On the economic efficiency of the use of boiler turbine ships
The ship is designed for warfare at sea and is a complex engineering structure, which, carrying weapon and all the goods necessary to fulfill the tasks, depending on the tasks assigned to it, is capable of floating above water, on water and under water. The ship is a naval combat unit fleet. The ship’s weapons and equipment must function reliably in a marine environment. A ship is an engineering structure of a special kind, since it must have the ability to move, which is provided through the use of the main power plant (GEM).
Today, surface ships of the Navy of various countries are equipped with boiler-turbine, diesel, gas-turbine, diesel-gas-turbine, diesel-electric and nuclear power plants. Each power plant has its own characteristics of operation, advantages and disadvantages. Some are simpler in design and operation, have smaller mass and dimensions, are quickly prepared for work and put into operation, but they use expensive fuel. Others are more complex, have large weight and size characteristics, are longer prepared for work and put into operation, but they are simple to operate and operate on cheaper fuel.
Russia is a great maritime power and has its own internationally recognized schools of shipbuilding and marine engine, boiler and turbine construction. In the Concept of Qualitative and Quantitative Reformation of the Navy of the Russian Federation (Navy of the Russian Federation), priority is given to the construction of ships equipped with diesel, gas turbine, diesel gas turbine and nuclear power plants, while the construction of ships with KHPPs was practically abandoned. The majority of boiler-turbine ships were withdrawn from the fleet and subsequently decommissioned, which entailed a reduction in the specialty of military mechanical engineers of KTEU in the naval engineering university.
Today, ships with KTEU as part of the Russian Navy can be counted on the fingers. The decision to refuse KTEU or not is correctly made, time will tell.
At the end of the XVIII century, to ensure the movement of ships began to be equipped with steam boilers and steam engines that make up the steam power plant (PSU). As fuel for boilers, first firewood was used, and then coal. Since 1788, the world's first ship with CSP began to operate in the United States, after which all ships using steam became known as steamboats. Almost all watercraft from small boats to battleships were equipped with steam-powered installations at that time. After the invention of marine fuel tanks (the so-called Fram tanks) and fuel equipment, marine fuel oil began to be used as PSU marine fuel at the beginning of the XNUMXth century, at the same time steam engines began to be replaced with steam turbines, and the main power plant of the ships was called steam turbine (PTEU) . The emergence of a new power plant required the training of new technicians, later called mechanical engineers of steam-powered plants (CCP).
The steam-powered installation was used on ships and ships until the end of the 1970s, and the steam turbine, later called the boiler turbine, is still used, it is equipped, as a rule, with large displacement ships: aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers.
Since 1893, the steam engine of a steam-powered power plant became the prototype of all internal combustion engines, which from the beginning of the XX century began to equip ships.
The operating experience of boiler and turbine and diesel power plants showed that the former have a low efficiency, include a large number of complex mechanisms that occupy significant ship areas and volumes, and the latter are limited in power, complex in construction, heavy and require high-quality fuel for operation.
In the last quarter of the XNUMXth century, gas turbines were invented almost simultaneously with diesel engines, the prototype of which were steam turbines, but gas turbine installations were widely used on ships and ships only from the second half of the XNUMXth century after the development of reliable heat-resistant structural materials.
In the mid-1970s, surface ships began to be equipped with nuclear power plants (AEU) after they were tested in submarines. AEU is also a steam turbine installation in which a nuclear reactor with a steam generator is used instead of a boiler to generate steam.
In addition to these power plants, the ships were equipped with combined power plants, for example, diesel-steam-turbine (in Kriegsmarine, Navy of Nazi Germany. - Approx. Aut.), And are still equipped with diesel-gas-turbine and diesel-electric power plants.
The quality and perfection of any type of weapon and military equipment, as you know, is tested by war. This axiom is fully applicable to ship power plants.
Since the boiler-turbine plant was the first power plant to be equipped with ships, it passed the test of two world and several local wars and showed its high quality and reliability. At the same time, the diesel power plant (DEU) was tested by one world war and local maritime conflicts, and the gas turbine (GTEU) - only by local wars, for example, the war between Argentina and Great Britain over the Falkland (English) or Malvinas (Spanish) islands in 1982 year.
