The publication reports on a study of blockchain in the maritime sector with a focus on three value chains, namely container transport, fishing and processing of fish and shellfish, and plastic recycling. The publication describes different ways of using blockchain in the form of different types of companies, and with this as a starting point, the publication discusses the prerequisites for blockchain to be used in the analyzed value chains.
Unmanned autonomous cargo ships may change the maritime industry, but there are issues regarding reliability and maintenance of machinery equipment that are yet to be solved. This article examines the applicability of the Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) method for assessing maintenance needs and reliability issues on unmanned cargo ships. The analysis shows that the RCM method is generally applicable to the examination of reliability and maintenance issues on unmanned ships, but there are also important limitations. The RCM method lacks a systematic process for evaluating the effects of preventive versus corrective maintenance measures. The method also lacks a procedure to ensure that the effect of the length of the unmanned voyage in the development of potential failures in machinery systems is included. Amendments to the RCM method are proposed to address these limitations, and the amended method is used to analyse a machinery system for two operational situations: one where the vessel is conventionally manned and one where it is unmanned. There are minor differences in the probability of failures between manned and unmanned operation, but the major challenge relating to risk and reliability of unmanned cargo ships is the severely restricted possibilities for performing corrective maintenance actions at sea.
This study proposes a new application for delay-dependent stability analysis of a shipboard microgrid system. Gain and phase margin values are taken into consideration in delay dependent stability analysis. Since such systems are prone to unwanted frequency oscillations against load disturbances and randomness of renewable resources, a virtual gain and phase margin tester has been incorporated into the system to achieve the desired stabilization specification. In this way, it is considered that the system provides the desired dynamic characteristics (e.g. less oscillation, early damping, etc.) in determining the time delay margin. Firstly, the time delay margin values are obtained and their accuracy in the terms of desired gain and phase margin values are investigated. Then, the accuracy of the time delay margin values obtained by using the real data of renewable energy sources and loads in the shipboard microgrid system is shown in the study. Finally, a real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation based on OPAL-RT is accomplished to affirm the applicability of the suggested method, from a systemic perspective, for the load frequency control problem in the shipboard microgrid.
While European policies have progressed towards an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM), limited attention has been paid to the implications for its advisory system. This paper analyzes the advisory landscape in the European Union (EU) by addressing two questions: to what extent can the needed advice be provided? how prepared is the management system to integrate ecosystem advice? We provide a systematic analysis of the relevant advisory bodies, explore gaps related to the requested and delivered advice, and identify paths for improvement. The findings confirm earlier observations of lack of a formalized process to provide and integrate advice in support of an ecosystem approach into EU fisheries management. Instead of enabling existing capacities to embed ecosystem components (eg investments and initiatives made by stakeholders (and authorities) to move to EAFM -pushing strategies), the system relies heavily on mandatory requests from policy makers (pulling mechanisms). Furthermore, social and economic dimensions are the weakest aspects in the advisory process, which hampers the balancing of objectives that represent one of the hallmarks of EAFM. The policy framework has adopted EAFM for European fisheries, but the advisory processes have not yet been adapted to substantially support EAFM.
A conceptual design framework for collision and grounding analysis is proposed to evaluate the crashworthiness of double-hull structures. This work attempts to simplify the input parameters needed for the analysis, which can be considered as a step towards a design-oriented procedure against collision and grounding. Four typical collision and grounding scenarios are considered: (1) side structure struck by a bulbous bow, (2) side structure struck by a straight bow, (3) bottom raking, (4) bottom stranding. The analyses of these scenarios are based on statistical data of striking ship dimensions, velocities, collision angles and locations, as well as seabed shapes and sizes, grounding depth and location. The evaluation of the damage extent considers the 50- and 90-percentile values from the statistics of collision and grounding accidents. The external dynamics and internal mechanics are combined to analyse systematically the ship structural damage and energy absorption under accidental loadings.
Autonomous systems strive to obtain salient features that include computer intelligence for obtaining situation awareness, decision support to a human navigator, or for facilitating autonomous decision-making in unmanned vehicles. This paper considers the case of autonomous marine surface vehicles, where high-quality decision support will be instrumental for obtaining a periodically unattended bridge and for approval of unmanned bridge operation with fallback through remote operation. The proposed design focuses on a sovereign-based architecture that facilitates safety, resilience and cyber-security. We address central elements of risk in the development and approval of autonomous systems; we analyze the challenges associated with testing, commissioning and maintenance of a highly complex cyber-physical system, and describe design principles for the sovereign agents architecture.
