KR20230062273A - Air lubrication system and ship having the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an air lubrication system and a ship including the same, wherein a first charging unit is provided on the bottom of a hull, and a second charging unit is provided on a part of the hull other than the bottom and has a polarity opposite to that of the first charging unit. An electrode unit having a charging unit and a reference electrode provided on the hull; And a control unit for controlling the electrode unit, wherein the control unit electrolyzes seawater adjacent to the ship bottom by the first charging unit to generate gas, detects a potential difference of the hull through the reference electrode, and The gas filling state of the ship bottom is estimated, and the first charging unit is controlled according to the estimated value.

Description

Air lubrication system and ship having the same}

The present invention relates to an air lubrication system and a vessel including the same.

A ship is a means of transportation that carries a large amount of minerals, crude oil, natural gas, or thousands of containers and navigates the ocean. move through

These ships generate thrust by driving an engine or a gas turbine. At this time, the engine uses oil fuel or gas fuel to move a piston so that the reciprocating motion of the piston rotates the crankshaft, and the shaft connected to the crankshaft rotates. On the other hand, the gas turbine burns oil fuel / gas fuel together with compressed air, and uses the temperature / pressure of the combustion air to rotate the turbine blades to generate power and transmit power to the propeller.

In this way, ships are gradually developing to the level of improving operational efficiency so that they can suppress environmental pollution and reduce energy consumption, going further from the basic function of guaranteeing the transport efficiency of cargo.

According to this development process, research and development on technologies that can effectively reduce the resistance acting during operation of the ship are continuously being conducted, and in particular, a technology for reducing resistance by applying an air layer to the bottom of the ship has been developed.

However, the existing air layer application technology has a problem in that the shape of the ship bottom is inevitably deformed to inject air, and the navigation efficiency is not sufficiently improved considering the power consumed for air injection.

The present invention was created to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, and an object of the present invention is to continuously supply gas to the bottom of the ship using electrolysis, and also to control the supply of gas using a reference electrode to optimize the It is to provide an air lubrication system capable of securing operational efficiency and a vessel including the same.

An air lubrication system according to an aspect of the present invention includes a first charging unit provided on the bottom of a hull, and a second charging unit provided on a part other than the ship bottom in the hull and having a polarity opposite to that of the first charging unit, , An electrode unit having a reference electrode provided on the hull; And a control unit for controlling the electrode unit, wherein the control unit electrolyzes seawater adjacent to the ship bottom by the first charging unit to generate gas, detects a potential difference of the hull through the reference electrode, and The gas filling state of the ship bottom is estimated, and the first charging unit is controlled according to the estimated value.

Specifically, the first charging unit is a positive charging unit, the second charging unit is a negative charging unit, and the negative charging unit and the reference electrode may be provided on a side surface of the hull.

Specifically, the anode charging unit may decompose seawater to generate oxygen gas to form a superhydrophobic surface on the bottom of the ship.

Specifically, an air injection unit for directly delivering air to the ship bottom may be further included.

Specifically, the air injection unit is provided upstream of the anode charging unit based on the flow of seawater at the ship bottom, and the anode charging unit controls the gas layer separated from the ship bottom through the air delivered by the air injection unit. can be recovered

Specifically, the control unit may detect a potential difference of the hull through the reference electrode, estimate a gas filling state of the ship bottom, and control the air injection unit according to the estimated value.

A ship according to one aspect of the present invention has the air lubrication system.

The air lubrication system according to the present invention and a ship including the same can significantly reduce resistance by electrolyzing seawater and generating gas at the bottom of the ship by placing a cathode and an anode on the hull, and considering the operating condition, the gas supply amount can be controlled to reduce power consumption.

1 is a block diagram of an air lubrication system according to one embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a layout view of an air lubrication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a partial cross-sectional view of an air lubrication system according to one embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a conceptual diagram of an air lubrication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a gas layer image of an air lubrication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Objects, specific advantages and novel features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description and preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In adding reference numerals to components of each drawing in this specification, it should be noted that the same components have the same numbers as much as possible, even if they are displayed on different drawings. In addition, in describing the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of related known technologies may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description will be omitted.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. For reference, the present invention includes not only the air lubrication system described below, but also a ship in which the corresponding system is mounted/embedded.

