ESRDC Final Report ONR Grant – N00014-02-1-0623

The Electric Ship Research and Development Consortium (ESRDC) objectives have been to develop and apply methodologies for the design and operation of the all-electric ship (AES), taking into account the multiscale, multi-domain, and multi-disciplinary aspects of the problem. This project will provide methods, algorithms and corresponding software tools for design, especially early design. It is a fundamental tenet of complex system design that early decisions have very serious consequences, both in the later stages of design and development, and in the operation of the ship. ESRDC is accelerating the development and demonstration of technologies, modeling, and simulation tools to provide critical design and operational capabilities of AES program. The consortium continues to address the national shortage of electrical power engineers.

The work under this program addressed a broad spectrum of issues, related to the development of electric ship systems including methods and models for design and simulation of highly-integrated multidisciplinary ship systems, methods for power routing and control, methods for characterizing and understanding the performance of the electric plant, and methods for controlling the plant. It is impossible to capture the full breadth and depth of the research in this one report, so instead the report content has been developed to provide a detailed insight into some of the achievements in illustrative areas. The reader is then encouraged to review the list of publications at the end of this report to comprehend the full breadth of the achievements and to refer to the appropriate publications where this report provides insufficient information. Broadly speaking, the topics of this team‟s investigations can be classified into the categories of Simulation Tools, Power Systems, and Control Systems. Highlights in each of these areas are mentioned next.