Ship resistance when operating in floating ice floes: Derivation,validation, and application of an empirical equation

With the effects of global warming, the Arctic is presenting a new environment where numerous ice floes are floating on the open sea surface. Whilst this has improved Arctic shipping navigability in an unprecedented way, the interaction of such floes with ships is yet to be understood to aid the designing of ships and route planning for this region. To further explore this topic, the present work develops a procedure to derive an empirical equation that can predict the effects of such floes on ship resistance. Based on a validated computational approach, extensive data are extracted from simulations of three different ships with varying operational and environmental conditions. The ice-floe resistance is shown to strongly correlate with ship beam, ship buttock angle, ship waterline angle, ship speed, ice concentration, ice thickness and floe diameter, and the regression powers of each of the parameters on resistance are ascertained. This leads to a generic empirical equation that can swiftly predict ice-floe resistance for a given ship in a given condition. Subsequently, demonstrations are given on the incorporation of the derived equation into a set of real-time Arctic ship performance model and voyage planning tool, which can predict a ship's fuel consumption in ice-infested seas and dynamically suggest a route with the least safety concern and fuel consumption. Moreover, the equation is validated by providing ice resistance prediction for experimental and full-scale conditions from multiple sources, showing high accuracy. In conclusion, the empirical equation is shown to give valid and rapid estimates for ice-floe resistance, providing valuable insights into ship designs for the region, as well as facilitating practical applications for polar navigation.     

低硫法令对船舶柴油机的影响及解决方案

在全球新一轮低硫法令的背景下,从燃油喷射、燃油不相容性以及排气阀等角度深入分析低硫燃油对船舶柴油机的影响.在此基础上,详细介绍瓦锡兰公司提出的针对燃油和滑油系统的双油柜系统解决方案以及柴油机安装TriboPack组件的建议.通过引用个案,说明双油柜系统解决方案较之其它低硫应对方案具有更佳的运营经济性,值得进一步推广.     

Evolution of green shipping research: themes and methods

Over the past 30 years, there have been growing concerns on the environmental impacts of maritime transportation, which have attracted great attention from both academia and practitioners. Understanding developments in this area can help guide future research. We conducted a comprehensive review of green shipping research, comprising 213 papers published in transportation journals in SSCI of 2017 over the period 1988–2017. We find that research on green shipping has increased greatly since 2012, accounting for 77.5% of the reviewed papers. The main focus today on green shipping was on air pollution, and the classification of green shipping practice, such as technical measures, operational options, market-based measures, and recycling and reusing, is becoming clear. According to the existing studies, future research on green shipping must strengthen technology research to not only solve practical problems, but also to establish a theoretical green shipping system. Moreover, researchers from different countries could cooperate with each other to give effective suggestions on setting standards and laws of green shipping. Finally, we identify the future research themes will focus on setting up green shipping system and legislation and policy.     

Key criteria influencing the choice of Arctic shipping: a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process model

As Arctic sea ice shrinks due to global warming, the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and the Northwest Passage (NWP) offer a substantial reduction in shipping distance between Asia and the European and North American continents, respectively, when compared to conventional routes through the Suez and Panama Canals. However, Arctic shipping routes have many problems associated with their use. The main objective of this paper is to identify the key criteria that influence the decisions of shipping operators with respect to using Arctic shipping routes. A multi-criteria decision-making methodology, the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process, is applied to rank four potential categories of criteria (‘economic’, ‘technical’, ‘political’ and ‘safety’ factors) and their sub-criteria.

The results of the analysis suggest that, on aggregate, ‘economic’ is the most important category of influential factors, followed by ‘safety’, ‘technical’ and ‘political’ factors. The paper concludes, however, that the most influential specific sub-criteria relate to risks that lie mainly within the ‘safety’ and ‘political’ domains and that, especially in combination, these overwhelm the importance which is attached to ‘economic’ factors such as reduced fuel use. Finally, the implications of these findings for the future development of Arctic shipping are addressed at a strategic level.     

The impact of low sulphur fuel requirements in shipping on the competitiveness of roro shipping in Northern Europe

Annex VI of the MARPOL Convention aims for a reduction in sulphur oxide emissions from ships. The limits applicable at sea in Emission Control Areas (ECAs) were reduced from 1.5% to 1% in 2010 and are planned to be further reduced to 0.1%, effective from 1 January 2015. This paper analyses the impact of the International Maritime Organization’s Tier II/III standards introduced by Annex VI amendments adopted in October 2008 on costs and prices of roro (roll on/roll off) traffic in the ECAs in North Europe and on the competitiveness of roro shipping in the ECAs compared to trucking. We demonstrate that the new Annex VI agreement may be quite costly for the participants in the shipping industry and will result in higher freight rates. Based on a detailed price analysis on modal competition between the roro/truck option and the ‘truck only’ option on thirty origin–destination routes linked to the ECAs, we conclude that the use of low sulphur fuel is expected to increase the transport prices particularly on the origin–destination relations with a medium or long short sea section. The paper also presents the results of a survey among leading short sea operators in the ECAs in view of providing more insight on expected modal shifts and price elasticity in the short sea market.     

