GERMAN MARINE EQUIPMENT | POWER GENERATION

HTS-Technology Innovative solutions for power generation and propulsion

SIEMENS Worldwide different companies are engaged in HTS-Technology being a basis for new solutions for power generation and electrical propulsion systems for ships. However remarkable progress is reported from the United States and in Europe from Germany.

n Germany Siemens plays a major role and is engaged in that technology for ship application since the late 1990ths. The superconducting effect has been well known since the beginning of the last century. Metal materials such as copper have the characteristic to lose its

The switching temperatures reached in the 1960s and 1970s were in the area of about 10 Kelvin which necessitated a cooling medium such as liquid Helium at a temperature of about 23 Kelvin. This extremely low temperature presented multiple difculties in application and were generally impractical.

machinery, transformers and short circuit fault current limiters. Siemens is currently working with switching temperatures in the range of 90-110 Kelvin. As cooling medium Neon is used at a temperature of about 2530 Kelvin.
Benefits

4MVA HTS GENERATOR - POWER OUTPUT

Nominal Power Nominal Voltage Nominal Current Foot Print L x B Weight total Cryogenic Power redundant Efcient 4MVA/3600rpm 60Hz 3~AC 6.6kV 350A 1900mm x 1200mm 6.9t (Conventional 11t) 3 x 40W @ 25k (3 x 6kW elec.) exchangeable while running 98.7% (Conventional 96.5)

electrical resistance if the temperature of the material is reduced to a certain value. Once this superconductive temperature (or switching temperature) is achieved resistive power losses are eliminated.

The discovery of High Temperature Super Conducting material in the mid 1980s has facilitated revolutionary advances in design and development of the next generation of electrical equipment such as rotating

Products and solutions based on HTS-Technology have the potential to take an important role in electrical ship equipment. Generators and the Propulsion motors are of primary interest. With regard to the electrical machinery both high speed and low speed solutions are under development and applications for both are quite promising. High speed generators based on the new technology combined with gas turbines would not only allow for remarkable weight reduction but could also reduce the weight and volume of the gearbox. Elimination of the gearbox entirely is still under

investigation. For ship application the customers benets regarding rotating machinery are obvious: volume and weight will be reduced remarkably due to the higher efciency, cost for fuel will be reduced, mission length potential could be increased compared with conventional machinery shock resistance is improved due to light weight construction and big air gap acoustic noise is reduced due to iron free air gap stator windings reduced volume allows reduction of shaft height above the foundation which in turn allows horizontal installation of shaft and reduces danger of strike/damage. Moreover, advantages are not limited to the component level. It would be far better to integrate the products or systems based on the new technology as a complete solution into future overall ship designs. This would result in optimized

HTS, temperature of material

Technology roadmap

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Spezial VDMA | Schiff & Hafen | Juni 2007 | Nr. 06

hull concepts regarding oor height but also cargo volume and overall efciency. Reduced ship manufacturing cost are expected, positive effects on the mechanical hull structure are assumed.. Siemens is convinced that the HTS-Technology has a very good chance to become the technology of the future for rotating machinery. Therefore, a near term road map for the foreseeable future has been dened. The rst activities on development of rotating machines were begun in 1998/1999. The objective of this project was to design a 400 kW-motor to be used as a testing platform and to demonstrate the pricinple functionality of that technology. The motor tests have been successful and were nalized in late 2002. Encouraged by the positive results the design of a 4 MVA generator was started in mid 2002, was completed in 2004 and has been running since 2005 alternatively as both a

generator and as a highspeed motor in test facilities. At the moment Siemens is concentrating on the design of a 4,5 MW prototype propulsion motor. All factory acceptance testing shall be completed by the end of 2009. The technical requirements aspired to fulll are in line with the requirements for ship application. The motor is specied for a torque of 300 400 kNM, and a nominal speed of appr. 120 to 130 rpm. Considerable advantage in weight 70 % and volume 62 % compared to conventional solutions is expected to be realized. Factory acceptance testing will be completed in September 2009. For this project partnering agreements have been signed with SVA Potsdam ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems for the ship integration and TransMit GmbH for the cryogenic cooling plant Germanischer Lloyd will act as Classication society.

4.5 MW HTS high torque propulsion motor

All partners are partially funded by the German Ministry of Economics.

Conclusion

pre-production series units are under testing. Remarkable customer benets can be expected by this technology and could result in new ship designs.

The development status reached for propulstion systems and components based on High Temperature Super Conducting Technology is promising, although further efforts are necessary that require more development time and nancial investment. First prototypes or

Dipl.-Ing. Heinz G. Waschin Director, Sales and Technology, Navy Siemens AG I&S OGM MAS Erlangen
www.industry.siemens.de