Experience in operating various types of power plants in real conditions in different climatic zones has shown that KTEU is most effectively used on ships of large displacement not lower than the destroyer and consumes relatively inexpensive oil fuel. At the same time, the operation of ships with DEU and GTEU requires a significant amount of high-quality light oil fuel. In addition, the experience of war and military conflicts showed that the use of diesel and gas turbine ships in the Arctic theater of operations in winter is possible only when they are refueled by the more expensive type of diesel fuel - the Arctic (DT A). The deterioration of the quality characteristics of light fuels (for example, tarring, watering, etc.) in ship conditions, as is known, in all cases leads to equipment failures, power failure to the ship and loss of course. Ships whose installations consume light grades of fuels have a higher likelihood of explosions and fires during combat and emergency damage. Repair of diesel and gas turbine ships in war conditions is more lengthy, including due to the high explosive fire hazard of the fuel and the need for its complete discharge, and then acceptance into the tanks for a full supply. In addition, many types of repairs on diesel and gas turbine ships should be carried out exclusively by highly qualified specialists in the manufacturers of technical equipment.
A boiler turbine installation eliminates many of the disadvantages inherent in DEU and GTEU. So, KTEU uses dark types of oil products - naval fuel oil and the deterioration of its quality does not significantly affect the operation of the installation, in particular, the operation of steam boilers. Power plants of boiler-turbine ships are more maintainable, which is important in extreme conditions and long separation from bases.
In addition, the experience of many wars has shown that, in the absence of oil fuel on a boiler turbine ship, a minimum course can be achieved by burning emergency wood, wooden objects, and other combustible items collected both on the ship and at sea in boilers.
Along with the combat experience in using various power plants (EA), sufficient experience has been gained in their operation on long long voyages in peacetime, which has shown the high survivability of a boiler turbine unit in case of emergency failures of its individual elements. So, a boiler turbine plant is able to provide the ship's progress without disrupting the functioning of the propulsive complex of the ship even when only one boiler is operating. At the same time, the operation of one engine on ships with DEU and GTEU can lead to disruption of the propulsion system and intense work of the main thrust bearing. In addition, the reliable operation of the diesel and gas turbine units depends to a large extent on the parameters of the ship's power supply than the operation of the boiler turbine unit.
High survivability, the ability to make progress with a minimum number of working mechanisms, good maintainability and a small dependence on the parameters of ship power supply are important factors for the functioning of a boiler turbine unit during long-term autonomous navigation of a ship in remote areas of the oceans in the absence of naval bases.
Evaluation of the military-economic efficiency of using ships is most relevant for peacetime, when ships are not used for their intended purpose, and at the same time require significant costs for their maintenance, training and crew training, target shooting and long-distance trips.
It is known that up to 70% of the cost of operating any ship is spent on fuel.
For an example, we compare the economic costs of marine fuel to ensure full speed operation of boiler-turbine ships of the Kronstadt type and gas-turbine ships of the Nikolaev type for an hour. It is known that a boiler-turbine ship uses naval fuel oil F-5, and gas-turbine one uses diesel fuel DT, respectively. The choice of these ships is not random, since the assessment can be correct and objective only if the ships have the same purpose and approximately the same tactical and technical characteristics. It should be noted that all ships of the Kronstadt and Nikolaev type have already been decommissioned from the Russian Navy for scrap.
The performance characteristics (TTX) of the large anti-submarine ships (BOD) "Kronstadt" and "Nikolaev" and their power plants
TTX BPK "Kronstadt" / BPK "Nikolaev":
- type of power plant: KTEU GTEU;
- total displacement: ~ 7.600 t / ~ 7.000 t;
- power rating of the power plant: 90.000 hp / 84.000 hp;
- full supply of fuel on the ship (type of fuel): 1.950 tons (fuel oil F-5) / 1.800 (DT);
- full speed: 33 knots / 32 knots;
- specific fuel consumption: 0,36 kg / hp. hour / 0,25 kg / hp hour;
- cruising range (at 18 knots): 5.200 miles / 6.500 miles;
- the average cost of fuel in July 2019 prices: 24.000 rubles / t / 42.000 rubles / t.
