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Efficiency Ideal Control Gurus Saltwater Standoff

Efficiency Ideal Control Gurus Saltwater Standoff

SBI 2012

SBI 2012 | volume 6 | ISSUE 5

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VOLUME 6

| ISSUE 5 ISSUE

DREDGING

Control Gurus EFFICIENT DREDGING -.EU Efficiency Ideal FOR A LIFETIME Saltwater Standoff

THE INDEPENDENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SHIPBUILDING, REPAIR AND MARINE SUPPLY INDUSTRY AND MARINE SUPPLY SHIPBUILDING, SHIP REPAIR THE INDEPENDENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR INTERNATIONAL ON TRIAL DREDGING Control Gurus The Art of Efficient Dredging

For ShipBuilding Industry, the team at IHC Systems stepped back from the daily hustle to reflect on the role of instrumentation, sensor technology and control integration in dredging. They put pen to paper on a journey from the ‘primordial’ instrumentation used in reconstructing post-war Europe to modern artificial intelligence. It leads to total vessel integration.

20 | ShipBuilding Industry | Volume 6 | Issue 5 DREDGING

his feature highlights the role of Efficient Dredging equals sustainable dredging. added to the colour of the mixture, sufficed to T instrumentation, sensor technology and The focus of this feature is on active floating keep the dredger running. The governor of the control integration in the art of Efficient Dredging. equipment, such as cutter suction dredgers diesel engine represented the only automatic gear. This art is defined as removing and/or depositing (CSD), trailing suction hopper dredgers (TSHD) As Europe rebuilt itself from two world wars, the dredged material at the right, specified location and dredgers. Here, the ‘armouring’ transition to hydraulic dredgers brought an almost and to the right depth or profile, within tolerances includes integrating, adjusting, controlling and unbelievable increase in dredging capabilities. In this as specified by customers and rules prescribed tuning a multitude of different equipment and situation, quick results were more important than by authorities. physical parameters to the prevailing output efficiency. Gradually, however, economic Efficient Dredging results in the best ratio between circumstances, which can vary even during a considerations and stricter rules urged contractors material moved, costs and environmental load. single dredging shift. Tuning parameters to squeeze more out of dredgers, requiring more Moving either less or more material is inefficient postulates knowing physical units. From that, the attention to decisive process parameters. Discharge and can have a negative impact on the dredge role of instrumentation and sensor technology is pressure meters emerged, as well as mixture operation in terms of costs and emissions, plus clear: instrumentation translates physical units into density, velocity and basic tonnes of dry solids (TDS) unwanted hydro-mechanical and/or environmental readable and understandable indications. measurements. The first attempts to remotely side effects. indicate the suction depth and the load rate of the Hydraulic Transition vessels resulted in pneumatic operated pieces of Armoured Operation Until the sixties, instrumentation on hydraulic fine-mechanic instrumentation. In Efficient Dredging, the contractor ‘armours’ dredgers – that is, dredgers which every factor in the entire operation – from mixture by pumping – was limited to a vacuum Built to Purpose planning, logistics and the availability of indicator for the dredge pump or an ampere meter This pioneering instrumentation had no , , pipelines, etc, to floating for its motor, signifying the load and the counterpart in the regular instrumentation industry, equipment and well-educated crew. Only in this proneness to cavitation of the pump. The very led by large companies such as Foxboro, Fischer way, the vessel-operators can conduct the job experienced operators of those days had grown & Porter, Honeywell and similar. Attempts to adapt against the lowest possible spill levels, costs, fuel up with the transition from the dredge bowl and such regular instrumentation generally failed. consumption, emissions, use of other resources the bucket chain dredger to hydraulic dredgers. Consequently, Dutch suppliers like Observator and environmental impacts. In other words, For these people, the vacuum/ampere indication, and the predecessor of IHC Systems decided to

Efficient Dredging involves the ‘armouring’ of every factor in the entire operation, including the floating equipment.

