Fuel Consumption Analysis of Single and Twin-Screw Propulsion Systems of a Bulk Carrier

This paper presents a comparative analysis between single and twin-screw propulsion systems of a bulk carrier to evaluate the ship and propeller performance in terms of fuel consumption as well as to discuss the cavitation and noise criteria. An optimization model is developed to select the optimum propeller geometry and operational point along the engine load diagram for the selected engines of each case. The engines are selected from the same series due to the same behaviour along the engine load diagram. The propellers are selected from the B-series as fixed-pitch propellers. It has been concluded that while the components of the single-screw propulsion system are larger than the twin-screw, the single-screw propulsion system shows a reduction in fuel consumption than the twin screw by around 19%, thus affecting the amount of exhaust emissions from the ship. This model helps the ship designers to select a suitable propeller to improve the energy efficiency of the ships.