Turbine ship

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The Turbinia (built in 1894), the first turbine ship in history - straight away the fastest ship in the world

A turbine ship is a ship that is powered by one or more turbines . Unless another turbine type is specified, these are always steam turbines . The international prefix TS (English: Turbine Steamer = German: Turbinendampfer ) refers exclusively to steam turbine ships; Gas turbine-powered ships are identified by the prefix GTS .

Steam turbine ships (TS)

A conventional turbine ship system consists of three main parts:

In addition, there are various pumps for cooling, supplying feed water to the boiler and lubricating the turbine.

Working method

View of the runner of a ship's steam turbine

In the steam boiler, steam is generated by burning fossil fuels ( coal , oil ) and brought to very high temperatures and pressures in a downstream superheater . The superheated steam is piped to the turbine, where it drives the rotating rotor, the core of the turbine. The rotor is brought to the desired speed by the energy of the steam. The used steam is converted back into water in the condenser. The condensate is pumped into the condensate tank. From there it is fed back into the boiler by feed water pumps and the cycle starts all over again. The steam cycle corresponds to the operating mode of a steam power plant .

Behind the turbine rotor there is a reduction gear that reduces the high speed of the turbine to that of the drive shaft with the ship's propeller. The ship's speed is controlled by the turbine speed.

Smaller steam turbines can be used to generate electricity. In addition, wave generators generate electricity for sea operations. These are generators that are driven by the propeller shaft. Usually there are additional emergency generators with diesel drives on steam ships so that the systems can be restarted in the event of a steam failure.

Nuclear propulsion

→ Main article: reactor ship

Nuclear propulsion systems are also steam turbine systems, but in which the steam is generated by means of a nuclear reactor instead of a fired steam boiler. However, this technique is only used on warships ( nuclear submarines , aircraft carriers , nuclear cruisers ) and icebreakers . The operation of civilian ships such as the German Otto Hahn or the American Savannah was uneconomical. There were also problems because many ports did not accept these ships and it was therefore difficult to receive or unload cargo.

Sometimes a nuclear with a conventional steam generator is combined (see CONAS drive ).

Today's meaning

The former Hamburg and later Maxim Gorkiy . It was also scrapped in late 2008 due to the high operating costs of its turbine drive

With the rapid development of diesel engines , which are easier to operate , the steam turbine is becoming less and less important for propelling seagoing vessels. The safety technology and monitoring required because of the high operating pressures and the safe system knowledge of the personnel required for trouble-free operation require a great deal of effort, so that turbine drives are no longer competitive.

The drive of LNG - tankers # LNG carriers steam turbines continue to have their importance. New builds of this type of ship will continue to be largely equipped with turbines. Currently (2006) the LNG world tanker fleet consists of around 200 ships. Most of them are turbine ships.

Gas turbine ships (GTS)

→ Main article: Gas turbine ship

Gas turbines as a type of drive are mainly used in the military sector. Usually, combined drives with a diesel engine and gas turbines are installed for maximum speed, the so-called CODAG drive. There are also ships with pure gas turbine propulsion, such as the Finnjet, or gas turbines with attached generators in ships with turbo-electric propulsion ( Queen Mary 2 ).

See also