DESIGNING ECO-SOLAR POWERED CATAMARAN

YACHT

LAPORAN KERJA PRAKTIK

Naufal Muhadzib Rafif
1606892472
 DESIGNING ECO-SOLAR POWERED CATAMARAN YACHT

1. Introduction

Indonesia is in 6O LU-11O LS and 95O BT-141O BT which causes Indonesia to have a tropical
climate so that solar radiation in the Indonesian Territory can occur throughout the year and can
be utilized as an environmentally friendly renewable energy (4). Solar Panel Technology is a power
plant that converts radiation from sunlight into DC electric current (5).

In this research, we apply solar panel technology to become the main energy source for
yachts. Eco solar yachts in our design is very environmentally friendly, no pollution, and no engine
noise. In this study, we focus on design, resistance, stability, mechanical systems, electrical
systems, and energy balance calculations.

2. Design

Catamaran hulls are used in this study, where these catamarans are multihull by
combining two hulls that are connected to the bridging structure (6). Catamarans have
characteristics that suit the needs of yachts where the hull has a broad deck so that it can
accommodate a larger number of passengers. Besides, this type of hull can reduce the
number of obstacles so that the ship can reach high speeds and minimize fuel consumption.
(6)

2.1. Hull Design

Catamarans are built with fiberglass material that has characteristics according to the needs
rather than the main characteristics of yachts that are riveting. When they are painted and
finished later, the color and appearance will be more attractive and luxurious than other
ships with other main materials. Besides, fiberglass material is also very easy to get. The
weight of fiberglass vessels is lighter than other ship materials, and the construction strength
is quite strong. (7)

The dimension of the catamaran is as follow:

• Length over all (incl. bowsprit mast) 13.25 m
• Hull length 11.5 m
• Beam 6m
• Depth molded 1.7 m + 0.12 m
 • Skeg draft (light) 0.5 m + 0.12 m
• Skeg displacement approx. 7 Tons
• Payload approx. 2.5 Tons
• Berths up to 8
• Deck area 60 m2
• Solar roof area (fully utilizable as upper deck) 58 m2
• Building material Fiber glass

2.2. Propulsion and Steering

In determining the electric motor for the boat, there are several factors to be considered,
such as the material for mount the engine, the engine room dimension, the cooling system,
and the wiring. The material for engine mounting is important for countering the vibration
of the motor so that the heat from the motor will be minimum.

BLDC motor with horizontal shaft configuration is chosen because it is easy to mount
to the foundation at the engine room. The engine room is located at the back inside of the
hull. As the result of the power requirement in Figure 3 and table 2, Which will be discussed
in Section 4, this boat will cruise up to 8 knots and the draft will be 0.5 m and so the
resistance will be approximately 15 kW. This boat will use 2 x 10 kW BLDC electric
propulsion with horizontal shaft configuration. According to Harvald’s method, power will
be determined based on equation:

𝑚
𝑃𝐸 [𝑊] = 𝑅𝑇 [𝑁] 𝑥 𝑉 [ ]
𝑠
𝑃𝐸 [𝑊]
𝑃𝑀 [𝑊] =
𝜂ℎ 𝑥 𝜂𝑝
(1 − 𝑡)
𝜂ℎ = ⁄(1 − 𝑤)

Where: PE is effective power, RT is total resistance, V is service speed, 𝜂𝜂ℎ is hull

efficiency, 𝜂𝜂𝜂𝜂 is propulsion efficiency, t is thrust deduction factor, and w is wake factor.
 Steering system is used for the maneuver of the boat so the boat can reach 40 degrees
turning angle. In determining the type of steering system, propulsion system is considered.
Hydraulic system is chosen to turn the rudder because the propeller can’t be turned so
rudder is needed. Hydraulic system for the steering is a drive technology using a fluid to
transmit the energy. The energy of steering wheel at the navigation room will be transmitted
to the rudder at the engine room through the fluid at the cable of the hydraulic system.

3. Electrical System

Figure 1. Electrical System Single Line Diagram.

The single line diagram for the overall electrical system of the boat can be seen in figure
3. We can see that our catamaran boat design is using deep cycle lead acid battery as main
energy storage and two BLDC motor as source of propulsion. In this paper we categorized
all the load into two categories, that is the motor load and non-motor load, which consisted
of LED lamp, food refrigerator, pure water pump, black water pump, etc.

3.1. PV Array

In today’s market, the most efficient and affordable type of PV panel are silicon-based
panels. Monocrystalline silicon-based panels with 22% efficiency can deliver peak power
up to 80% are used in the proposed system as it proves to be more efficient than
Polycrystalline panels in the market. Furthermore, the panels can last up to 25 years of
operation. A photovoltaic array can be comprised of several photovoltaic panels connected
in series and/or in parallel. The photovoltaic array configuration used in the proposed
system is connected in 3 series and 5 parallel with 2 arrays supplying 195 Volts to the
MPPT on each side (portside and starboard) of the ship. A total of 10050 W peak is
measured from the two photovoltaic arrays.

