DSE 2024 - Master thesis & Bachelor projects

Please choose the topic(s) for Bachelor & Master thesis you want to apply for. Attach your CV and write a short motivational text describing your interest for the topic(s).   Topic 1: Slow steaming and further emission reductions.

In today’s fleet a lot of vessels are not operating at their design speed. Vessels today often sail at speed and engine loads way below the design conditions, to save fuel. This slow steaming profile can especially be seen for bulk carriers.

But how is the fuel consumption and load actually affected by the slow steaming profile and is it possible to lower the emissions by further slow steaming, considering added wave resistance? This has previously been investigated by Frederik H. Berthelsen and Ulrik D. Nielsen in “Prediction of ships’ speed-power relationship at speed intervals below the design speed” by evaluations of noon-reports.

This thesis would utilize continuously monitored data on the engine load and fuel consumption at lowered ship speeds both when sailing in calm waters and in rough sea states, to evaluate the actual saving potential from further speed reductions. It could also be expanded to look into how different wave conditions could influence the slow steaming consumption.

MAN - ES can provide continuously logged data regarding engine load, speed and fuel consumption for evaluation of the propeller torque and hereby the thrust required to overcome the resistance on the vessel. This data is to be correlated to Copernicus data on the sea and wind conditions in order to establish the actual fuel consumptions and savings from slow steaming.

  Topic 2: Hull fouling and engine running conditions

Throughout the course of a ships life time the hull surface of the ship will be worn down by shear and growth on the hull. This will affect the torque required of the engine by the propeller as the propeller must deliver extra thrust to overcome the added resistance from fouling.

A discussion has been ongoing to estimate when the proper time for a hull cleaning, propeller cleaning/polish or a docking actually is. The question is if engine performance can help to investigate when the fouling is so severe that a cleaning could increase the efficiency of the vessel?

To investigate, engine data needs to be filtered to make sure that weather, waves or other factors do not interfere with the results by added resistance. When done correctly, the engine load and speed can estimate the extent of fouling of the hull and propeller.

MAN - ES can provide data regarding load, fuel consumption and engine speed for evaluation of the engine running and thereby also the emissions. Furthermore we can provide the different engine types and SMCR power and speed for further specifications regarding the propulsion plant of specific vessels.

  Topic 3: Speed and consumption optimization during heavy running…

When vessels are sailing commercial routes it is impossible avoid storms or challenging weather conditions completely. These sea states will affect the engine load, speed and fuel consumption. Therefor the operation of the vessel is very important, especially when experiencing heavy weather. An investigation regarding optimization of vessel operation to see if decreasing engine speed and load will have a positive influence on the fuel consumption.

A project could be to figure out if lower the vessel speeds could be beneficial when storm occur. This is of cause in relation to increased speeds in calm water to make up for the lost progress when sailing in a storm. How much would the overall fuel consumption benefit from decreasing or otherwise at least control the speed and load to avoid reaching the load limit and instead catch up when in calmer waters?

An interesting addition to this could be to look at ship position given from AIS data, and find occurrences where the ship has been sailing in weather condition where the engine has been challenged to be heavy running.

MAN - ES can provide data regarding load, fuel consumption and engine speed for evaluation of the engine running and thereby also the emissions. Furthermore we can provide the different engine types and SMCR power and speed for further specifications regarding the propulsion plant.

Topic 4: Estimate of added wave resistance

Added resistance of the vessel can occur due to many scenarios when at sea. One is when sailing in large waves. Sea trials are typically conducted in calm waters and guarantee figures given here. However, the added resistance and hereby fuel is often unknown for more adverse conditions.

By the use of continuously monitored data on engine load and speed, it is possible to calculate the propeller torque and thrust in order to correlate this with the added resistance in various sea states. In order to do so, the data must be enriched with position and Copernicus data on sea and wind conditions.

Considerations on this have previously been undertaken in by Philip Holt and Ulrik D. Nielsen and are described on a theoretic level in “Preliminary assessment of increased main engine load as a consequence of added wave resistance in the light of minimum propulsion power”. However, data amounts have increased significantly since 2019.

MAN - ES can provide data regarding load, fuel consumption and engine speed for evaluation of the engine running and thereby also the emissions. Furthermore we can provide the different engine types and SMCR power and speed for further specifications regarding the propulsion plant.

  Topic 5: Dynamic propeller ventilation and inflow in adverse weather conditions

Efficiencies of modern vessels have increased through recent years by increasing the propeller diameter and reducing the total propulsion power installed onboard. The resulting reduction of torque may prone that vessels can be more challenge to navigate safely in adverse weather conditions.

One of the phenomena resulting in this the possibility of experiencing ventilation of the propeller. Either in a form where the propeller is out of the water or in dynamic ventilation of the propeller in a scenario where the propeller is so close to the surface that the propeller will suck air towards the propeller. This will affect the propulsion of the vessel as water has a much larger density and therefore the developed thrust of the propeller will be severely affected in this condition.

This project could be to investigate how the propulsion plant is affected by propeller ventilation and ultimately how the capability for safe maneuvering are affected. It could also be to investigate how the inflow to the propeller is affected by these conditions and how, and if, this can be predicted.

