Hybrid Ship Using Wind-Powered Propulsive Force as Auxiliary

Abstract

A hybrid ship which supplementally uses a wind-powered propulsive force in addition to a main engine and a propulsion device driven by the main engine, includes: a tower which includes an accommodation area provided at a stern section and a bridge served as a navigating and maneuvering workstation and provided above the accommodation area, wherein a sail, which is retractable to be stored in each side wall of the accommodation area and which is laterally deployable, is disposed in an airspace, which is located lateral to the accommodation area in the tower, below a height position of a floor surface of the bridge and above a deck.

Claims

1. A hybrid ship which supplementally uses a wind-powered propulsive force in addition to a main engine and a propulsion device driven by the main engine, comprising: a tower which includes an accommodation area provided at a stern section and a bridge served as a navigating and maneuvering workstation and provided above the accommodation area, wherein a sail, which is retractable to be stored in a side wall of the accommodation area and which is laterally deployable, is disposed in an airspace, which is located lateral to the accommodation area in the tower, below a window of the bridge and above an upper deck.

2. The hybrid ship according to claim 1, further comprising a bridge wing, which is connected to the bridge served as the navigating and maneuvering workstation disposed above the accommodation area of the tower and which is extended to each of both ship sides, wherein the sail is hung down from a yard to be laterally sail deployable to each of both ship side directions in a lower portion of an overhanging portion of the bridge wing, or below the overhanging portion of the bridge wing.

3. The hybrid ship according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the deployable sail is made of a flexible material, retractable to be stored in a storage portion disposed inside the tower, and deployable to each ship side direction.

4. The hybrid ship according to claim 3, wherein the sail is deployed with a suspension tool suspended by the yard at an upper end of the sail, and with a support supported by a boom at a lower end of the sail, and as units for deploying the sail, the yard hanging the flexible sail with the suspension tool and the boom supporting the sail with the support are provided with the suspension tool and the support which are slidably disposed on guide rails provided on the yard and the boom, respectively, a towing mechanism including a driving mechanism is provided to deploy and retract the suspension tool on the guide rail to and from the ship side direction, the towing mechanism includes a controller for operating the towing mechanism, and a lateral sail deploying and retracting power unit is provided for deploying and retracting the flexible sail in a curtain moving manner.

5. The hybrid ship according to claim 4, wherein a framework structure of the tower includes a main center pillar which is set up at a center of the accommodation area and auxiliary pillars which are set up at four corners forming a quadrilateral around the main center pillar, and the five pillars are connected at a top site and a bottom site of the tower with main ribs so that at each of the top site and the bottom site, the main ribs form a cross shape on a horizontal plane and the four auxiliary pillars are connected to each other with auxiliary ribs to form the quadrilateral.

6. The hybrid ship according to claim 4, wherein a framework structure of the tower includes a main center pillar which is set up at a center of the accommodation area and auxiliary pillars which are set up at four corners forming a quadrilateral around the main center pillar, and the five pillars are connected at a top site, a bottom site, and at least one intermediate site of the tower with main ribs so that at each of the top site, the bottom site and the intermediate site, the main ribs form a cross shape on a horizontal plane and the four auxiliary pillars are connected to each other with auxiliary ribs to form the quadrilateral.

7. The hybrid ship according to claim 4, wherein the sail is set as a main sail, and an additional sail yard and an additional sail boom are further extended, from the yard supporting the main sail from above and the boom supporting the main sail from below in a main sail mechanism, to an outside direction of the ship side so that an additional sail is laterally sail deployable.

8. The hybrid ship according to claim 1, wherein the tower is built including the accommodation area such that in a structure of the accommodation area, a height from a deck to a floor of the bridge ranges from 50% to 55% of a ship width.

9. The hybrid ship according to claim 5, wherein the yard and the boom for the main sail are supported to be horizontally swingable by each of the auxiliary pillars near a bow.

10. The hybrid ship according to claim 9, wherein the yard and the boom for the main sail are enabled to turn at a swing angle range of horizontal swinging is 70 to 80 backward from the ship side direction.

11. The hybrid ship according to claim 7, wherein the yard for the main sail is disposed below a bridge wing in each of both sides to hang down the main sail at an upper end of the main sail and the boom for the main sail is disposed on the upper deck to support the main sail at a lower end of the main sail.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0054] FIG. 1A is a schematic side view of the entire hybrid ship adopted in an embodiment of the invention.

[0055] FIG. 1B is a schematic top view of the entire hybrid ship adopted in the embodiment of the invention.