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ShipBuilding Industry | Volume 6 | Issue 5 | 21 DREDGING

In the sixties, the mixture density and velocity meter meant an unbeatable breakthrough to modern instrumentation.

large benefit over any industrial counterpart: It kept working in the very unforgiving circumstances on floating dredgers. These can include clogging by , violent vibrations, dust, mechanical-load variations, extreme temperatures, abuse as mounting platform and more. Mostly, the instrumentation also stayed watertight! The first mixture density and velocity meters, or rather ‘estimators’, operated with adapted industrial pneumatic transmitters with capillary membranes. They had a high failure rate. When the radioactive mixture density meter and inductive velocity meter emerged, they brought a breakthrough. The technology still cannot be beat, despite attempts to do so, for example through IHC Systems’ ongoing research on potential replacements. The reliable ‘mechanical interfacing’ of dredge sensors remains a challenge. Technology Grows Together In the sixties and seventies, sensor technology build instrumentation for the purpose – and focused on durability at acceptable accuracies. succeeded. Looking back, this instrumentation For the emerging modest inboard control circuits can seem rather crude. After 40 years one of the such as pump speed controllers and vacuum authors vividly recalls walking a 60m long deep- relief valves, this dedicated instrumentation was dredger ladder, while carrying a submersible vital. Relying on industrial sensors could disturb vacuum transmitter weighing over 30 kg. routines and result in clogged pipelines, water Regarding accuracy, crudeness is a fair hammer, bursting pipes, and even injuries. description, too: accuracies of ±5 - 25 percent The accuracies and prices of this ‘primordial’ were no exception. instrumentation were a good reason for leading However, this ‘coarse’ instrumentation had one West-European contractors and manufacturers

22 | ShipBuilding Industry | Volume 6 | Issue 5 DREDGING like IHC Systems and Observator’s daughter Efficient Dredging that exceeds the impact of Meconaut – which finally merged in the nineties instrumentation as such. Consequently, – to look back to the regular industry again for investments in this field surpass those in the field economical, useful compromises between of instrumentation by far. robustness and accuracy. This appeared to be a Therefore, as insight grows, both manufacturers successful move, resulting in the current state of and users see that making large investments in affairs, in which most instrumentation is dedicated sensors for every imaginable composed from a fortunate mix of industrial application on board dredgers is not useful. sensors, dedicated mechanical additions, Instead, they look for a viable compromise adapted specifications and specific features. between quality, reliability and performance. And Nowadays sensor technology seems to have in case of doubt, today’s affordable sensors and reached a balance. Standardisation and processing capacity make essential accuracies of ±1.0 percent (or better) are similar measurements possible as redundant systems. to those of onshore instrumentation, including This is not to say that instrumentation knowledge programming possibilities and smart remote- and sensor technology will disappear from the The tachometer signals of the winch motors can be adjustment facilities. A limited number of sensors investment schedules of the dredge utilised for every required purpose throughout the entire vessel. have attained a character and can be industry. Sensors are too important for supplying purchased from any supplier of quality reliable process parameters to the above instrumentation. mentioned systems. In particular the ‘mechanical The newest challenge is to adapt instrumentation interface’ or ‘process connection’ of sensors for to the deep-sea dredging and applications dredge equipment remain a pure challenge that will start operating within the coming years. because of the tough circumstances. Condition- The lesson from accidents in deep sea oil based maintenance systems and new control exploration is that equipment better be thoroughly (see below) require the measurement tested before being lowered thousands of meters of uncommon parameters, reflecting terms in below sea level. IHC Systems therefore makes sophisticated equations. For some other use of a certified pressure vessel in which the parameters, there are simply no replacements equipment can be fully operated under pressures available – as demonstrated by the enduring equivalent to 3,000 m of water depth. principal position of the radiation principle for density measurements. Focus Shift Beginning in the nineties, other developments Intelligence & Simulation became important for Efficient Dredging. New possibilities emerged with the application of IHC Drives & Automation manages the technology Computer capacity multiplied tremendously. artificial intelligence (AI) and model-based to integrate the dredge control system and vessel system. Subsequently, PLC, PC and SCADA systems on estimation and control of parameters (MBC) [1]. board dredgers were extended and supported by These allow the approach of ‘immeasurable’ increasingly sophisticated communication values and control routines online. They also networks, WiFi and satellite communication. enable the verification of sensor signal correctness TSHD, which usually wreck / Touchscreen control of dredgers is normal and, in specific cases, temporary replacement of Dynamic Tracking (DP/DT) algorithms. These had practice for vessels built these days. Using a failing signal by ‘dead reckoning’, just as car to be measured by highly vulnerable commonly available ‘high street’ hardware and navigation systems do during passages. measurements in the suction pipe hinge joints, software platforms, companies developed more In addition, control systems can be tuned with until IHC Systems found a patented AI approach, reliable control, automation and presentation parameters that once were not available at all. which functions even better. Another example is systems. These appear to have an impact on Examples are the forces on the suction pipe of a the AI-based control of long multi-pump (>10km)