This paper studies real-time deterministic prediction of wave-induced ship motions using the autocorrelation functions (ACFs) from short-time measurements, namely the instantaneous ACFs. The Prolate Spheroidal Wave Functions (PSWF) are introduced to correct the large lag time errors in the instantaneous sample ACF, together with a modification of the autocorrelation (AC) matrix for ensuring its positive definiteness. The validity of the PSWF-based ACFs is first examined by using the ship motion measurements from model experiment under stationary wave excitations. It is shown that the use of PSWFbased ACFs leads to better prediction accuracy than direct use of sample ACFs. The validation is then extended to ship motion prediction using in-service data from a container ship, and an improvement of the prediction accuracy by PSWF-based ACFs is again found. Finally, the effectiveness of use of the instantaneous ACFs for non-stationary wave-induced responses is highlighted by comparing with the prediction results based on the ACFs from long-time measurements.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the impact assessment of a mandatory operational goal-based short-term measure to reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions from ships. The specific measure has been proposed by Denmark and other co-sponsors in the context of the relevant discussion at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and in particular the so-called Initial IMO Strategy. The IMO is a specialized United Nations agency that regulates shipping. The Initial IMO Strategy, adopted in 2018, has been the most recent major international environmental agreement on how to reduce GHG emissions from ships at a global level. The central research question in this paper is to ascertain the potential impacts of the aforementioned measure to least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS). There are concerns that such states may be negatively impacted, or even disproportionately negatively impacted, by whatever measure is decided by the IMO. After gaps in the literature and data are identified, our methodology develops a list of potential negative impacts, and looks at a set of factors that may influence these impacts. Then, we discuss how the goal-based measure may impact LDCs/SIDs as regards each of the identified negative impacts. The analysis argues that for LDCs and SIDS a risk for negative and disproportionately negative impacts exists. The only negative impact of which both the probability and the consequence are considered high is the difficulty to finance retrofitting of old ships or investment in new ships. As such, this is likely a disproportionally negative impact. At the same time, the degree of share (or responsibility) of the goal-based measure with respect to such potential negative impacts, vis-à-vis the share of other factors contributing to these impacts, cannot be precisely ascertained, even though we conjecture this share to be low.
The shipping industry is associated with approximately three quarters of all world trade. In recent years, the sustainability of shipping has become a public concern, and various emissions control regulations to reduce pollutants and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from ships have been proposed and implemented globally. These regulations aim to drive the shipping industry in a low-carbon and low-pollutant direction by motivating it to switch to more efficient fuel types and reduce energy consumption. At the same time, the cyclical downturn of the world economy and high bunker prices make it necessary and urgent for the shipping industry to operate in a more costeffective way while still satisfying global trade demand. As bunker fuel bunker (e.g., heavy fuel oil (HFO), liquified natural gas (LNG)) consumption is the main source of emissions and bunker fuel costs account for a large proportion of operating costs, shipping companies are making unprecedented efforts to optimize ship energy efficiency. It is widely accepted that the key to improving the energy efficiency of ships is the development of accurate models to predict ship fuel consumption rates under different scenarios. In this study, the ship fuel consumption prediction models presented in the literature (including the academic literature and technical reports, which are a typical type of “grey literature”) are reviewed and compared, and models that optimize ship operations based on fuel consumption prediction results are also presented and discussed. Current research challenges and promising research questions on ship performance monitoring and operational optimization are identified.
Wind-assisted ship propulsion (WASP) technology seems to be a promising solution toward accelerating the shipping industry’s decarbonization efforts as it uses wind to replace part of the propulsive power generated from fossil fuels. This article discusses the status quo of the WASP technological growth within the maritime transport sector by means of a secondary data review analysis, presents the potential fuel-saving implications, and identifies key factors that shape the operational efficiency of the technology. The analysis reveals three key considerations. Firstly, despite the existing limited number of WASP installations, there is a promising trend of diffusion of the technology within the industry. Secondly, companies can achieve fuel savings, which vary depending on the technology installed. Thirdly, these bunker savings are influenced by environmental, on-board, and commercial factors, which presents both opportunities and challenges to decision makers.