3.2. MPPT

Maximum Power Point Tracking or MPPT is an algorithm embedded inside a charge

controller that maximizes the output power that can be taken from a PV module in the most
optimum voltage state. MPPT checks output of PV module, compares it to battery voltage
then fixes what is the best power that PV module can produce to charge the battery and
converts it to the best voltage to get maximum current into battery. It can also supply power
to a DC load, which is connected directly to the battery. MPPT is a DC to DC converter
which operates by taking DC input from PV module, changing it to AC and converting it
back to a different DC voltage and current to exactly match the PV module to the battery.
The MPPT used in this system is buck converter because PV input voltage (195 VDC) is
greater than the system and battery voltage (48 VDC).

3.3. Energy & Storage System

The energy storage system consists of the PV array, MPPT and battery pack which are
integrated with a Bluetooth tablet interface. The battery pack used as the energy storage is
configured by connecting four battery pack in series in order to obtain the required 48 VDC
of the system and 14 battery pack in parallel in order to obtain 24 kWh of battery capacity.
The battery packs are divided into two with similar configuration where one pack is used
to store and discharge energy in the portside of the ship, whereas the other one is used to
store and discharge energy in the starboard of the ship. The battery packs used in the system
is Lead-Acid Battery and are stored inside the cabin in each side of the ship. A 6 KVA 230
VDC diesel generator is also used as an emergency energy source to recharge the battery
in a condition in which the battery packs are drained. This condition will prevail if the
MPPT or the solar panels are not able to generate enough energy to charge the battery or
directly power the boat.

3.4. Load

The output from MPPT is distributed through the 48VDC bus, which is then further
distributed to the load. The electrical and electronic load of the ship is divided into three
categories with their corresponding voltage requirements.
a. 48 V DC Load
i. Motor
The motor used for propulsion is a low noise brushless direct-current motor with
10 kW rating and 98% efficiency. The two 10 kW BLDC motor are mounted
inside the engine room which are connected to the propeller. The reason for the
two motor is to provide greater balance during cruising and better control during
maneuver.

ii. Motor Controller

A sinewave motor drive is used to control the speed of the motor. This type of
controller provides better sine-wave input current to the motor, thus smoother
acceleration.

iii. Air-Conditioner
A total of 2 48VDC air conditioner is used as an air-cooler inside the 2 cabins
on each side of the ship.

b. 24 V DC Load
24 VDC is obtained by using a step-down converter from the 48 VDC bus in order to
supply loads with 24 VDC rating. The 24 VDC load comprises of a 600 W marine
sound system equipped with 6 loudspeaker and Bluetooth amplifier as well as a 24 VDC
charger for auxiliary load.

c. 12 V DC Load
i. Lighting
The lighting system of Aquanima-40 comprises of underwater lights, deck lights, cabin
lights. LED lights are used on all of the afro-mentioned system because of their high
durability and low-consumption of energy which are crucial in maintaining power
consumption as low as possible. A total of 10 underwater (5 on each side of the ship)
lights are used. Lighting on deck and cabin consists a total of 30 LED lights.

d. 220 V AC Load

The 220 VAC voltage is obtained by using a 5 KVA 220 VAC inverter from the 48
VDC bus. The inverter is equipped with a fully integrated power management system which
can control the energy supplied to the load with the battery packs condition obtained from
each battery pack. 2 outlets of 220 VAC are available at the helm console and another 2
outlets are available on each of the 2 cabins.
4. Results and Simulation

4.1. Simulation
The free surface water level changes over time during the simulation, and the initial
draught and boundary conditions are specified by the VOF Waves model provided by
STAR-CCM+. In this simulation, the catamaran is moving in calm water, and the motion
of catamaran is neglected. Thus the problem, as how it is usually done, can then be treated
as a steady case
The numerical results for the resistance of the catamaran are presented in Table 1, and
Table 2 presents the estimated power requirement where the propulsion efficiency is
assumed to be 0.4. The estimated resistance and power requirement are also plotted in
Figure 1 and Figure 2.

Table 1. Numerical results of the catamaran’s resistance

Figure 2. Sailing speed Vs. Resistance plot.

 Table 2. Numerical Results of power requirements

Figure 3. Sailing speed vs. power requirement plot.

4.2. ELECTRICAL LOAD

In order to ensure ship’s sailing performance, it is important to calculate its power

consumption and power production to make sure all the ship’s equipment can be utilized
and to predict ship’s sailing distance both with and without support from the solar power.
We can calculate all the power loads solely by summing all the component’s power
consumption. We provide the list of the essential power loads and sums of its power
consumption in Table 1.

