Materials for Seawater Systems in New Construction Ships

摘要

With the advent of large modern sophisticated high-powered ships, it becomes economically justifiable to incorporate sophisticated materials in salt water circulating systems in an effort to obtain increased reliability. Maximum operational availability and minimum down time of ships an the guiding factors for ship designers. In the case of new construction ships, these factors should be considered at the design stage itself. Many of the problems that have subsequently developed appear to be associated with errors in the design of minor details, material selection and the method of installing the pipes, fittings and components that comprise a system. It is of utmost importance to select the most suitable material and to take care with regard to design, fabrication and installation, to ensure that these materials perform satisfactorily. The criteria like the effect of corrosion, operating condition, type of fluid, velocity of the fluid, temperature, bio-fouling etc are required to be looked into while selecting the system pipes and valve material. This paper aims at carrying out a detailed study of the seawater systems and valves and selection of material as regards their reliability, failure rate and increasing the mean time between the failures and thereby the operational availability.