At this time, a vessel may be a general vessel such as a merchant ship/passenger ship that carries cargo or people from a departure point to a destination, but it should be understood that it includes all structures (ships, drillships, offshore plants, etc.) capable of self-propelling while floating on the sea. let me know

1 is a block diagram of an air lubrication system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a layout view of an air lubrication system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an air lubrication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. A partial cross-section of the system.

4 is a conceptual diagram of an air lubrication system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a gas layer image of the air lubrication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1 to 5 , an air lubrication system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an electrode unit 10, a power supply unit 20, and a control unit 30.

The electrode unit 10 reduces friction of the ship bottom 3 by generating gas in the ship bottom 3 of the hull. At this time, the electrode unit 10 may generate oxygen gas by electrolyzing seawater adjacent to the ship bottom 3 to form an oxygen layer on the ship bottom 3.

For reference, it should be noted that in the present invention, gas, oxygen, air, etc. may be used interchangeably and are terms that may be used interchangeably. In addition, protrusions 4 may be provided on the bottom 3 to which this embodiment is applied, and oxygen gas is trapped in the grooves between the protrusions 4 and the oxygen layer is maintained without being separated from the bottom 3, reducing friction effect can be sustained.

At this time, the protrusion 4 may be provided not in the width direction but in the longitudinal direction of the ship bottom 3 to reduce resistance, and thus oxygen gas can be suppressed from escaping in the left and right directions from the ship bottom.

However, the oxygen gas generated by the electrode part 10 can be separated from the ship bottom 3 while moving along the stern direction according to the operation of the ship 2. In this case, the new oxygen gas is generated by the electrode part 10 Since it can be continuously replenished, the grooves between the protrusions 4 can be continuously filled with an oxygen layer.

The electrode unit 10 includes a first charging unit 11 provided on the bottom 3 of the hull and a second charging unit 12 provided on a part other than the bottom 3 of the hull. The first charging unit 11 may be a positive charging unit 11 and the second charging unit 12 may be a negative charging unit 12 having a polarity opposite to that of the first charging unit 11 .

In particular, in the electrode unit 10 of this embodiment, while adding a negative charging unit 12 that is charged negatively to the ship side and installing a positive charging unit 11 that is positively charged to the ship bottom 3, the positive charging unit 11 ) can be concentrated on the flat part of the ship bottom (3). In this case, the anode charging unit 11 can form an oxygen layer in a certain pattern on the ship bottom 3, and accordingly, a superhydrophobic surface with a controlled pattern can be provided on the ship bottom 3, so that the effect of reducing friction can be achieved. can be maximized.

In addition, since at least the positive charging unit 11 submerged in seawater among the negative charging unit 12 and the positive charging unit 11 is provided in the form of a flat plate, unnecessary resistance even if the positive charging unit 11 is added to the ship bottom 3. This occurrence can be minimized. That is, the anode charging unit 11 may protrude minimally from the surface of the ship bottom 3 to form a form with almost no step difference, or may be provided in a form where there is no protrusion by being recessed on the surface of the ship bottom 3.

In addition, the anode charging unit 11 and the like are provided in the form of a closed flat plate without penetration to suppress unnecessary flow separation and to maximize only the effect of reducing resistance due to friction reduction.

The electrode unit 10 realizes electrolysis of the seawater of the ship bottom 3 through the positive charging unit 11 and the negative charging unit 12 to generate oxygen to give the ship bottom 3 a superhydrophobic surface. In addition, a reference electrode 13 (reference electrode cell) may be used to control the electrolysis.

The reference electrode 13 is provided on the hull, and for example, may be provided on a part other than the ship bottom 3 on the hull. That is, the reference electrode 13 is disposed at a position spaced apart from the anode charging unit 11 where electrolysis is performed.