Methodology for ro-ro ship and fleet sizing with application to short sea shipping

A novel methodology is developed for determining the characteristics of a cargo roll-on/roll-off (ro-ro) ship and the fleet size required for a given short sea shipping route. The ship and required fleet size to satisfy the transportation demand (for each pair of speed and freight rate) are determined using a database of existing cargo ro-ro ships to obtain the main technical characteristics of the most suitable ship. The time charter, voyage costs and revenue are then calculated considering the technical characteristics of each ship. Fuel costs are corrected for the actual ship speed and loading condition. A number of restrictions in the transportation problem are considered leading to the exclusion of unfeasible solutions. The maximum profit over the period of a year is identified among the feasible pairs of speed and freight rate. This general methodology is applied in a case study that considers the route between Leixões (Portugal) and Rotterdam (Netherlands). The study allows the identification of the most suitable ship and fleet sizes for different market penetration levels and quantifies the impact on shipping company profit of changes in parameters such as fuel costs, time charter costs, emission control area, installed propulsion power and stacking factor.     

Resilience of Touristic Island Beaches Under Sea Level Rise: A Methodological Framework

This contribution addresses the need for a simple model for managers to employ when planning strategies for the management of touristic beaches under sea level rise. A methodological framework was developed and tested in two Aegean archipelago islands (Lesvos and Rhodes, Greece). The scheme can represent the status of touristic island beaches, based on easily obtained variables/indicators and projections of beach erosion/retreat under different scenarios of mean sea level rise (MSLR) and extreme events. Information on beach geomorphological characteristics, environmental setting, water quality, management, and services (such as those used in the “Blue Flag” classification) was collated/collected and beach erosion/retreat due to CV & C was estimated through suitable ensembles of cross-shore (1-D) morphodynamic models. A Strength-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) framework was employed to assist in the selection of indicators and multicriteria analysis used to optimize indicator weights and rank beaches according to their sustainability under sea level rise. Implementation of the framework at the two islands has shown that: the majority of Lesvos and Rhodes beaches (82% of a total of 217 beaches and 58% of a total of 97 beaches, respectively) can be classified as beaches with no, or minimal, human interference, suggesting that under environmentally sound coastal management further touristic development might be afforded; there could be very significant effects of the sea level rise on the carrying and buffering capacities of the most developed (“Blue Flag”) beaches, with some expected even under conservative projections to be completely eroded by 2100, unless technical adaptation measures are taken; and using the proposed framework, touristic beaches can be rapidly ranked in terms of their resilience to sea level rise and their development potential, allowing prioritization of effective management responses.     

减少海洋航运环境排放的新方法（英文）

Maritime shipping is a strategic sector with a strong international vocation and management.The need to define regulations valid for many different countries without generating disparities of treatment slowed down the formulation of environmental regulations,especially for atmospheric emissions.In particular,regulations pertaining to the reduction of sulphur compounds allowed two distinct approaches:the use of low-sulphur fuels or exhaust gas cleaning systems,the so-called Scrubbers.The actual implementation of these solutions presents specific concerns either related to the toxicity of atmospheric by-products and to the fuel cost or to the generation of polluting washwaters that may need treatment before discharge.In this paper we analyzed the potential environmental benefit deriving from the use of a distillate fuel,not compliant with current IMO Sulphur Regulations,together with a Scrubber.The pilot-scale experimental results indicated that a limited amount of water and/or scrubber volume is needed to reduce sulphur emissions below regulations on maritime shipping,especially with the addition of NaOH reaching a water-saving between 25%-33% compared to the use of pure seawater.Experiments indicated that scrubber washwater PAHs emissions are within the available water quality standards indicated by EU and USA guidelines.A bottom-up analysis on heavy metals concentration shed light on the prominent role of metal-parts corrosion on the washwater emissions.Taking into account for corrosion phenomena,the actual heavy metals concentration in the washwater deriving from scrubbing was normally below the water quality standards.     

