Coupled engine-propeller selection procedure to minimize fuel consumption at a specified speed

This study presents a practical optimization procedure that couples the NavCad power prediction tool and a nonlinear optimizer integrated into the Matlab environment. This developed model aims at selecting a propeller at the engine operating point with minimum fuel consumption for different ship speeds in calm water condition. The procedure takes into account both the efficiency of the propeller and the specific fuel consumption of the engine. It is focused on reducing fuel consumption for the expected operational profile of the ship, contributing to energy efficiency in a complementary way as ship routing does. This model assists the ship and propeller designers in selecting the main parameters of the geometry, the operating point of a fixed-pitch propeller from Wageningen B-series and to define the gearbox ratio by minimizing the fuel consumption of a container ship, rather than only maximizing the propeller efficiency. Optimized results of the performance of several marine propellers with different number of blades working at different cruising speeds are also presented for comparison, while verifying the strength, cavitation and noise issues for each simulated case.