Using this reference electrode 13 as a comparison group, the present embodiment can detect a potential difference in the hull. Since the potential difference becomes a value that can estimate the degree of gas filling in the ship bottom 3, the present embodiment can efficiently control electrolysis through the potential difference confirmed from the reference electrode 13. This will be described in detail in the section on the control unit 30 below.

In the electrode unit 10, the negative electrode charging unit 12 and the reference electrode 13 may be provided on the side of the hull, etc., and as described above in the positive charging unit 11, the negative charging unit 12 and the like have unnecessary resistance. In order to reduce the occurrence of the protrusion on the side of the hull may be minimized or omitted. In addition, the location of the negative electrode charging unit 12, etc., is sufficient if it is spaced apart from the positive charging unit 11 as a part other than the ship bottom 3, so it is also possible to arrange it at a position other than the side of the hull.

For example, unlike the drawing, the negative electrode charging unit 12 may be disposed on the transom at the stern, and in addition, the positions of the negative electrode charging unit 12 and the reference electrode 13 may be determined in various ways in consideration of variables such as air resistance. can

The power supply unit 20 supplies current to the electrode unit 10 . The power supply unit 20 can supply current to the positive charging unit 11 and the negative charging unit 12, which are components for realizing electrolysis, and the positive charging unit 11 has a plurality of positive charging plates in the bottom of the ship (3). As can be configured, the power supply unit 20 may also be provided in plurality.

The power supply unit 20 is provided so that the amount of current supplied to the positive charging unit 11 and the like can be adjusted by the control unit 30 to be described later. That is, in this embodiment, the degree of electrolysis by the anode charging unit 11 can be adjusted based on the superhydrophobic surface state of the ship bottom 3 confirmed through the reference electrode 13.

The control unit 30 controls the electrode unit 10 . For example, the control unit 30 goes beyond the basic function of electrolyzing seawater adjacent to the ship bottom 3 by the anode charging unit 11 to generate gas, to the electrode unit 10 through the reference electrode 13. It controls the degree of electrolysis by

For example, the control unit 30 can detect the potential difference of the hull through the reference electrode 13, estimate the gas filling state (superhydrophobic surface state) of the ship bottom 3 based on the detected potential difference, and according to the estimated value, the electrode The unit 10 can be controlled.

That is, the control unit 30 can efficiently control power consumption so that an oxygen layer appropriate for the drag reduction effect is formed on the electrode unit 10 forming the superhydrophobic surface using electrolysis.

In addition, the controller 30 may consider the operating state of the ship 2 as an additional variable. For example, the control unit 30 may optimize the degree of electrolysis by the electrode unit 10 by complexly considering ship speed, meteorological conditions, hull specifications, depth of the ship bottom 3 relative to sea level, and the like.

In addition, the control unit 30 may perform complex control of the air injection unit 40 to be described later together with the electrode unit 10, which will be described below.

In this embodiment, the seawater of the ship bottom 3 is electrolyzed using the electrode part 10, thereby forming an oxygen layer on the ship bottom 3 to reduce frictional resistance during navigation. In addition to this, the present embodiment may further include an air injection unit 40 for directly delivering air to the ship bottom 3.

The air injection unit 40 may compress air (or oxygen, etc.) using a compressor (not shown) and deliver the compressed air to the ship bottom 3. To this end, an opening (not shown) may be formed in the ship bottom 3, and the air injection unit 40 may include a pipe (not shown) that delivers air to the opening.

As shown in FIG. 4 , the air injection unit 40 may be provided upstream of the anode charging unit 11 based on the seawater flow (from the bow to the stern) in the ship bottom 3. That is, the air injection unit 40 may be provided at the bow and the positive charging unit 11 may be provided at the center of the ship bottom 3.

In this case, in this embodiment, when air is delivered to the ship bottom 3 by the air injection unit 40, an air layer may be formed on the ship bottom 3, and the air layer may be formed in the ship bottom 3 during the operation of the ship 2. In preparation for being detached from the surface, the positively charged part 11 can restore the air layer.