加入WTO对我国海运服务贸易的影响

我国加入WTO不仅给我们带来了严峻的挑战，也为我们提供了新的发展机遇。我国在进一步开放海运服务贸易市场的同时，必须采取适当的措施保护我国航运企业免遭毁灭性打击，促进我国海运服务贸易业的繁荣与发展。     

The environmental costs and economic implications of container shipping on the Northern Sea Route

The Northern Sea Route (NSR) has tremendous potential for ocean shipping between Europe and Asia due to the savings from shorter transit time and distance. However, the Arctic area is environmentally vulnerable and thus there is a trade-off between NSR’s impacts on environment vs. its economic benefits, especially when compared with the traditional route, such as through the Suez Canal Route (SCR). This study estimates the market shares of different transport modes and alternative shipping routes for the container transport market between Europe and Asia, and the resulting environmental costs. Our result suggests that NSR can be a viable option under the status quo. However, its environmental costs tend to be higher than SCR due to small ship size and low load factor in the present, thus the development of NSR would lead to worse environment outcomes. If these issues can be resolved, NSR can benefit from lower operational and environmental costs, which will lead to higher market share and social welfare. Otherwise, increased use of NSR may lead to higher total environment costs than the status quo.     

绿色航运发展趋势及燃料电池船舶的应用前景

船舶与港口排放带来了日益严重的环境污染问题，燃料电池作为船舶新能源技术之一，因其效率高、排放清洁、噪声和震动小等优异特性，在船舶节能减排和绿色航运发展中倍受关注。本文分析了我国绿色航运发展趋势，进而介绍了船舶新能源技术和燃料电池技术及特性。综述了燃料电池船舶在国内外的研究与应用进展，重点讨论了燃料电池船舶应用前景，展望了燃料电池船舶的未来发展方向。     

Economic feasibility of an NSR/SCR-combined container service on the Asia-Europe lane: a new approach dynamically considering sea ice extent

The trend towards global warming and the rapid decline in the extent of summer Arctic sea ice over recent years has increased the feasibility of international Arctic shipping. In this study we propose a seasonal NSR (North Sea Route)/SCR (Suez Canal Route)-combined shipping service linking Shanghai and Rotterdam, using the Northern Sea Route during the economical navigable window but using the traditional Suez Canal Route at other times. Different from the previous literatures, this paper dynamically considers the sea ice extent in the model, which is more reasonable for the assessment of Arctic container shipping, because fuel consumption is highly related to ship speed, while ship speed is determined by the relative distances of ice-covered and ice-free route stages. A new approach is developed to predict the time points at which the ship enters and exits the ice-covered stage, given that both the ship position and the extent of sea ice are constantly changing. The results show that the NSR/SCR-combined Arctic container service can be more economical than the SCR, given lower NSR tariffs.     

MARPOL 73/78公约附则V1关于燃油硫含量标准的修订及对我国影响分析

文中介绍了全球船用燃油硫含量现状、IMO对船用燃油硫含量标准的最新修订进程以及MEPC57最终形成的硫含量新标准，结合我国相关行业现状，分析了新标准的实施对我国可能产生的影响，并提出了针对性的应对措施。     

Strategic alliances in container liner shipping

The economic crisis in the years between 2008 and 2010 has demonstrated the necessity for substantial adjustments on behalf of container lines. Capacities were shifted quickly to emerging and less affected markets allowing a faster recovery of globally organized companies. This paper illustrates the dynamics in the container shipping market. Alongside the main characteristics of the Top 20 ocean shipping companies, liner services are described. These services are classified by geographic coverage and vessel deployment. In addition, this paper provides a better understanding of the collaboration among service providers. Starting from a general framework of co-operative liner services, in-depth analyses of the global alliances in liner shipping are obtained. These formations - Grand Alliance, New World Alliance and CKYH Alliance - are compared with alternative forms of collaboration in the liner shipping industry. The analysis of alliance announcements which are related to operational and strategic changes indicates that the “global alliances” cannot be regarded as closed corporate-like entities. In effect, service agreements are not only negotiated with the focal members of the specific alliance. Instead, every service is arranged individually and under specific conditions. By understanding the dynamics within alliances, we are able to develop an assessment relating to the stability of collaborations. Ultimately, these insights direct us to several paths for future research.     

‘Only work and sleep’: seafarers’ perceptions of job demands of short sea cargo shipping lines and their effects on work and life on board

Previous research on job demands in seafaring has focused on the effects of workload and circadian disturbance on seafarers’ health and fatigue. Taking a more comprehensive approach, this study identifies job demands of short sea cargo shipping lines and explores their effects on work and life on board. Data came from 54 interviews with officers and crew on five cargo ships. Findings revealed job demands related to characteristics of the schedule, ports, and sea voyages; these were not only associated with workload and circadian disturbance, but also with the difficulty of the work, the ability to plan ahead, and intrusions from third parties. Job demands affected outcomes through two interconnected processes. First, job demands had direct and indirect effects on fatigue and the working climate on board. Second, potential positive effects of job demands (i.e. interesting work and pay) were related to motivation and, together with a good working climate, could reduce turnover. Connecting the two processes, a good working climate was pivotal in counteracting negative emotions and supporting motivation and collaboration. In this way, it functioned as a key resource. External constraints could either buffer or reinforce these effects.     