On the , the evident consistency between IHC Systems’ dredge control system (left) ... and IHC D&A’s vessel managment system SCADA screens prevents any operator misunderstanding. >

ShipBuilding Industry | Volume 6 | Issue 5 | 23 DREDGING

Fully operational six weeks before transfer to the owner, thanks to total vessel control integration: Shanti Sagar XVI

dredging circuits. By estimating the average grain Besides, this equipment should operate reliably Sagar XVI, with a joint VMS/DCS on the backbone size, the operator can control pumps much closer and should not cause downtime. of similar hardware, communication networks, to critical values, achieving efficiency Efficient Dredging would imply that this principal software routines and SCADA build-up, among improvements of about 25 percent [2]. and auxiliary equipment is optimally tuned to others. This system then consistently managed Dedicated, real-time simulators make it possible translate automation signals into the most efficient every onboard function – except for propulsion of to develop and thoroughly-test ‘in practice’ these physical movements and actions of pumps, cutter course. The first tangible result was a self-learning (adaptive) systems. IHC Systems heads, winches, propellers and so on. Because considerably reduced commissioning period – built its TSHD, CSD and Excavator simulators these large energy consumers usually operate on which also saves the time of the shipyard, being from scratch in the first decade of this century. high energy levels, for example 3,000 kW at the ‘third partner’. This lead to the favourable Primarily intended to test intricate control circuits, 690 VAC, they are controlled by variable situation where the vessel was fully operational six these simulators have reached a high degree of frequency drives, which are able to convert weeks before transfer to the user. Today the precision. Leading dredging contractors signals into controllable high energy currents and vessel dredges at her home base, Mundra in worldwide increasingly adopt simulators for their voltages. India [6]. She will turn out to be the first example of training programmes [3,4,5]. The latest example is For the purpose of efficiently managing the whole an innovative approach in Efficient Dredging. a simulator for training DEME operators – already system ‘dredger’ with her subsystems, IHC Drives accustomed to the CSD simulator – on several & Automation supplies proven sub-control i. www.ihcsystems.com generations of the dredge control systems (DCS) systems, named platform automation, power on board DEME’s TSHD fleet. Meanwhile, the use management, propulsion management and alarm All illustrations courtesy of IHC Merwede of simulators for testing capabilities continues monitoring and control systems. The ideal case unabated. for Efficient Dredging materialises when these are References integrated into a vessel management system [1] Braaksma, J. Model-Based Control of Hopper Dredgers. Delft, 2008. ISBN 978-90-9022693-4 Total Vessel Control (VMS), which flawlessly communicates and [2] “A boost to sustainable growth: Innovative dredging Sensors, integrated PLC/SCADA/AI/MBC control interacts with the DCS – and is operated similarly. at Sepetiba Bay”. and Dredging 168. IHC and monitoring systems along with simulator Its benefit is, among others, that sensor signals Merwede, Sliedrecht, The Netherlands, 2007. 2-15 [3] “Training @ Sea”. Ports and Dredging 171. utilisation are key to Efficient Dredging. However, are available in every subsystem and can be freely IHC Merwede, Sliedrecht, The Netherlands, 2009. in order to take effect, every control command used, even for different purposes. For example: 20-27 signal, irrespective of its intelligence, must be the tachometer signal of a specific winch is used [4] “Efficient dredging with : from position monitoring to reliable jack-of-all-trades and training followed up by inboard actuators and powering in the variable frequency drives for speed-control simulator”. Ports and Dredging 173. IHC Merwede, systems – such as diesel engines and/or electric feedback, whereas it is also available to DCS for Sliedrecht, The Netherlands, 2009. 20-25 or hydraulic motors for dredge pumps, cutters, estimating the swing anchor positions. [5] “CSD training simulator for NMDC”. Ports and Dredging 179. IHC Merwede, Sliedrecht, The winches, spuds, spud carriers, propeller Netherlands, 2012. 32-37 installations, excavator booms, sticks and New Era [6] “SHANTI SAGAR XVI: a new dredger for a rapidly buckets. In addition, these must be supported by In 2012 this total integration occurred for the first expanding customer”. Ports and Dredging 180. IHC Merwede, Sliedrecht, The Netherlands, 2012. 16-21 a wealth of auxiliary systems and components time in history when IHC Beaver Dredgers, such as compressors, pumps, valves, cylinders, IHC Systems and IHC Drives & Automation joined filter systems, etc. These require extensive electric forces. They equipped the non-propelled, power generation and systems. 13,000kW IHC Beaver 9029 CSD, the Shanti <

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