In addition, gas may exist in the ship bottom 3 from the point where air is injected by the air injection unit 40 to a certain point behind the point where the rearmost anode charging unit 11 is disposed, and through this, the present embodiment In the ship bottom 3, it is possible to sufficiently reduce the frictional resistance generated in the area from the bow to the central part and the rear thereof.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the air injection unit 40 may be additionally provided, and the control unit 30 controls both the electrode unit 10 and the air injection unit 40 to reduce power consumption. That is, as described above, the control unit 30 can estimate the gas filling state of the ship bottom 3 by detecting the potential difference of the hull through the reference electrode 13, and the estimated value at this time (other variables can be considered as well .) The control unit 30 may implement control of the air injection unit 40 through. Therefore, according to this embodiment, excessive energy consumed by the compressor of the air injection unit 40 can be prevented.

However, in this embodiment, the operation by the electrode unit 10 may be preferentially implemented. For example, the control unit 30 operates the electrode unit 10 first to form a superhydrophobic surface on the bottom 3, and then, when the oxygen layer of the bottom 3 is removed due to a change in operating conditions, the air injection unit (40) can be used to supplement the gas layer of the ship bottom (3).

Of course, on the contrary, control in which the air injection unit 40 is used first and the electrode unit 10 is used in the second order, so that the electrode unit 10 is used as an auxiliary configuration to recover the separation of the air layer by the air injection unit 40. It is also possible, but in this embodiment, by using the electrode unit 10 first, even if the air injection unit 40 is operated, it will be possible to derive a drag reduction effect using a very low flow rate.

In this way, this embodiment uses the electrode unit 10 to generate a super-hydrophobic surface on the bottom 3 to reduce frictional resistance, while detecting the gas filling state of the bottom 3 through the reference electrode 13, Accordingly, by controlling the operation of the electrode unit 10, it is possible to reduce power consumption.

In addition to the above-described embodiments, the present invention encompasses all embodiments resulting from a combination of the above embodiments and the known technology.

Although the present invention has been described in detail through specific examples, this is for explaining the present invention in detail, the present invention is not limited thereto, and within the technical spirit of the present invention, by those skilled in the art It will be clear that the modification or improvement is possible.

All simple modifications or changes of the present invention fall within the scope of the present invention, and the specific protection scope of the present invention will be clarified by the appended claims.

1: air lubrication system 2: ship
3: ship bottom 4: protrusion
10: electrode unit 11: first charging unit, positive charging unit
12: second charging unit, negative charging unit 13: reference electrode
20: power unit 30: control unit
40: air inlet

Claims (7)

An electrode unit having a first charging unit provided on the bottom of the hull, a second charging unit provided on a part of the hull other than the ship bottom and having a polarity opposite to that of the first charging unit, and a reference electrode provided on the hull. ; and
Includes a control unit for controlling the electrode unit,
The control unit,
The first charging unit electrolyzes the seawater adjacent to the ship bottom to generate gas,
An air lubrication system for detecting a potential difference of the hull through the reference electrode, estimating the gas filling state of the ship bottom, and controlling the first charging unit according to the estimated value. According to claim 1,
The first charging unit is a positive charging unit,
The second charging unit is a negative electrode charging unit,
The negative electrode charging unit and the reference electrode are provided on the side of the hull, the air lubrication system. The method of claim 2, wherein the anode charging unit,
An air lubrication system that decomposes seawater to generate oxygen gas to form a superhydrophobic surface on the bottom of the ship. According to claim 2,
An air lubrication system further comprising an air injection unit for directly delivering air to the ship bottom. According to claim 4,
The air injection unit is provided upstream of the anode charging unit based on the flow of seawater at the bottom of the ship,
The air lubrication system of claim 1 , wherein the anode charging unit restores the gas layer separated from the ship bottom through the air delivered by the air injection unit. The method of claim 4, wherein the control unit,
An air lubrication system for detecting a potential difference of the hull through the reference electrode, estimating the gas filling state of the ship bottom, and controlling the air injection unit according to the estimated value. A vessel with the air lubrication system of any one of claims 1 to 6.

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