No Components Power Rating Number of Sum

(Watt) components
1 BLDC Motor + Controller 10.000 2 20.000
2 Cooling pump 120 3 360
3 SB lamp 3 5 15
4 PS lamp 3 5 15
5 Overall navigation system 235 1 125
6 Bilge pump 120 4 480
Total (Watt) 20.995
 Table 1. Essential Power Load List

4.3. SAILING DISTANCE ESTIMATION

We will try to predict the sailing distance of the ship by using a simple energy budget
analysis. In this study we will assume that the sunlight irradiance is at 100% at all times,
this implies that the solar array generates 10050 W at all times, and we will also assume
that we’re keeping the boat in constant throttle.

In this study we must find two pieces of information, those are ship’s sailing speed and
its energy flow. To calculate ship’s sailing speed, we conduct a hull resistance simulation
using commercial code star-CCM+. In this simulation both of the fluids, i.e. water and air,
are assumed to be incompressible, the turbulence is simulated by the K-epsilon model, and
the propulsion efficiency is assumed to be 40%. The calculated speed and draughts are
provided in Table 2.

Speed Power Requirement (kW)

(knots) Draught = 0.5 m (7.8 T) Draught = 0.6 m (9.9 T) Draught = 0.7 m
5 2.145665 2.702225 3.463274
6 5.73081 6.35354 7.331619
7 7.641312 8.697148 10.09068
8 15.86831 18.88365 22.41117
9 28.45458 36.21022 46.20677
10 40.04684 51.71292 66.18438

Table 2. Estimated Power Requirement

As for the energy flow analysis, we assume that the battery system is used up to 80%
DoD (Depth of discharge) which results in the amount of energy that we can use is 48 kW.
Here, we denote Eb as the energy stored in battery pack, EPV as the energy generated by the
solar array, and Vs as the sailing speed.

To start our analysis, we will define the total energy used by the boat as

𝑃𝑃𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 = 𝑃𝑃𝑏𝑏 + 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 … … … (1)

We already know the value of Eb, which is 48000 Wh or 1.728 x 108 Joule . Meanwhile,
the value of EPV is can be formulated as
𝑠𝑠
𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 = 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃x 𝑡𝑡 = 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃x … … … (2)
𝑉𝑉𝑠𝑠
 Where ‘t’ is ‘time’ in second and ‘s’ is sailing distance in meter. Next, will define the
relation between consumed energy and sailing distance (s), that is:
𝑠𝑠
𝑃𝑃𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = 𝑃𝑃 x 𝑡𝑡 = 𝑃𝑃𝑠𝑠𝑐𝑐𝑙𝑙𝑐𝑐 x … … … (3)
𝑉𝑉𝑠𝑠

Where Pload = Pmotor + Pnml. Thus eq. 3 can be written as

𝑠𝑠
𝑃𝑃𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = 𝑃𝑃 x 𝑡𝑡 = (𝑃𝑃𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑚𝑚𝑐𝑐𝑚𝑚 + 𝑃𝑃𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑠𝑠) … … … (4)
𝑉𝑉𝑠𝑠

We must remember that BLDC motor has its own power convertion efficiency denoted
𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚ℎ
by ɳ = , in this study we will assume the power conversion efficiency at 85%. Thus
𝑃𝑃𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚

we can rewrite eq. 4 as

𝑃𝑃𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐ℎ 𝑠𝑠
𝑃𝑃𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = ( + 𝑃𝑃𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑠𝑠 ) …𝑠𝑠… … (4)
ɳ 𝑉𝑉

Next, we find the equilibrium condition where Esupply = Econsumed

𝑃𝑃𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐ℎ 𝑠𝑠
𝑃𝑃𝑏𝑏 + 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 = ( + 𝑃𝑃𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑠𝑠 ) 𝑠𝑠
ɳ 𝑉𝑉

𝑠𝑠 𝑃𝑃𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐ℎ 𝑠𝑠
𝑃𝑃𝑏𝑏 + 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 =( + 𝑃𝑃𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑠𝑠 )
𝑉𝑉𝑠𝑠 ɳ 𝑉𝑉 𝑠𝑠

𝑃𝑃𝑏𝑏
𝑃𝑃𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐ℎ 𝑉𝑉𝑠𝑠 = 𝑠𝑠

( ɳ + 𝑃𝑃𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑠𝑠 − 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 )

Next, all we have to do is plug-in the value of Eb (1.728 x 108 Joule), Pnml (995 watt),
PPV (10050 watt) and Pmech and Vs which can be seen in Table 2., for example if we wish to
find the sailing distance when the boat is sailing at 8 knot with having 0.6 m draught we
need to substitute Pmech = 18883.65 W and Vs = 4.11556 m/s. Thus we find that the value s
is equal to 22742.08 meter.