Triple Energy Saving by Use of Contra Rotating, Tip Loaded and Podded Propulsion Technology

TRIPOD deals with energy saving in waterborne transport. It explores the feasibility of a novel propulsion concept resulting from the integration of two promising technologies (podded propulsion and tip loaded endplate propellers) in combination with energy recovery based on counter rotating propeller (CRP) principle. New ways of saving energy are studied to improve ship operational costs. The paper describes the main objectives and the different phases of the project, including the design activities, validation of the concept by model testing and numerical computations, and the economic analysis of main results. The main focus is on the development of a tool for the assessment of the overall energy balance in the ship design phase and on the application of the newpropulsion concept to several ship fleets. Energy savings and consequently emission reductions are derived from the use of the analysis tool