MAN ES can provide a simulation model for engine operation to be correlated with a model on variations of propeller thrust in various sea stats with and without ventilation. A partner is to be sought for the evaluations of the hydrodynamic conditions in adverse weather conditions, in order to establish a model on thrust variations in various sea states.

Furthermore, MAN ES can provide service data regarding load, fuel consumption and engine speed for evaluation against actual operational data.  

  Topic 6: Modern propulsion aids and changes to propulsion plant layout

The IMO have compared to 2008 set targets to reduce the emissions of international shipping by 20% in 2030, 70% in 2040 and by 100% close to or around 2050. A paramount contribution to this will besides alternative fuels be propulsion aids and efficiency improving devices, furthermore helping to reduce the cost of compliance with CII, FuelEU maritime and ETS this has been an ongoing topic.

An investigation of the efficiencies of propulsion aids such as wind assisted propulsion and air lubrication system could be an interesting topic to investigate. Along these lines it can be investigate how these technologies can affect the design of the ships propulsion plant layout?

A specific consideration would be if the introduction of these propulsion aids indicates benefits by utilizing controllable pitch propellers relative to the traditional choice of fixed pitch propellers.

The theoretical studies may require other partners to provide information on the specific technology, MAN ES can provide a simulation model for engine operation to be correlated with other inputs to study the impact towards the overall efficiency of the propulsion plant.

Furthermore, MAN ES can maybe provide service data regarding load, fuel consumption and engine speed for evaluation against actual operational data of vessels with such propulsion aids. However, this may need external corporation.

  Topic 7: Bachelor project - FuelEU impact on the future fleet – excel tool for OPEX calculation

Fuel EU is a new regulation to control the overall green house gas intensity of the full life circle assessment for all fuels within the maritime industry. This meaning that it is not a measurement of how much fuel but which fuel. This regulation is only applied within EU waters and fleet based for each owner. This applies that the owners need to change the consumption of traditional fuels to fuels with lowered green house gas emission both in production from well-to-tank and in combustion from tank-to-wake.

The purpose of this project is to make a tool or estimation of how the operation of the fleet should be run to minimize both green house gas emission but also lower the operational cost as much as possible. Another thing to look into is how this will affect the future fleet and also the infrastructure of the fuels.

MAN – ES can provide consumption data for various engines desired to construct a fleet and can also provide information regarding the newest engine technology available on the market.

  Topic 8: High Temperature Material Data

We have a new high temperature fatigue test rig. The first material we wish to characterize is piston crown / cylinder cover steel.

Tasks:

  Topic 9: HCN formation in pilot oil ignited ammonia engines

Marine ammonia engines are under development. The primary benefit of such engines are near-zero CO2 emissions. Ignition of the ammonia is expected to be done by way of a small diesel oil pilot flame. The combination of ammonia and hydrocarbons at elevated temperatures could potentially cause formation of hydrogen cyanide (HCN). Since HCN is a nerve gas this must be avoided or the gas must be completely removed before it is exhausted from the engine. The project aims to use numerical tools to investigate whether HCN is likely to form and if so how it can be avoided or dealt with.

  Topic 10: CO2 corrosion in the combustion chamber of a large two-stroke diesel engine

The reduction of sulphur in the future fuels may reveal other corrosion mechanisms as they perhaps have been overshadowed by the sulphur promoted corrosion. One of these other mechanisms could be facilitated by carbon dioxide (CO2) and condensed water. The aqueous phase acts as an electrolyte for the corrosion reaction. Thus, the CO2 corrosion may be further promoted by the higher amount of hydrogen in the fuels, which results in a higher amount of water condensate on the liners. CO2 corrosion is known from the oil & gas industry, where it is said to cost 2.8% of the turnover. This is simply due to corrosion of the pipelines. It has never been investigated if CO2 corrosion takes place on the cylinder liners in the large two-stroke diesel engines, however the partial pressure of CO2 inside the combustion chamber together with the pH value and the temperature of the aqueous condensate indicate that CO2 corrosion is possible. The goal of this project is first to clarify if CO2 corrosion takes place under the physical and chemical conditions, which are found in the combustion chamber of a large two-stroke diesel engine. If the CO2 corrosion takes place, the important task is to rank the risk of CO2 corrosion of different fuels and ideally transform the CO2 corrosion to fuel-sulphur corrosion equivalents. This project is a combination of laboratory work and corrosion modelling. The laboratory work includes design of an experimental setup and methods of corrosion analysis. The mechanistic modelling includes mathematical modeling of the corrosion based on findings from the experimental setup and the literature.

  Topic 11: Investigation of oil film thickness in piston rings

The piston rings in the large two stroke marine diesel engines operate with very small separation between the liner and the piston ring, . A setup Reciprocationg test rig which is available at DTU has been fitted with a LIF system (Laser Induced Flourosence) can tell what the separation is between the ring and liner, thus giving the oil film thickness. This system needs to be further developed, tested and tuned in order to tell the oil film thickness.

