Rolls-Royce is specified as gas turbine supplier for the Republic of Korea Navy’s new Incheon Class (FFX Batch II) frigate program, marking a first supply of the MT30 to an Asian Navy: The Incheon was built at HHI and is scheduled to be commissioned in summer 2013. Eight ships are planned for the FFX class and will be built at HHI and DSME. A further 18 ships are projected to enter service by 2020 to replace the Po Hang and Dong Hae classes. The frigate of 2,300 displacement has an LOA of 374 ft (114 m). The propulsion system is a two shaft CODAG arrangement with a single MT 30 gas turbine that delivers up to 36MW of power and diesel engines provide for lower power requirements. The maximum speed is 30 kn and cruising speed is 18 kn giving a range of approximately 4,500 nm. [More]

Wärtsilä has announced the successful testing of a special version of its RT-flex50 two-stroke slow speed series. Designated the D version, it has the turbocharger relocated on the driving end side of the engine. The new RT-flex50D series is much more compact by locating the turbocharger directly above the fly wheel at the driving end of the engine. In ships with narrow stern sections the engine choice was limited and often required specifying an engine of smaller bore and higher rotational speed. The Wärtsilä RT-flex50D is offered in five to eight cylinders configurations in the power range of 6,100 to 13,960 kW with a speed band of 99 to 124 rpm. Typical applications for the new D series would be in small bulker and product tankers, handymax and panamax bulk carriers, container and feeder container vessels, and feeder ships. [More]

Commercial ships able to route through the Northwest Passage without ice breaker assistance are a step closer to becoming a reality. Korean shipbuilders, Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), announced a few days ago that a model of their 190,000 dwt iron ore bulk carrier had finished its test program in the world’s largest – 90 meters long – ice test tank at Canada’s Institute for Ocean Technology (IOT). With an awareness that the traditional ice-breaker bow construction (where the mass of the ship’s bow structure bears down to break up pack ice) acts as a drag on efficient progress in open waters, international collaboration between IOT and Korean researchers from Pusan National University aimed at finding the optimal bow design for a ship operating in various ice conditions. Numerical computer analysis by the team culminated in manoeuvring and resistance performance tests of the model bulk carrier in the special ice-test tank. Ship Model Testing in IOT Ice... [More]