[0056] FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of a cross-section A-A of the hybrid ship adopted in the embodiment of the invention.

[0057] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a boom support and a boom turning mechanism of the hybrid ship adopted in the embodiment of the invention.

[0058] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating deploying and retraction of a sail to be used in the hybrid ship adopted in the embodiment of the invention.

MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0059] Hereinafter, a hybrid ship which supplementally uses a wind-powered propulsive force according to an embodiment of the invention will be described. FIG. 1A is a schematic side view of the entire hybrid ship adopted in the embodiment of the invention. FIG. 1B is a schematic top view of the entire hybrid ship adopted in the embodiment of the invention.

[0060] Even if a ship 1 illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B is increased in size, the number of operation personnel does not increase so much, and the accommodation area does not increase noticeably compared to a small boat. Further, the position of the bridge 11 increases in height in order to keep clear front view from the bridge 11, and the entire structure of the accommodation area 10 becomes towering in consideration of profile drag of the ship due to wind. Accordingly, in such a vessel, a large airspace has been formed on each ship side of the accommodation area 10, the airspace is, however, not used for energy saving purposes. An object of the invention is to create a larger airspace 13 at each ship side by building a tower for an accommodation area 10 to save energy and to deploy a sail 30 for using the power of the wind in the airspace 13 for using mainly the wind in three directions from stern.

[0061] In order to make the accommodation area 10 towering and transmit the wind power of the sail 30 to a hull 1 through this tower, the accommodation area 10 has the following structure using a pipe material, an H-shaped steel and the like as framework structure materials in consideration of the strength and rigidity thereof.

[0062] A large main pillar portion 41 is set up at the center of the accommodation area 10, auxiliary pillar portions 42 made of H-shaped steel are provided to surround the main pillar portion 41 in four directions, these five pillars are connected to each other to form a cross shape with main ribs 43, and the auxiliary pillar portions 42 are connected to each other to form the quadrilateral with auxiliary ribs 44 made of H-shaped steel. The main ribs 43 are located at a site under the bridge 11, at a bottom site near an upper deck 6, and at an intermediate site. These pillars 41, 42 and 43 are used for conduits, water pipes, steam pipes, sewage discharge pipes, etc.

[0063] Canvas is used for a main sail 30 and an additional sail 40, in deploying these sails, the main sail 30 can be automatically deployed by power, and a boom portion supporting the additional sail 40 can be deployed by a remote control.

[0064] Both the main sail 30 and the additional sail 40 are of a laterally deployed type, and a storage compartment (not illustrated) is provided in the accommodation area 10 for the main sail 30 and the additional sail 40 so that these sails can be retracted and ejected with power operation. The main sail 30 is deployed with power operation, and the additional sail 40 is deployed with manual operation. To adjust an opening angle of a boom 32 with respect to the ship side depending on a change of wind direction, a remote operation is performed with a sail turning mechanism 52.

[0065] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a support of the boom 32 and the sail turning mechanism 52 adopted in the embodiment of the invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view illustrating a state where the main sail 30 is deployed from a side wall of the accommodation area 10 and retracted to be stored in the tower for the accommodation area.

[0066] The main sail 30 can be laterally deployed with a wire 71 along a movable yard 31, which is located below the bridge 11, and a guide rail 47, which is located on the movable boom 32 provided on the upper deck 6. The main sail 30 is, at an upper portion, supported by a guide rail 47 connected to the movable yard 31 to be hung down through a sail suspension tool 49. The main sail 30 is, at a lower portion, supported by the guide rail 47 connected to the boom 32 through a support 48. The main sail 30 is, when deployed, locked at a specific intermediate position to the ship side direction with a locking mechanism (not illustrated). In the left side of FIG. 4, the deployed main sail 30 is shown with the solid line and in the right side of FIG. 4, the main sail 30 stored in the tower for the accommodation area is shown with the two-dot chain line. The stored sail 33 will be deployed by a lateral sail deploying and retracting power unit 75. In an embodiment, the lateral sail deploying and retracting power unit 75 includes a towing mechanism 70, a wire 71, a pulley 72, and a pushing tool 73 (which is served as a towing tool in the case of the operation in the opposite direction). The towing mechanism 70 includes a controller for operating the towing mechanism, and the main sail 30 is automatically deployed to a predetermined deployed position according to a procedure to be described below by operation from the bridge 11. That is to say, the stored sail 33 is towed by the towing mechanism 70 provided on a guide rail (not illustrated in the drawings, but with the same configuration as that of the guide rail 47) disposed inside a storage portion of the tower for the accommodation area, in terms of the lateral sail deploying and retracting power unit 75, is pushed out to eject from the inside of the storage portion of the tower for the accommodation area by the pushing tool 73 through the pulley 72 and the wire 71, is deployed in the lateral direction to the predetermined position, is moved onto the guide rail 47 of the boom 32 or the yard 31, and is locked at the predetermined position. In addition, the right main sail of the drawing is also deployed and symmetrical with respect to the center of the tower for the accommodation area, but is not illustrated in FIG. 4.

