Wind Propulsion of Merchant Ships

摘要

The importance of wind propulsion for merchant ships has increased considerably in recent years. Within a short period of time a rather large number of publications has appeared. The 'Symposium on Wind Propulsion of Commercial Ships' organized by the Royal Institution of Naval Architects in 1980 at London has realized a very large degree of international participation. Seven lectures were presented on various facets of wind propulsion. An analysis of a combination of motor and wind propulsion of ships will determine whether or not such use of wind propulsion is practicable. The attractive feature of wind propulsion is the potential savings in fuel and energy costs. In this report no attention has been directed to the so called wind turbine ships and other possible unconventional forms of wind propulsion. The commercial application does not appear to be possible for this in the near future, so that only the more concrete modern application of sail propulsion is considered.