Interaction Between Ship Propulsion Plant Automation and Simulation

ABSTRACT: This paper describes a first approach of interaction between simulation and propulsion plant automation in order to validate and calibrate ship propulsion simulation models. Simulation is a powerful design tool that can give the designer insight into the expected performance of the system and is nowadays widely used also in propulsion ship design. The validation of a simulation model is a matter of open discussion. Authors’ approach consists of measuring field data during normal ship operations and compare them with simulation results. The availability of field data, useful to test the simulation model, is not common in marine field. The idea of the authors is to link and integrate the ship automation system and the simulation tool. The link and integration process is thought to be realized into four steps. The application presented in this paper concerns a small naval vessel, a corvette of 1500 ton displacement.