  Topic 12: Understanding of the particulate matter that is introduced by the LCA-database

During the previous LCA project* it was concluded that the fine particulate matter was one of the largest contributing impact categories to human health and that a considerable fraction of the impacts originated from the production phase. This was valid for all the assessed fuels. Prior to the project executing it was expected that some positive health effects would be identified when changing from diesel oils to alternative fuels. Thus, the objective of this project is to investigate the origin of the particulate matter in the models, with special focus on the production phase. This includes validation of the data with data from literature and MAN ES two-stroke in-house measured data.

  Topic 13: Two Stroke engine development

We are currently in the process of optimizing our engines for other fuels and we have completed the development of Bio fuel, Methanol, LNG, Ethane and LPG but currently developing high pressure Ammonia injection which is a 100% CO2 free fuel.

Go through the below for inspiration and come back with final area of interest. It is perfectly ok to come up with other suggestions yourself, but to be considered the topic must be related to Two Stroke engine development.

a. Possible future sealing materials/O rings that do not contain Flour substances PFAS

b. Future engine type and choice of fuel for ocean-going ships. With a view to lowering CO2 Emissions in the long run.

c. Ammonia combustion in Diesel engines. Injection technique. Hydrogen as pilot fuel.

d. Optimization of EXH gas after-treatment of Ammonia combustion. SCR-EGR technology.

e. Optimized fuel system for LNG LPG-Methanol and Ammonia as well as associated purge systems.

f. Carbon Capture systems on board ships.

g. Fuel cells for propulsion/power supply on board

h. Organic rankine cycles, ORC, systems for utilizing waste heat from the main engine on board for power production.

i. Optimization of cold recovery energy from LNG and Ammonia religfaction systems on board

j. Design the optimal MINIMUM pilot oil common rail system for Dual fuel engines

k. Calculate and lay out the engine's Turbo loads to also supply air under the ship to reduce water resistance. ALS (Hull air lubrication systems)

l. Pirate safe Interface on board for the digital ship

m. How do we avoid Blockage of gas atomizer holes in service on LGIP

n. How do we minimize EGR deposits in gas paths on EGR systems.EGR (Exhaust gas recirculation)

o. Conversion of ME-GA engines in service to ME-GI

p. Optimizing the emission conditions of ME-GA engines

q. Wind assisted propulsion

r. Hydrogen as pilot fuel for Ammonia engines

In addition, the topics below apply to 4 different ship types:

s. Calculate and outline the optimal LNG gas supply system for a 300 bar high pressure gas injected diesel engine with fuel as pilot oil.

t. Calculate and outline the optimal LNG gas supply system for a 10 bar otto principle low-pressure diesel engine (ME-GA) with fuel as pilot oil

u. Calculate and outline the optimal combination of fuel gas supply system and fuel gas reliqfaction system for a 174000m3 LNG carrier with a boil off rate of 0.06

v. Optimal Green fuel tank systems for the different types of fuel on board and for the different ship types.

w. Molten salt reactors used for Ship propulsion

x. CCS Carbon capture of CO2 onboard

  Topic 14: Implementing Digital Thread and Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) at MAN

At MAN ES, we are looking for a highly motivated Master's student in System Engineering, passionate about sustainability, to collaborate with us in shaping our future strategies.
Our company designs and supports the production of 2-Stroke marine engines. The Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) approach are a vital part of digital threads in order to bring together all the pieces of the product lifecycle puzzle to ensure success.
(MBSE) -easy defined here :
Engineering solutions composed as a set of models linked through an information infrastructure forming a Digital Thread that provides authoritative source of truth.
In this thesis project, you will find the optimal way to implement the MBSE at MAN, an approach that can help enhance communication and collaboration, reduce development and design risks. The full value of MBSE can only be realized if models can be synchronized with other key sources of design and product data—mainly, critical PLM and ALM platforms. New solutions are now available in the marketplace to connect these various systems, helping to ensure that design engineers and other critical stakeholders can better manage business disruptions, shortened design phases, and more complex product requirements.
MBSE provides a touchstone for design teams. It offers an unambiguous single source of truth that holds all the data and design information required to keep engineers on the same page regarding even the most sophisticated of designs.
The project is expected to last 20 weeks, with status orientation every 2 weeks to project owners. If you think this is something for you, or you want to hear more about the project, make sure to contact the Engine Lifecycle Management team.

  Topic 15: Waste-management during engine operation

At MAN ES, we are looking for a highly motivated Master's student in Mechanical/Environmental/Energy Engineering, passionate about sustainability, to collaborate with us in shaping our future strategies.
Our company designs and supports the production of 2-Stroke marine engines. We believe it is essential to ensure that all processes are carried out in the most sustainable manner, and align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In this thesis project, you will first assess the environmental footprint of all spare parts needed during an engine lifetime: valves, rings pipes... These are components that must be replaced periodically, as they worn out or get damaged.
In many occasions, the replaced components are not properly disposed. Therefore, based on the initial Lifecycle Assessment (LCA), the student will also propose innovative disposal/reconditioning strategies.
The project is expected to last 20 weeks, with status orientation every 2 weeks to project owners. If you think this is something for you, or you want to hear more about the project, make sure to contact the Engine Lifecycle Management team.