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MACSEA Ltd., the marine technology company, has introduced Hull Medic, a monitoring service designed to provide ship owners with an independent, scientific assessment of coatings performance.
PC-based Hull Medic uses automatic onboard data acquisition to gather salient ship performance data and transmit it ashore for detailed analysis. Hull Medic typically reviews hundreds of thousands of a ship's data records per month, providing accurate statistical analysis for earlier detection of hull fouling, the supplier says.
The goal is to provide data that detect hull fouling as early as possible, to support decisions on coating systems and hull cleaning intervals, according to MACSEA.
Features and Capabilities
According to MACSEA, the system:
• Calculates speed, power and fuel losses due to hull fouling;
• Provides automated ship performance data collection;
• Transforms the propeller into a performance monitoring tool;
• Eliminates data scatter with advanced database filtering ; and
• Produces easy-to-understand management reports.
The system can be used to:
• Evaluate the effectiveness of alternate paint systems;
• Determine optimal hull and propeller maintenance schedules; and
• Validate energy-saving technologies related to ship performance.
The system can thus reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining ship service speeds, according to the manufacturer.
How It Works
Hull Medic calibrates each ship's propeller as a power absorption dynamometer, using propeller characteristics and "clean hull" ship performance data. The calibration establishes the unique relationship between speed, propeller rpm, and shaft power for each vessel.
The propeller model calibration is performed empirically from ship performance data collected immediately after hull conditioning in drydock and during periods of calm weather.
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MACSEA Ltd. |
| Hull Medic is an onboard data acquisition system and shore-based analysis service designed to detect hull fouling. |
The resulting model is then used to track power increases over time through continuous comparison to the “clean hull” model. The difference between measured and model-derived power will grow with the onset of hull fouling. The extra power consumed by the ship is then converted into extra fuel cost based on the ship’s speed profile and consumption characteristics. A similar derivation for speed loss is also performed, and timely performance reports are provided to shipping management.
The technique works for ships with single, double, fixed, or variable pitched propellers.
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| Typical Hull Medic Speed Loss Graph |
MACSEA says the system uses advanced statistical and database techniques to eliminate the scatter that is typical of most ship performance data.
Founded in 1982, Stonington, CT-based MACSEA provides ship health monitoring solutions to the Naval and global shipping markets.
More information: www.macsea.com.
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