This paper presents the origins of marine steam turbine application on liquefied natural gas carriers. An analysis of alternative propulsion plant trends has been made. The more efficient ones with marine diesel engines gradually began to replace the less efficient plants. However, because of many advantages of the steam turbine, further development research is in progress in order to achieve comparable thermal efficiency. Research has been carried out in order to achieve higher thermal efficiency throughout increasing operational parameters of superheated steam before the turbine unit; improving its efficiency to bring it nearer to the ideal Carnot cycle by applying a reheating system of steam and multi stage regenerative boiler feed water heating. Furthermore, heat losses of the system are reduced by: improving the design of turbine blades, application of turbine casing and bearing cooling, as well as reduction in steam flow resistance in pipe work and maneuvering valves. The article identifies waste energy sources using the energy balance of a steam turbine propulsion plant applied on the liquefied natural gas carrier which was made out basing on results of a passive operation experiment, using the measured and calculated values from behavioral equations for the zero-dimensional model. Thermodynamic functions of state of waste heat fluxes have been identified in terms of their capability to be converted into usable energy fluxes. Thus, new ways of increasing the efficiency of energy conversion of a steam turbine propulsion plant have been addressed.

The following paper presents wind tunnel investigation of aerodynamic characteristics of hovering propellers. This propulsion system may be applied on a lightweight Quad Plane VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). A Quad Plane is a configuration consisting of a quadcopter design combined with a conventional twin-boom airplane. This kind of design should therefore incorporate the advantages of both types of vehicles in terms of agility and long endurance. However, those benefits may come with a cost of worse performance and higher energy consumption. The characteristics of a fixed-wing aircraft and propellers in axial inflow are well documented, less attention is put to non-axial flow cases. VTOL propellers of a hybrid UAV are subject to a multitude of conditions – various inflow speeds and angles, changing RPMs, interference between propellers and between nearby aerodynamic structures. The tested system presented in this article consists of four electric motors with two coaxial pairs of propellers mounted on one of the fuselage beams. Such a configuration is often chosen by designers of small and medium hybrid UAVs. There is a need for studies of clean, efficient ways of transporting, and this article can aid future designers of a new type of electric UAVs.

Development of new or upgrading of existing airplanes requires many different analyses, e.g., thermal, aerodynamical, structural, and safety. Similar studies were performed during re-design of two small aircrafts, which were equipped with new turboprop engines. In this paper thermo-fluid analyses of interactions of new propulsion systems with selected elements of airplane skin were carried out. Commercial software based numerical models were developed. Analyses of heat and fluid flow in the engine bay and nacelle of a single-engine airplane with a power unit in the front part of the fuselage were performed in the first stage. Subsequently, numerical simulations of thermal interactions between the hot exhaust gases, which leave the exhaust system close to the front landing gear, and the bottom part of the fuselage were investigated. Similar studies were carried out for the twin-engine airplane with power units mounted on the wings. In this case thermal interactions between the hot exhaust gases, which were flowing out below the wings, and the wing covers and flaps were studied. Simulations were carried out for different airplane configurations and operating conditions. The aim of these studies was to check if for the assumed airplane skin materials and the initially proposed airplane geometries, the cover destruction due to high temperature is likely. The results of the simulations were used to recommend some modifications of constructions of the considered airplanes.

Brushless DC motors are often used as the power sources for modern ship electric propulsion systems. Due to the electromagnetic torque ripple of the motor, the traditional control method reduces the drive performance of the motor under load changes. Aiming at the problem of the torque ripple of the DC brushless motor during a non- commutation period, this paper analysis the reasons for the torque ripple caused by pulse- width modulation (PWM), and proposes a PWM_ON_PWM method to suppress the torque ripple of the DC brushless motor. Based on the mathematical model of a DC brushless motor, this method adopts a double closed-loop control method based on fuzzy control to suppress the torque ripple of the DC brushless motor. The fuzzy control technology is integrated into the parameter tuning process of the proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller to effectively improve the stability of the motor control system. Under the Matlab/Simulink platform, the response performance of different PID control methods and the torque characteristics of different PWM modulation methods are simulated and compared. The results show that the fuzzy adaptive PID control method has good dynamic response performance. It is verified that the PWM_ON_PWM modulation method can effectively suppress the torque ripple of the motor during non-commutation period, improve the stability of the double closed-loop control system and meet the driving performance of the motor under different load conditions.

In order to meet the operation requirements of the beam supply with multiworking conditions, multi-modes and high efficiency, a dual-mode hybrid output control method combining phase-shifting and pulse-width dual-mode modulation technology with secondary side series-parallel operation is proposed. In this paper, the structure and working mode of the new dual full-bridge topology are firstly analyzed. Secondly, the main circuit parameters are designed according to the power performance indicators, and the losses under two control modes of phase shift and pulse width are calculated. Finally, comparing the losses of these two control methods, and combining the series-parallel operation mode of the secondary side of the transformer, a dual-mode switching control method of the beam supply is designed. In order to verify the rationality of the dual-mode mixed output control method, a principle prototype with a rated capacity of 2 kW, a rated voltage of 1 800 V and a switching frequency of 50 kHz was used for verification. Experiments show the effectiveness and superiority of the dual-mode hybrid output control method.