Improvement in Efficiency and Reliability for Diesel-Electric Propulsion Based Marine Vessels Using Genetic Algorithm

This paper proposes the use of genetic algorithm (GA) for the loading of the diesel generators in a diesel-electrical propulsion based diving support vessel (DSV). The brake specific fuel consumption data is obtained for the diesel generators onboard the DSV and the specific fuel capacity is derived for operation at 1800rpm. Sixth-order spline interpolation is used to obtain the equation for the specific fuel capacity. GA is then applied to optimize the fuel consumption of the diesel generators for four operation modes: transit, manoeuvring, dynamic positioning, and dive operation. The fuel consumption using GA is then compared to that with the conventional method of equally loading the diesel generators. The failure rate and the reliability of the DSV diesel-electric propulsion system are then calculate to verify the impact of applying GA for the diesel-electric propulsion system.