Neural network-based fuel consumption estimation for container ships in Korea

ABSTRACT

Due to the outstanding strength of advanced machine-learning techniques, they have become increasingly common in predictive studies in recent years, particularly in predicting ship energy performance. In constructing predictive models, prior studies have mostly employed vessels’ technical parameters to establish machine-learning algorithms. To bridge this research gap and enable wider applications, this paper presents the design of a multilayer perceptron artificial neural network (MLP ANN) as a machine-learning technique to estimate ship fuel consumption. We utilized the real operational data from 100–143 container ships to estimate fuel consumption for five different container ships grouped by size. We compared the performance of two ANN models and two multiple-regression models. Four input parameters (sailing time, speed, cargo weight, and capacity) were included in the first ANN and the first regression model, while the other two models only consider two inputs from physical function. The mean absolute percentage error of the ANN models with four inputs was the smallest and less than those in extended statistical models, demonstrating the MLP’s superiority over the statistical model. The MLP ANN model can thus be applied to confirm the effectiveness of the slow-steaming method for achieving energy efficiency.     

RFID wireless system for detection of water in the annulus of a flexible pipe

Corrosive environments are responsible for the highest degree of degradation and failure in marine structures. The presence of sea water in marine structures such as flexible pipes can cause a significant reduction in their operational life, especially when associated with permeated gases, which could lead to corrosion related failure mechanisms such as corrosion-fatigue and hydrogen cracking. The ingress of sea water into flexible pipes can occur either due to ruptures in their external polymeric sheath or to permeation of condensed water from the pipe bore. This event since flooding of the so-called annular space of flexible pipes is the trigger for all knows corrosion assisted failure modes, it is clear that a system that is able to reliably detect the presence of water in the structure is highly desirable. This work will describe a radio frequency identification (RFID) system designed for this purpose; it relies on the measurement of shifts in the resonance frequency of specially-designed tags which would be inserted within the layers of the flexible pipe during manufacturing. This paper shows the design and validation process of these tags and also of a reader which is meant to be scanned along the outside surface of the pipe by a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV). The study was performed through a finite element analysis and a test in which the tags were inserted within a full-scale mock-up of a flexible riser, which was then flooded with synthetic seawater. Results show that the shift in response due to sea water is clearly identifiable and distinguishable from other effects.     

Financial and environmental impacts of hypothetical Finnish dry port structure

One main theme of European Union’s in transport policy statements has been the increased role of railways in the reducing environmental impacts and costs of transport activity. One option to increase the modal share of rail transport is to utilize the dry port concept, particularly applicable to general cargo. At the Port of Gothenburg (Sweden) use of this concept in combination with rail transport has led to a reduction of CO₂ emissions, and lower transport energy costs. The main objective and motivation of this research work are to examine through analytical models, how this same dry port concept could be implemented in the Finnish transportation network, with estimates of the benefits being gained.The research method of this study is macro gravitational models of distribution. Main input data for the models are distances and population in the area. The approach aims to research, how relative transport costs behave by increasing the number of dry port distribution locations. For the actual computation work the authors apply linear integer programming. Based on the results, the authors argue that relative transport costs can decrease considerably by increasing the number of dry ports, up to the level of six locations. This is considerably less than what is the current situation in Sweden. The found solution also differs from Sweden as the fragmented Finnish seaport system enables using numerous seaports instead of one, which further decreases inland transportation distances and volumes considerably. At the same time forthcoming sulphur emission reduction regulation (for sea transports) might impact the transportation network structure by decreasing sea transport and the number of seaports used. This might lead to a further increase in land-based hinterland transport.     

Barriers for adoption of energy efficiency operational measures in shipping industry

According to the Third Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Study 2014 of International Maritime Organization (IMO), the total emission in 2012 are estimated to be 949 million tonnes which is 2.7% of global CO₂ emission by total shipping and expected to increase from 2012 levels by 50–250% by 2050. Significant changes are needed to all industry by implementation of energy efficiency design and operational measures to meet existing and future global emission reduction targets. Although the fuel cost-reducing effects of some energy efficiency measures and new technologies are well established and matured, shipping companies appear reluctant to adopt them. Besides, it is observed that the stakeholders are directly or indirectly involved for implementation of energy efficiency measures in shipping industry. Therefore, the objective for this study was to identify the barriers to energy efficiency operational measures by a qualitative survey among various stakeholders from all corners of shipping industry. It has been found in the research that the barriers for implementation of all cost-free operational measures are almost the same such as lack of information of the measure, lack of awareness and competence of ship crews and operation difficulties which are in nature of information and technical barriers. But financial issue and owner’s interest are the key barriers for some other operational measures which are related to costing and need investment for implementation.