In defence of IPS

摘要

Several articles have been published recently discussing the introduction and implementation of electric ship propulsion throughout the twentieth century. These generally cite applications where electric drive was initially used for ships whose powering requirements exceeded gear capabilities during the early part of the century, to wartime needs during World War Ⅱ when is was used to augment gear production capacities that were inadequate to support the numbers of naval ships being produced, to studies during the latter years of arrangement flexibility to accommodate unique hull forms. Although diesel electric propulsion was being implemented in a number of commercial applications, attempts to introduce the technology to gas turbine driven naval ships was always rejected for reasons of increased weight, decreased efficiency and/or increased cost. The most noteworthy US Navy attempts were an electric cross-connect capability for the DD963 class and full electric propulsion for the DDG(X), which was the precursor to the Arleigh Burke DDG-51 Class of destroyers. The Royal Navy, however, did introduce diesel electric propulsion for quiet cruise conditions on the Type-23 Frigate and this has proven to be very successful. A breakthrough late in the century that transformed the whole picture was the Integrated Power System (IPS).