Innovative engineering Fit for a ABB climate control on board the Queen Mary 2 Örjan Götmalm, Odd Andsberg Queen! The longest, widest, tallest, he Queen Mary 2 left Southamp- within the required comfort range most expensive ... superlatives Tton, England, on January 12th, for whether she’s plowing through icy-cold her maiden voyage to Fort Lauderdale waters in the North Atlantic or lies at abound for the Queen Mary 2, in Florida. In her inaugural year, she anchor in the sunny Caribbean. the latest and most luxurious of will make 13 crossings between Eng- Cunard’s ocean liners. Helping land and New York at up to 32 knots, Besides supplying the HVAC plant, ABB taking over as Cunard’s transatlantic was also responsible for other major to make sure it lives up to its liner from her sister ship, Queen deliveries to the QM2, including the reputation is a state-of-the-art Elisabeth 2. generators and the main switchboard heating, ventilation and air-con- with LV panels and protection gear. ABB on board ditioning system from ABB. ABB will be a constant companion of Sea breezes and fresh air the luxury liner, although her passen- After a leisurely stroll on the promenade gers will hardly notice it. The ship’s deck in the bracing sea air, QM2 pas- heating, ventilation and air-conditioning sengers will expect a fresh and agree- (HVAC) system, which ABB delivered, is able atmosphere when they enter a din- unobtrusive, quiet, efficient and largely ing area or go to their cabins. And they invisible. Yet, it is massive, in fact the will not be disappointed. The HVAC largest ever designed for a passenger system supplied and installed by ABB vessel. Versatile, too – it automatically will ensure their comfort under all maintains the ship’s indoor climate circumstances. ABB Review 50 2/2004 Innovative engineering The demands made on such a Table 1: QM2 facts 43 for technical spaces. system are huge, to say the Length 350 meters / 1132 feet Weighing between 2 and 3 least. Air treatment plants on Beam 40 meters / 135 feet tons each and located along large contemporary cruise Draft 10 meters / 33 feet the ship’s spine, they convey ships can handle some 30 mil- Height (keel to funnel) 72 meters / 236 feet fresh air from the skin of the lion cubic meters or more of Gross registered tonnage 150.000 gross tons ship to its interior and stale air air every day. In tropical Passengers 2,620 to the outside. climes, this means not just Crew 1,253 Power 157,000 hp cooling the air, but also With air quality dependent on Speed 30 knots / 34.5 mph / 55.2 kph ridding it daily of 100 to eight to twelve air changes Propulsion 4 pods, each rated 20 MW 500 tons of water. per hour, the right balance had to be found between the The sheer volume involved Table 2: HVAC data noise level, comfort level for almost defies imagination. Summer conditions – outside 35°C and 85% rel. hum. passengers and crew, and Try to visualize a column of Winter conditions – outside –5°C and 95% rel. hum. space requirements for air air, one meter in diameter and Summer conditions – inside 24°C and 60% rel. hum. supply and exhaust. Compact reaching all the way to the Winter conditions – inside 22°C and 30–60% rel. hum. ABB air-handling units, com- 3 moon. That’s how much air Air flow rate 450 m /s bined with booster units, pro- Heating power 9 MW the air-conditioning plant on vide this balance, and have Cooling power 22 MW (gross) board the QM2 treats during a been used by ABB in similar Chilled water flow 2,700 m3/h typical 10-day cruise. configurations in a number of newbuildings. Air-conditioning at sea – the challenge To cope with such a configuration, The solution that was chosen has ABB For ships plying the North Atlantic year- the QM2 has nine air-conditioning MONOVENT® fresh-air control units round, keeping cool is never a problem. zones, coordinated with the ship’s fire installed for the QM2 suites and de luxe However, in the tropics it is. Here, pas- zones. These are served by five chillers cabins, while the passenger cabins are senger ships have traditionally had to with a total rating of 25 MW, located equipped with an air-circulation unit have awnings, shaded decks, air-circu- amidships along the keel within the ma- located in the service locker just outside lating systems and high ceilings to pro- chinery spaces. The total weight of the each cabin. vide relief from the heat. chilled water plant, including the piping and the water compressors, is 550 tons. Multi-deck dining rooms are especially Air-conditioning at sea poses a special challenging to the HVAC engineer. To challenge. Whereas ashore, insulation In all, the QM2 