[0067] Furthermore, when the yard 31 and the boom 32 for the main sail 30 are extended in multiple stages in the lateral direction from the fore ends thereof, the additional sail 40 is pushed out to deploy on the extended portion.

[0068] It is more preferable that the boom 32 and the yard 31 of the sail be horizontally swingable so that the main sail 30 and the additional sail 40 efficiently use the leading wind. It is preferable that the movable range is 30 to 40 in the front direction and the rear direction of the boom and that the boom 32 and the yard 31 are turned by 70 to 80 backward after being laterally deployed as indicated by an arrow in FIG. 4. The main sail 30 and the additional sail 40 are formed such that the base portions of the boom 32 and the yard 31 are formed in a goose neck type. As shown in FIG. 4, a goose neck base portion 45 for the boom 32 is connected to and supported by the auxiliary pillar 42 as one unit and a goose neck 46 is supported to be swingable about the vertical axis of the goose neck base portion 45. A lower portion of the goose neck 46 is connected to a worm member 62 and a worm wheel 61 for example, so as to turn the goose neck 46 with the sail turning mechanism 52 for making the boom 32 to swing. The worm wheel 61 is connected to a power mechanism 64 of a hydraulic motor. By means of a hydraulic unit (not illustrated), hydraulic oil from a hydraulic hose 65 is used for the rotation of the power mechanism 64 under the control of a driving mechanism controller 63. The rotation of the worm wheel 61 is transmitted to the worm member 62 so as to turn the goose neck 46 slowly about the goose neck base portion 45, and the rotation is locked at a predetermined position by a brake mechanism 66. The goose neck base portion 45 is connected to the auxiliary pillar 42 as one unit in the structure inside the tower for the accommodation area. Although not illustrated in detail, as for the yard 31 also, a similar goose neck is supported to be rotatable by a goose neck base portion and turned about the goose neck base portion in synchronization with the rotation of the boom.

[0069] The size of the sail is, for example, as follows. The energy of the wind is generally expressed by the following equation.

E=1/2AV.sup.3(1)

[0070] wherein

[0071] E: Wind energy (watt)

[0072] A: Area of sail (square meter)

[0073] V: Wind speed (meter per second).

[0074] at altitude of 0 m, temperature of 15 C., (atmospheric pressure of 1.013 hPa in atmospheric standard state),

[0075] since air density is 1.225 (kg/cubic meter),

[0076] Equation (1) is as follows.

E=0.61AV.sup.3(2)

[0077] As illustrated in Equation (1), a ship propulsive force obtained from the wind is proportional to the cube of the wind speed and is proportional to the pressure receiving area of the wind. A large wind speed will result in a very large propulsive force, which means, however, deterioration of the maritime condition. The upper limit that can be used as a merchant ship is 7 in the Beaufort scale (hereinafter, BF scale), an average wind speed is approximately 15 to 17 m/s, and is 6 in the scale (a wave height of 3 m) or less in the maritime condition scale up to a strong wind.

[0078] In this range, the height of the tower bridge is about 50% to 55% of the ship width, and a propulsive force of about 20% to 30% of the main engine of an ordinary ship is obtained. The propulsive force corresponds to the propeller output of the ordinary ship and can be converted to about 15 to 35% of the output of the main engine in mechanical propeller propulsion. An operation equivalent to decelerating operation by the main engine can be expected. As a result, a hybrid ship that supplementally uses the wind-powered propulsive force to save energy and prevent air pollution is provided.

[0079] In an embodiment, the specification is as follows.

