Perhaps surprisingly, the largest experience in operating nuclear power plants has been in nuclear naval propulsion, particularly submarines. This accumulated experience may become the basis of a proposed new generation of compact nuclear power plant designs. In an effort to de-carbonise commercial freight shipping, there is growing interest in the possibility of using nuclear propulsion systems. Reactor cores for such an application would need to be fundamentally different from land-based power generation systems, which require regular refueling, and from reactors used in military submarines, as the fuel used could not conceivably be as highly enriched. Nuclear-powered propulsion would allow ships to operate with low fuel costs, long refueling intervals, and minimal emissions; however, currently such systems remain largely confined to military vessels. This research project undertakes computational modeling of possible soluble-boron-free (SBF) reactor core designs for this application, with a view to informing design decisions in terms of choices of fuel composition, materials, core geometry and layout. Computational modeling using appropriate reactor physics (e.g. WIMS, MONK, Serpent and PANTHER), thermal-hydraulics etc. codes (e.g. COBRA-EN) is used for this project. With an emphasis on reactor physics, this study investigates possible fuel assembly and core designs for civil marine propulsion applications. In particular, it explores the feasibility of using uranium/thorium-rich fuel in a compact, long-life reactor and seek optimal choices and designs of the fuel composition, reactivity control, assembly geometry, and core loading in order to meet the operational needs of a marine propulsion reactor. In this reactor physics and 3D coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics study, we attempt to design a civil marine reactor core that fulfills the objective of providing at least 15 effective full-power-years (EFPY) life at 333 MWth. In order to unleash the benefit of thorium in a long life core, the micro-heterogeneous ThO2-UO2 duplex fuel is well-positioned to be utilized in our proposed civil marine core. Unfortunately, A limited number of studies of duplex fuel are available in the public domain, but its use has never been examined in the context of a SBF environment for long-life small modular rector (SMR) core. Therefore, we assumed micro-heterogeneous ThO2-UO2 duplex fuel for our proposed marine core in order to explore its capability. For the proposed civil marine propulsion core design, this study uses 18% U-235 enriched micro-heterogeneous ThO2-UO2 duplex fuel. To provide a basis for comparison we also evaluate the performance of homogeneously mixed 15% U-235 enriched all-UO2 fuel. This research also attempts to design a high power density core with 14 EFPY while satisfying the neutronic and thermal-hydraulics safety constraints. A core with an average power density of 100 MW/m3 has been successfully designed while obtaining a core life of 14 years. The average core power density for this core is increased by ∼50% compared to the reference core design (63 MW/m3 and is equivalent to Sizewell B PWR (101.6 MW/m3 which means capital costs could be significantly reduced and the economic attractiveness of the marine core commensurately improved. In addition, similar to the standard SMR core, a reference core with a power density of 63 MW/m3 has been successfully designed while obtaining a core life of ∼16 years. One of the most important points that can be drawn from these studies is that a duplex fuel lattice needs less burnable absorber than uranium-only fuel to achieve the same poison performance. The higher initial reactivity suppression and relatively smaller reactivity swing of the duplex can make the task of reactivity control through BP design in a thorium-rich core easier. It is also apparent that control rods have greater worth in a duplex core, reducing the control material requirements and thus potentially the cost of the rods. This research also analyzed the feasibility of using thorium-based duplex fuel in different cases and environments to observe whether this fuel consistently exhibit superior performance compared to the UO2 core in both the assembly and whole-core levels. The duplex fuel/core consistently exhibits superior performance in consideration of all the neutronic and TH constraints specified. It can therefore be concluded from this study that the superior performance of the thorium-based micro-heterogeneous ThO2-UO2 duplex fuel provides enhanced confidence that this fuel can be reliably used in high power density and long-life SBF marine propulsion core systems, offering neutronic advantages compared to the all-UO2 fuel. Last, but not least, considering all these factors, duplex fuel can potentially open the avenue for low-enriched uranium (LEU) SBF cores with different configurations. Motivated by growing environmental concerns and anticipated economic pressures, the overall goal of this study is to examine the technological feasibility of expanding the use of nuclear propulsion to civilian maritime shipping and to identify and propose promising candidate core designs.

