s requirements and can be differentiated from other manufacturers’ products.

Great Intelligence has been phased into trade between Australia, China and South East Asia, primarily transporting coal and salt, as part of the 100-strong fleet of owned, managed and chartered vessels operated by Hong Kong-listed Sinotrans. Bulkers and containerships form core activities of the company, which is part of the state-owned China Merchants Group. The ‘smart’ entrant is one of six handysize bulkers figuring in its current investment programme.

The design embodies five holds, accessed through hatchways extending across 27m of the ship’s 32m width in the case of Nos 2 to 5 holds, narrowing to 20.8m breadth for No1 hatch forward. Double-skin, folding-type hatch covers are used throughout, and continuous hatch coamings extend from the forward end of No2 to the aft end of No5 hatch. Four deck cranes of 30t lift capacity, mounted on high stools along the vessel’s centreline, plumb the underdeck spaces and serve weatherdeck-borne cargo. The adoption of variable-frequency drives yields a high level of efficiency and controllability.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

The relationship between the cargo deadweight and 50,000m³-plus cubic capacity, in combination with the fuel efficiency conferred by the two-stroke propulsion machinery and optimised hull lines, afford competitive advantage over older tonnage in the handysize market.

Great Intelligence is powered by a five-cylinder W5X52 two-stroke engine produced in China under licence from Winterthur Gas & Diesel (WinGD) and specified at the R2 maximum continuous rating (MCR) of 6,800kW at 105rpm. The continuous service rating (CSR) of 4,760kW at 93.2rpm appears modest in relation to the vessel’s size and deadweight, but typifies such installations in the latest bulkers embodying more refined hull forms, resulting in lower fuel consumption. The ship’s service speed is approximately 14 knots, competitively sufficient in the bulk cargo ocean transportation.

The many Green Dolphin 38-class bulkers delivered from Chinese yards to date have main machinery of either the MAN or Wärtsilä low-speed marque, the latter having now been absorbed into the WinGD portfolio. Initially, the Wärtsilä engine of choice was the 5RT-flex50D series, of slightly smaller bore and power compared to the W5X52, a mid-range X-Generation unit developed by WinGD.

The auxiliary outfit is based on three aggregates each turning out 600kW at 720rpm. The self-sustaining nature of the bulker imposes a higher electrical load than that of a gearless equivalent.

Over the past two years, Sinotrans has implemented a number of projects that express its drive for increased energy efficiency. Following evaluation by the company’s technical department of the vortex fins jointly developed by Wartsila and SDARI , a number of its vessels have been retrofitted with the aft-end device. In the case of a 176,000dwt bulker, it is reported that this has led to fuel savings in the range of 3%-5%.

By the end of 2016, all self-owned vessels in the fleet had been fitted with boiler soot blowers, aimed at improving the efficiency of the exhaust gas economiser when sailing at low speed. Furthermore, the main engines in a series of 93,000dwt bulkers have had the mechanical lubricating oil injectors replaced by electrical injectors, resulting in feed rates of cylinder oil being cut from 1.2-1.5g/kWh to 0.8-.09g/kWh.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Sinotrans has also conducted a case study for a newbuild 64,000dwt bulker incorporating a raft of advances and new methodologies. As a derivative of a 57,000dwt SDARI design, the larger type’s optimised hull form makes for lower resistance, and the normal continuous rating (NCR) of the main engine is reduced to 6,843kW from the 8,964kW required by the 57,000dwt bulker. Moreover, the 64,000dwt vessel has a design speed of 14.4 knots, slightly faster by 0.2 knots than the earlier type.

A further stage in Chinese shipbuilding’s increased technological underpinning of its productive capabilities is signified by the scheme for a ‘smart’ crude oil carrier. Under a project entitled Smart Ship 1.0 R&D, assigned by the Ministry of Industry & Information Technology, Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Corp (DSIC) is to develop an ‘intelligent’ crude oil tanker. The aim is to have the vessel in service by 2021. DSIC is the country’s pre-eminent designer and producer of VLCC tonnage.

PRINCIPAL PARTICULARS—GREAT INTELLIGENCE

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Source: The Motorship

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