Multiplying the nominal power of the power plant by the specific fuel consumption and the cost of one ton of fuel, we get the financial costs of fuel to ensure full speed operation of the Kronstadt type ships and the Nikolaev type ships for one hour, which respectively amount to 777.600 rubles / hour and 882.000 rubles per hour. This means that the cost of fuel (naval fuel oil) for ensuring the long course (sailing) of the Kronstadt BPC will be significantly less than the similar costs (for diesel fuel) for the BPC Nikolaev.
The same economic calculations can be carried out for a ship with a DEU, but it is obvious that they will also exceed the fuel costs of a working boiler turbine plant.
Indeed, the operation of boiler-turbine ships is cheaper, as evidenced by their use (navigation) during the long-term parking of diesel and gas-turbine ships in their bases almost all the 1990s due to the high cost or lack of diesel fuel.
An important factor determining the life cycle of any ship is the quality and timing of the process of restoring its combat and operational properties, called repair. Unfortunately, the collapse of the USSR and the disruption of economic ties between the republics of the once united country had a negative impact not only on the construction process, but also on the process of repairing ship power plants. So, the Southern Turbine Plant (UTZ) in Nikolaev, which was the leading enterprise in the USSR for the production and repair of ship gas turbine engines, is now located outside of Russia, for this reason repair of ship gas turbine engines requires large financial costs, including currency. This means that today repairing a ship with a gas turbine installation is much more expensive than repairing boiler and turbine and diesel ships. In addition, the period of direct use of diesel and gas turbine ships is determined by the time of the motor resources of their main engines. According to the established order, the engine life of the main ship engines is extended by the fleet command based on the conclusion of the manufacturer’s specialists on the possibility of further operation of the engines. When working out motor resources, access to the sea of ships is forbidden, as you know, and they stand idle in the bases for a longer time, which more recently was observed on almost all fleets of the Russian Federation with Soviet-built ships.
Each historical the period poses its tasks to the navy, which require the mandatory improvement of the combat and operational properties of the ship as a whole and its individual subsystems, including the power plant. New tasks also impose more stringent requirements on ships and their power plants. It becomes obvious that when deciding to equip the designed ship with one or another type of power plant, it is first necessary to take into account the operational experience acquired by the power plant and the ability of the selected type of power plant to be further improved in order to increase the efficiency of the ship.
To increase the efficiency of the use of ships, one or several elements of their power plant can be improved. The authors are convinced that today it is possible, for example, to reduce the fuel component of the cost of maintaining ships equipped with all types of power plants using oil fuel. The reduction of the fuel component can be achieved in the following areas:
- reduction of fuel consumption per unit weight of EU, for example, by introducing new structural materials on main engines and boilers;
- reduction of specific fuel consumption due to the improvement of fuel equipment and the intensification of the fuel combustion process;
- elimination of the “dead” fuel reserve in consumable tanks and the “minimum” reserve in the fuel system elements of engines and boilers;
- expanding the range of types of oil fuel used in EU;
- reduction of fuel losses, for example, from evaporation;
- preservation of qualitative and quantitative indicators of fuel during its storage in a ship, etc.
It should be noted that a decrease in the fuel component due to an increase in the efficiency of use of marine fuel in all cases leads, including to an increase in the environmental cleanliness and secrecy of the ship as a whole.
It is obvious that the boiler’s boiler turbine power plant, tested by wars and campaigns, has prospects, and most importantly, reserves for its further development, modernization and improvement, which is why it is premature to abandon this type of power plant. At the same time, today it is necessary to improve all other types of power plants in the direction of increasing their functioning efficiency taking into account world experience.
- Ph.D. Igor Dubrovin, Ph.D. Yevgeny Dubrovin
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