This thesis deals with computing the pressure distribution around a swimming slender fish and the thrust generated by its flapping motion. The body of the fish is modeled as a missile like slender body to which a tail is attached that is modeled as a swept wing. The tail is attached to the tip of the slender body and maintains its slope with it. The motion for the swimming fish is prescribed. The fluid flow is modeled as an unsteady potential flow problem with the flow around the slender body modeled as flow over an array of cylinders of varying radii and the flow over the swept wing modeled using the vortex panel method. The pressure distribution is computed using the unsteady Bernoulli equation. The overall thrust & drag for different parameters are studied and compared

A shift towards electric and hybrid propulsion within the marine sector create new challenges for conventional water jet units manoeuvred by hydraulic systems. The high efficiency in high speed water jet crafts benefit from being powered by electricity but will be compromised by constantly running hydraulic pumps, draining available electric capacity on-board. Wear and tear on hydraulic components are also an environmental contamination hazard, due to high pressure oil and exposed cylinder rods. However, conventional hydraulic power packs with subsystems to manoeuvre water jet unit is a well proven and reliable marine application.Steer-by-wire is not an uncommon subject, as it is frequently used in several industries such as aviation, automotive and offshore. The purpose of the study is to prepare a concept design proposal with CAD-models and drawings of electrically powered manoeuvring system for Marine Jet Powers DRB 750 steering units. The study did a literature study on the topic and qualitative research to fulfil the purpose. A generic product and concept development is conducted and computer aided design is done to present proposed prototype design.Results from the research gave 4 commercially available electrical actuators, all with significantly different functionality from each other resulting in 4 different concepts and thereof 1 prototype proposal integrated in the waterjet unit according to DNV standards.The selected concept in the study will need some further manufacturing configuration and optimisation for a full installation and working prototype. / Ett skifte mot elektisk och hybriddrift inom marina fartyg och framdrivningssystem skapar nya utmaningar och möjligheter, även så för höghastighetsfartyg där vattenjet har en fördel i sin karaktäristiska höga effektivitet. Idag manövreras vattenjetsaggregat med hjälp av hydraulik, som många gånger drivs med framdrivningsmaskineriet och/eller med en elektisk pump. Dessa system blir en energitjuv i en elektrisk eller hybridlösning för framdrivningen och så saknar det en naturlig lösning på hur en hydraulisk pump ska drivas. Slitage och skador på hydrauliska system kan även leda till miljöfarliga utsläpp av hydraulolja. Framför allt då det handlar om höga hydrauliska tryck och bland annat kolvstänger som är utsatta för påfrestningar från fartygens yttre miljö. Dock är hydrauliska system väl beprövade och pålitliga i marina miljöer.Styrning med hjälp av elkraft är inget som är nytt, även kallat Steer-by-wire, det har gjorts och används inom många områden så som flygplans-, bil- och offshoreindustrin. Syftet med studien är att skapa ett prototypförslag för elektisk manövrering av Marine Jet Powers vattenjetaggregat DRB 750. För att uppnå detta har en litteraturstudie genomförts och kvalitativ forskning för att samla information och få förståelse för ämnet. En generisk product- och konceptutveckling har använts med hjälp av datorstödd konstruktion för att presentera ett prototypförslag.Det har resulterat i 4 koncept med integrerade lösningar från olika tillverkare, som alla skiljer från varandra i funktionalitet och skulle kunna användas på ett sätt för att uppnå målet. Varav ett koncept som valdes, det vidareutvecklades till ett prototypförslag med skruvförband i vattenjetaggregatet och som även sågs till att uppfylla DNV:s standarder och regler. Det valda konceptet behöver vidare utveckling, integrering och optimering för att kunna installeras och testas i fungerande prototyp.