The MARPOWER Project is a collaborative European initiative focused on decarbonizing maritime transport. It aims to develop an advanced, gas-turbine-based energy conversion system, designed to run on sustainable fuels like green methane, hydrogen, and ammonia. The MARPOWER Energy Conversion System (MECS) will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and marine pollution.
The project unites leading academic and industrial partners across Europe. As a key contributor, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (DTU) provides essential technologies for the stabilization and control of high-speed rotating machinery in dynamic marine environments.
DTU: advancing technology for people and the planet
Founded in 1829, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) is a leading technical university located in Kongens Lyngby, near Copenhagen. DTU is internationally recognized for its excellence in engineering education, research, and innovation. The university is committed to developing technology for people, striving for a sustainable future through interdisciplinary research and collaboration with academic, private, and public partners.
DTU’s research encompasses a broad spectrum of science and engineering disciplines, including energy technology, climate technology, health technology, and artificial intelligence. The university fosters an ecosystem that brings new ideas and inventions from classrooms and research laboratories into the real world, creating new jobs and addressing societal challenges.
Enabling robust and intelligent turbomachinery for the MECS
DTU contributes to the MARPOWER project through its Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, DTU Construct, which specializes in research and development in areas such as solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, materials technology, manufacturing engineering, engineering design, and thermal energy systems.
In the MARPOWER Project, DTU focuses on the design and implementation of Active Magnetic Bearings (AMBs) to stabilize high-speed rotating machinery under the dynamic conditions experienced aboard ships. This includes:
- Designing and implementing controllers for AMBs to stabilize rotating machines under platform movements and varying temperature conditions, a goal that extends beyond the current state-of-the-art.
- Developing multi-physics models for AMB-levitated rotors on moving platforms, incorporating thermal effects and temperature-changing bearing parameters, contributing significantly to AMB technology applied to maritime systems and vessels.
- Collaborating with project coordinator LUT University to specify, size, and optimize magnetic bearing systems to ensure reliable rotordynamic behaviour under harsh ocean environments.
- Developing a modular driveline solution with project partners LUT University and Aurelia Turbines, integrating turbine, generator, and compressors on the same shaft, allowing for experimental validation of the high-pressure shaft, which is the most challenging rotordynamic entity of the MECS.
- Designing and constructing a small-scale test rig mounted on a moving platform to perform dynamic testing of AMB control under severe ocean conditions, i.e., up to the generation of violent rubbing and impact/shock between the turbine shaft and backup bearings.
The combination of theoretical and experimental activities – using small-scale test rigs – will significantly contribute to:
- the understanding of the complex dynamic behaviour of magnetically levitated turbine shaft, spinning at high angular velocities, under rubbing, shock, and high temperature conditions.
- the design and implementation of optimal and more reliable AMB control systems, experimentally proved, to achieve a rapid and safe re-stabilization of the turbine shaft, in the extreme cases of rubbing, impact, and high temperature variations.
- the quantification of rubbing and impact forces to improve the design of backup (safety) bearings.
- the prediction and compensation of high temperature effects on AMBs, avoiding thermal-induced vibration instabilities and significant reductions of AMB load capacity.
At the end, these milestones will aid achieving a fundamental goal: the enhancement of turbine’s reliability for offshore operation.
The team behind the innovations
The DTU team in MARPOWER is led by Professor Ilmar Ferreira Santos, Dr.-Ing., dr.techn., from the Section of Solid Mechanics at DTU Construct. Prof. Santos is a recognized authority in magnetic bearing technologies and rotordynamics. As a full professor, main supervisor, and coordinator of the DTU team, he extends the theory of contact dynamics to accommodate re-levitation and re-stabilization via active control strategies after severe and/or damaging contacts between high-speed shafts and backup bearings, which might occur depending on the influence of ocean conditions on the vessel. He is responsible for a large team composed of 1 postdoc researcher, 1 research assistant, 6 Ph.D. candidates, and 11 master students, all working in rotor dynamics, bearing technology, and mechatronics.
Directly contributing to MARPOWER are:
- Bruno Rende, currently a research scientific assistant with a potential promotion to postdoc, focusing on multiphysics modelling and the inclusion of thermal effects in passive and active magnetic bearings, as well as conducting experimental testing on high-speed rotors on moving platforms.
- August Strandfelt, also a research assistant, in charge of redesigning mechanical components and upgrading the test facilities to meet MARPOWER needs and goals.
- Johannes Lindgaard Lildholdt and Niels Christian Henriksen, who have completed their master projects investigating the experimental reconstruction of contact and friction forces from displacement, acceleration, and electrical current signal measurements.
The team has extensive experience in the design and testing of magnetic bearings on moving platforms, with related projects such as “AMBs on Moving Platforms”, which focused on designing and testing AMBs for flywheel energy storage systems for onshore and offshore installations. DTU’s laboratory includes 11 fully operational and instrumented test rigs for scaled representative systems of turbomachines, providing a robust infrastructure for experimental validation and research.
Building the foundation for future-proof maritime power
DTU’s expertise in active magnetic bearing technology and rotordynamics plays a crucial role in the MARPOWER Project’s mission to develop a flexible, high-efficiency energy conversion system for maritime applications. By advancing the state-of-the-art in magnetic bearing systems and control strategies, DTU contributes significantly to the project’s goal of reducing noise and greenhouse gas emissions and promoting sustainable maritime power generation.