Real Time Simulation of the Propulsion Plant Dynamic Behaviour of the Aircraft Carrier 'Cavour'

摘要

Design and optimisation of the propulsion system is a crucial task of the ship design. In fact the behaviour of the propulsion system is a key aspect of the global behaviour of a ship, mainly if the ship is a naval vessel. Marine propulsion simulation systems can be used to predict the propulsion plant behaviour during critical situations and during normal working condition variations. Different operational speeds, acceleration, deceleration, crash stop, heavy turning and faults are some examples of transient situation that a propulsion system has to sustain without reducing the ship safety and reliability. Generally the ship has to demonstrate the ability to perform some of the above mentioned manoeuvres by sea trials, which are costly and time consuming. In this paper the rapid prototyping and testing procedure for the development of the propulsion controller of the new Italian Aircraft Carrier "Cavour", using real-time hardware-in-the-loop (RT HIL) simulation, is presented. The application of the procedure led to a significant reduction in the setting time and in the time spent to tune the control system during the ship delivery sea trials.