Real-time simulation of an electric ship in normal and faulty conditions

International audienceToday’s requirement for improved electrical systems increase needs for accurate, fast and versatile models. MATLAB/SIMULINK is a good candidate in terms of average simulation for accuracy, versatility and speed, but for detailed simulation (i.e. designed with the SimScape toolbox) it can be very slow, especially when multiple power converters are simulated. This issue can be solved by real time simulators based on FPGAs like OP-5607 from Opal-RT. With these real-time simulators, complex systems can be simulated with a time step of a few hundreds of nano-seconds. This article presents a new methodology in simulation fields which let researchers to interface fast response power electronics converters and slower physicals parts. This new methodology allows designers to evaluate systems at multiple time scales: minutes, seconds and milliseconds. This article emphasizes today’s possibilities of simulating a system as complex as the propulsion line of a cruise ship during an entire 30 min trip. Finally, this kind of simulation allows engineers to increase the accuracy of modeling, even to work on realistic faulty conditions