Fuel and economic efficiency of an ice-going vessel on the Northern Sea Route

• Main Author: Esa, Janne
• Other Authors: Kuuliala, Lauri, Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu, Kujala, Pentti, Aalto-yliopisto, Aalto University
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: ice-going vessel; fuel efficiency; economical efficiency; Northern Sea Route; ridge generator
• Online Access: https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/16712

In this thesis fuel and economic efficiency of an ice-going vessel were studied. The study was carried out for a double acting ship (DAS) and an ice-bow vessel operating year-around on the Northern Sea Route (NSR). For comparison these efficiencies were investigated for an open water vessel operating on the Suez Canal route (SCR) and a vessel using the NSR during operable months, i.e., from July until December and rest of the year using the SCR. These are the months permitted by current NSR regulations. The fuel consumption of the vessel was studied with the transit-simulation. For DAS and the ice-bow ship first the speed was solved in different ice conditions. For open water and assisted ships the power demand was calculated. DAS and ice-bow ship were assumed to use full power in ice and the speeds in open water and ice channel were assumed to be constant. The fuel consumption was limited to the consumption caused by the ship movement, i.e., no consumption caused by lighting, heating etc. were taken into account. For resistance calculations the resistance equations for open water, level ice, ice ridges and channel ice were used. For economical calculations only voyage and some operational costs were taken into account. For simulating the performance of the DAS, the ice field was generated with two different methods: the one presented by La Prairie and the one by Kotovirta. This is done in order to compare these two methods. The results indicate that the NSR is a potential route for shipping during an average winter with DAS but not with an ice-bow ship. DAS is the most fuel efficient option on average winter. During severe winter, using the SCR year-around is the best option. The ice ridge generating methods presented by La Prairie and Kotovirta gives quite similar speeds. However, method of Kotovirta gives more optimistic results what comes to the cases the ship got stuck in ice. Due to the limited number of studies of the performance of a double acting ship, e.g., the lack of studies about the performance of ...