Effect of Hull and Propeller Roughness during the Assessment of Ship Fuel Consumption

The effects of hull and propeller roughness are presented over ten years of operation on ship performance. The developed model used in this study is a combination of NavCad and Matlab to perform the resistance and propulsion computations of the selected ship as well as the processing of input and output data. By considering the ship hull, the engine installed and an optimized propeller, the ship performance is computed for a different combination of hull and propeller roughness according to the ITTC recommendations and the opinion of experts in the marine field. Twelve cases are simulated over the selected years of operations and compared to the new ship performance. The hull roughness has the dominant effect on the performance of the ship due to its large area. However, by adding the effect of propeller roughness, an increment is noticed in the loading ratio and fuel consumption by 1-4% and 2-4%, respectively, in addition to the hull roughness. From this study, it is concluded that the roughness of both the hull and propeller is important consider to achieve more accurate results than just considering the hull roughness.

Automated summary

The study investigates the effects of hull and propeller roughness on ship performance using a combined NavCad and Matlab model. Different combinations of hull and propeller roughness are considered based on ITTC recommendations and expert opinions. The dominant effect is found to be the hull roughness due to its large area, but adding the effect of propeller roughness leads to 1-4% increase in loading ratio and 2-4% increase in fuel consumption. It is concluded that considering both hull and propeller roughness is important for more accurate results compared to considering hull roughness alone.