Performance Analysis of a Hardware in the Loop Based Emulation of a Naval Propulsion System Associated with Supercapacitor Energy Storage

Electric autonomy, environment respect, compactness, lifespan and low maintenance costs, are real technological challenges to be taken up on the future ship propulsion system. In this paper, an experimental study of a Hardware In the Loop (HIL) based Emulation of a Naval Propulsion System associated with Supercapacitor Energy Storage System is proposed. For these purpose two electrical machines are associated in the same shaft (DC machine and PMS machine) to reproduce the behavior of the association of the electrical motor and the propeller of a ship at laboratory scale. The whole system is constituted by three subsystems. The first one is represented by a PM synchronous machine associated with a controled VSI which plays the role of the electrical propulsion motor following a realistic mission profile. The second one is constituted by a DC machine associated with a DC/DC converter which is controled in order to reproduce the hydrodynamic behavior of the propeller and the ship, and the third one is constituted by a buck-boost DC/DC converter and an ultracapacitor bank, the ultracapacitor gives to the emulated mechanical shaft the ability to reinject kinetic power into the grid in case of transients. This experimental tool can be associated to innovative hybrid energy system to test and validate hybrid system configuration and can be exploited for many kinds of propellers. In addition, it gives the designer a feedback to optimise ship design. The effectiveness of the proposed HIL platform in terms of DC grid stability and 4 hydrodynamic operation of propeller is verified by experimental results.