Berg Propulsion

Uses Nauticus Machinery software for innovative design

Berg Propulsion relies on Nauticus Machinery

Berg Propulsion in one of the world's leading designers and producers of controllable pitch propellers and at the forefront of the hydrodynamics, rotordynamics and hydraulic field. Their innovative work relies on Nauticus Machinery.

Berg Propulsion is a long-standing DNV customer, and one of the very first users of Nauticus Machinery Shaft Alignment. Mohamed Zeid is the rotordynamics specialist at Berg Propulsion, and has used Nauticus Machinery since 2006.

One of the greatest strengths of DNV, he says, is the support. “There are some other good tools on the market, but with DNV we get the help we need when we need it. If there are technical issues they may get someone from DNV consultancy to help us. We have 50 or more projects a year, so we don’t have time to lose. If someone says to me, ‘We can help you next week,’ that’s not good enough. I don’t have that time,” he says.

More reliable analyses

Mr Zeid says he has invested significant time in researching the full potential of Nauticus Machinery Shaft Alignment, learning to use curves and equations to make the analyses even more precise. He initiated timesaving systems at his workplace. The timesaving has been used to increase the number of projects and for development. “I’ve used it for understanding and digging more into the tool, resulting in something useful to us,” says Zeid.

“In shaft lateral analysis, if the value of one input parameter changes, then the values of all results parameters are going to be affected. For example, if I change one parameter, such as gear bearings stiffness, how will it change the others? I’m trying to understand how everything is working together. This helps for building the shafting response map – in both global view for shafting performance and compatibility, and also local view for each shaft component performance. Ultimately this leads to more reliable analyses, and helps me understand the feedback from the shipyard,” he says.

It is not feasible for Berg Propulsion to make hands-on measurements related to alignment at all of the shipyards across the globe where their propulsion systems are being built – they must instead rely on the engineers at each shipyard, at the same time maintaining the quality as desired. Therefore it is crucial that the analyses are based on the correct parameters, and that the calculations give an accurate representation of what happens when building the system in reality.

Matching reality

Instead of practicing reverse engineering, which is extremely time consuming, and where shipyards may need assistance on how to proceed, Berg Propulsion has the possibility with Nauticus Machinery Shaft Alignment to know ahead of time what the margins will be, and can instruct shipyards to proceed in the knowledge that the analyses match reality. This is an important timesaving solution at a critical point, as normally final alignment is carried out just before delivery of the vessel.

As a benefit from the research, Berg Propulsion has given important feedback to DNV programmers, who are improving the program in each new release.

In average, Berg Propulsion performs about 50 shaft alignment analyses per year. If the workload is expanding fast, Berg Propulsion at times asks DNV advisory to perform some analyses. “We’re using the same tool, which is very good. It means that we can share the models and discuss them with ease,” says Mr Zeid.

”From 1999 to 2011 we produced 1940 propellers. That’s more than we did in the previous 40 years,” says Mr Zeid.

“I have used the tool to make a very wide analysis for shaft performance for Berg Propulsion standard shaft configuration. These results I’ve used in calculations of lateral natural frequencies. From these results it’s possible to have equations that can give exactly the natural frequency, verified by the output from a model. This saves a lot of time, and is very effective in the project stage,” says Mr Zeid.

Berg Propulsion is not only using the Shaft Alignment tool, it has also recently started using Nauticus Machinery Torsional Vibration.

Profile

• Customer name: Berg Propulsion
• Web address: www.bergpropulsion.com
• Market: Design and manufacture of propellers and propulsion systems
• Employees: 320
• Solution/product: Nauticus Machinery (marine propulsion systems)

Why we chose DNV:

• Fast and comprehensive support
• Combined expertise of DNV

This is what we gained:

• Analyses that match reality, saving time and resources
• Time-saving and efficiency in the project stage