TABLE-US-00001 1 Propulsive force of about 20% to 30% is targeted with following ship speed only using main engine Full speed in voyage 16.0 knot (7.79 m/s) Full speed in harbor 12.0 knot (5.84 m/s) Half speed in harbor 10.0 knot (4.87 m/s) Slow speed in harbor 8.0 knot (3.89 m/s) Very slow speed in harbor 5.0 knot (2.43 m/s) 2 Approximate target ship 2-1. DW 310,000 type tanker Loa 328.0 m B 57.0 (width) D 26.5 Molded Depth df 18.0 Draft Main MCR 23,600 Kw 3 Outer dimension of accommodation area Width 17.0 m Inner depth 17.0 Height 30.0 (height from upper deck to floor of bridge, 53% of width) 4 Dimension of sail Below bridge 1.5 m (gap between main sail yard and floor surface of overhang bridge) Above upper deck 2.0 m (gap between main sail boom and upper deck) Lateral effective breadth 15.5 m Area of sail 410.8 m.sup.2 one surface of main sail additional sail 616 m.sup.2 5 Wind power use environment Maritime condition BF4-5 wave height 1 to 2 m Wind speed BF5-7 wind speed 8 to 17.2 m/s 6 Wind direction of wind power Use of leading wind from stern direction up to 170 on portside and on starboard side (Wind from bow direction is not used) 8 Propulsive force using wind power at wind power of 17.2 m/s 2295 Kw (Equation (1) is multiplied by 0.92 of Profile coefficient)

[0080] Then, the propelling energy of 2295 Kw of the wind power of the main sail corresponds to the engine of 3825 Kw (the propeller efficiency is 60%), which corresponds to 16.2% MCR (23600 Kw).

[0081] In the main sail+the additional sail (with an increase of 50%), 3442 Kw is generated by the wind power and corresponds to 5737 Kw of the engine, which is 24.3% MCR (23600 Kw).

[0082] According to the above-described specification, [0083] Half speed in harbor of 16.2% MCR (23600 Kw) only by main sail, [0084] Sail at maximum speed of 8 knot [0085] In the case of the additional sail, 24.3% MCR (23600 Kw) [0086] Sail at 10 knots.

[0087] Although the embodiment according to the invention has been described above, the invention is not limited to this embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. While the invention has been described in detail in terms of the embodiment described herein, it is not intended that the applicant restricts and limits the scope of the appended claims by the description of the embodiment. Additional advantages and modifications will be understood by those skilled in the art and the elements described in an embodiment may be employed in other embodiments. For example, an additional sail can be a triangular sail of a vertical sail with only a lower boom. In this case, additional deploying can also be done by manually deploying the boom of the additional sail at the bottom. With a simpler mechanism, incidental facilities for additional sails can be realized. Further, it goes without saying that the main sail may be a rigid sail if the sail can be retracted to be stored in the tower for the accommodation area. In one embodiment, a tanker is exemplified. However, when the sail is for a cargo ship or an LNG ship, for a cargo handling facility and a tank facility on the upper deck, the sail does not cause any interference and hence the effect is further improved. Further, the additional sail may be manually deployed after extending the boom and the yard. In order to do this, it is enough to prepare the same incidental facilities as those for deploying sails in a conventional sailing ship and it is preferable that a simpler mechanism is used therefor. This can be applied to a case where the additional sail is the triangular sail of the vertical sail, which may be simpler and more convenient in some cases. Thus, the invention is not limited to any particular detail in a broad viewpoint. Here, each device and embodiment may be illustrated, and a part thereof is described. Therefore, it may depart from the matter described in these details without departing from the spirit and scope of applicant's general inventive concept.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

[0088] The invention is applicable to a ship propelled by using wind power of a waterborne vessel.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST

[0089] 1: ship [0090] 2: bow section [0091] 3: stern section [0092] 4: handling port [0093] 5: funnel [0094] 6: upper deck [0095] 7: cargo space [0096] 10: the tower for the accommodation area [0097] 11: bridge [0098] 12: bridge wing [0099] 13: airspace created by building a tower for an accommodation area [0100] 30: main sail [0101] 31: yard [0102] 32: boom [0103] 33: sail retracted to be stored [0104] 40: additional sail [0105] 41: main pillar portion [0106] 42: auxiliary pillar portion [0107] 43: main rib [0108] 44: auxiliary rib [0109] 45: goose neck base portion [0110] 46: goose neck [0111] 47: guide rail [0112] 48: sail support [0113] 49: sail suspension tool [0114] 50: sail driving mechanism [0115] 51: main engine propulsion device [0116] 52: sail turning mechanism [0117] 61: worm wheel [0118] 62: worm member [0119] 63: driving mechanism controller [0120] 64: hydraulic motor power unit [0121] 65: hydraulic hose [0122] 70: towing mechanism [0123] 71: wire [0124] 72: pulley [0125] 73: pushing tool [0126] 75: horizontal sail deployment/storage power unit