has 122 air-handling ensure an even temperature over the and wall thickness can be used to units for the accommodation areas and entire area, the air-conditioning system reduce heat transfer by con- was integrated in the ceiling duction, on board a ship in a way that ensures the space is at a premium. Also, right airflow and mixing. the very metal of which ships are made is an excellent heat The ship’s air-conditioning conductor. system also plays a major role in the water management. On the QM2, this problem is One of the air-conditioning compounded by its sheer size. system’s main tasks is to With hotels having more than maintain relative humidity 600 rooms already thought of levels of between 30 and as being ‘large’, it is worth 55%, depending on seasonal considering that the QM2 has and climatic variations. The more than 1,500 passenger water that is removed from cabins and around 750 crew the air – up to 500 tons a day cabins, and that these are EMAA air-handling unit. 122 of these units are installed on the QM2. on the QM2 – is collected and scattered over 10 decks. used for cleaning purposes, ABB Review 2/2004 51 Innovative engineering for example in the ship’s High energy efficiency laundry. The efficient utilization of energy is a cornerstone of Passenger safety ABB’s HVAC system design is all-important philosophy. This is because The specification for the the energy consumption of QM2 stipulated HVAC active the HVAC system on board a smoke control for several cruise liner is second only to large public spaces. Ad- the energy consumption of vanced CFD was used to its propulsion system. verify the design of the fire smoke control system, espe- ABB Variable Air Volume cially its ability to clear (VAV) systems constantly ad- smoke from the ship’s large just their capacity to suit multi-storey theater. One of changing needs, while the the parameters that received fan-speed acts as an energy particular attention was the conservation device. In ad- system’s ability to remove dition, the controller locks smoke from the escape out fan speeds that could routes and the areas near give rise to resonant fre- them. The simulation verified quencies – a common prob- that the space should be lem with conventional fan- cleared of dense smoke speed control. within the statutory 10 min- utes. Sounds of silence Only very low noise levels EMAA integrated power & automatic control unit Air-handlers have a small are allowed on the QM2 – footprint 40 dB(A) for cabins and The air-handling units on the 50 dB(A) for public spaces. QM2 supply 1,800 tons of Special consideration there- fresh air, filtered, cooled and/or heated, forced cooled frequency converters fore had to be given to the choice of per hour, to keep the ship’s interior ensure precise control of the variable air fans, ducts, silencers, dampers and air comfortable irrespective of the weather volume and air pressure. distribution devices. This was especially outside, the time of day, the ship’s bear- important considering that some 60 km ing and speed, and thermal load varia- An air-handler typically supplies the in- of pre-fabricated circular ducting were tions within the vessel. terior of the ship with 28 tons of condi- installed in addition to the non-circular tioned air hour after hour to counteract ductwork. New EMAA air-handling units with thermal loading and replace stale air coolant pipes mounted topside are economically and safely. The EMAA ABB engineers analyzed the theoretical installed units are packed models and performed full-scale tests in on the An air-handler typically with the latest air close cooperation with ABB Corporate QM2. supplies the interior of the technology and Research in Sweden to confirm that the Besides come with smart in- noise levels would not be exceeded. making ship with 28 tons of condi- tegration of electri- installa- tioned air hour after hour to cal and automation Control system tion eas- counteract thermal loading equipment ready The HVAC control system for the QM2 ier, their and replace stale air. for hook-up. Their was built around ABB Advant 31 pro- compact fans and other com- grammable logic controllers. Over 400 design ponents are highly of these super-fast PLCs automatically saves a considerable amount of expen- efficient, with casings designed for control some 40,000 hardware and soft- sive deck space. Factory-tested, inte- compactness and high specific airflow ware tags. Since it incorporates a very grated electrics and control systems with capacity. high level of redundancy, the system is ABB Review 52 2/2004 Innovative engineering virtually impervious to global system faults.