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Author Topic: Viking Sky Cruise liner May Day off Norway 24.03.2019  (Read 2073 times)

derekwarner

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Derek Warner

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Illawarra Live Steamers Co-op
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Re: Viking Sky Cruise liner May Day off Norway 24.03.2019
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2019, 08:33:36 am »

How on earth does a modern cruise ship with 4 engines loose all of them? The only thing that I can think of is contaminated fuel but then they are now saying that they have got 3 restarted.
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Viking Sky Cruise liner May Day off Norway 24.03.2019
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2019, 09:26:14 am »

It's a diesel electric ship. The diesels generate electricity to power motors for propulsion and for all shipboard facilities. The whole setup depends on a sophisticated distribution and load bearing system.

If something serious goes wrong it can cause power surges which can overload the switching system causing it to shut down so the ship is without power except for an emergency diesel generator in the superstructure. Normally it should be possible to reset the main system although this can take some time but sometimes major damage can occur burning out the distribution gear which takes a lot longer to fix and may even not be possible at sea.

This sort of thing has happened to many cruise ships over the last few years including the QM2. Usually an hour or so without power in the middle of the ocean isn't too much of a problem but in this case the vessel was just a couple of miles offshore in very rough weather so there was very little time to sort the problem out.

I hope some lessons will be learned as what we had here was a small cruise ship with less than 1000 passengers in an area with good rescue facilities but they were still only able to evacuate a couple of hundred or so people by all accounts. The thought of a a big ship with 5000 passengers onboard in a remote location (and some of these ships go down to the Antarctic) doesn't bear thinking about.

There could have been a very bad outcome.

Colin
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Viking Sky Cruise liner May Day off Norway 24.03.2019
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2019, 09:56:47 am »

From the reports it is possible to hazard a guess as to what might have happened.

All four engines would only normally be used if the ship is travelling at full speed. Most of the time only three may be running at sea. This saves fuel and enables in service manintenance to be carried out on the engines in turn.

It was reported that immediately before the power went out there was a lot of noise and vibration so perhaps one of the engines suffered severe mechanical damage. This then caused a sudden electrical load imbalance which shut down power and maybe took the other two operating engines offline. It is said they managed to get one engine started and this could have been the 4th engine but that would have given only limited power and the switchboard might have had to be jury rigged. The fact that the ship is now proceeding on three engines suggests that the remaining two good ones have been brought back online but that the one that caused the problem is non operational.

Just my guess anyway!

Colin
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derekwarner

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Re: Viking Sky Cruise liner May Day off Norway 24.03.2019
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2019, 10:58:57 am »

Viking have obviously used a proved power train as each of her sister vessels have identical [principal elements] in the propulsion systems


2016 Viking Sea
2017 Viking Sun
2017 Viking Sky
2018 Viking Orion


The main electric motors are 2 x  @ 7250 kW each or 14500 kW total motor requirements


This means 1 x 12V32/44CR @ 6720 kW + 2 x 9L32/44 CR @ 5040 kW each would produce a total of ~~ 17250 kW....


So only any 3 of 4 engine gen sets  in operation at once would produce more than sufficient power to supply the 2 x electric motor drives at 100% of design speed


In most cases for matters of fuel/engine economics,  such engines would be run at say~~ no more that 70% of maximum output


Derek
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Derek Warner

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Colin Bishop

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Re: Viking Sky Cruise liner May Day off Norway 24.03.2019
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2019, 12:12:41 pm »

The engines also have to supply the substantial hotel load which is present whether the ship is moving or not.

Whilst they offer a lot of operating advantages the diesel electric plants are vulnerable to unexpected events which the automatic load balancing equipmnet struggles to cope with.

One of our Isle of Wight ferries suffered a major breakdown recently when one of the engines siezed up and temporarily knocked out vital electrical systems.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5b5217c7ed915d0b81e003df/MAIBInvReport14_2018.pdf

Colin
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Re: Viking Sky Cruise liner May Day off Norway 24.03.2019
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2019, 05:20:19 pm »

The engines also have to supply the substantial hotel load which is present whether the ship is moving or not.

Whilst they offer a lot of operating advantages the diesel electric plants are vulnerable to unexpected events which the automatic load balancing equipmnet struggles to cope with.

One of our Isle of Wight ferries suffered a major breakdown recently when one of the engines siezed up and temporarily knocked out vital electrical systems.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5b5217c7ed915d0b81e003df/MAIBInvReport14_2018.pdf

Colin
That does not sound like a fail safe system. I am surprised that this is considered OK.
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Viking Sky Cruise liner May Day off Norway 24.03.2019
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2019, 05:25:47 pm »

Well Turbo and Diesel electric systems have been driving ships since just after WW1 if not before. The US Navy had a class of electrically driven battleships, the French Normandie was turbo electric and so was the Canberra. More recently, when the QE2 was re engined in Germany she was fitted with diesel electric drive. It's pretty normal and works most of the time!

Colin
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Re: Viking Sky Cruise liner May Day off Norway 24.03.2019
« Reply #8 on: March 24, 2019, 06:50:43 pm »

Yes I get that but one of the advantages of propulsion systems that have more than one parallel component is that there can be something left working when all else has failed. The method used here seems to have lost that advantage all together. Is " most of the time" enough for normal or should we plan for the worst case?

I would prefer the worst case.
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Colin Bishop

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Re: Viking Sky Cruise liner May Day off Norway 24.03.2019
« Reply #9 on: March 24, 2019, 07:22:34 pm »

Yes, I think you are right but any system will have its vulnerabilities.

As always there are money issues and a commercial balance between cost and systems redundancy.

Apart from the Costa Concordia (which didn't go too well) the issues involved in evacuating a large cruise ship in adverse conditions have yet to be tested. There are those in the marine industry who believe that it is only a matter of time before something dreadful happens.

Basically, you could have perhaps up to 5,000 passengers of advanced years needing to be evacuated in a short period of time. Possibly in an area where local rescue facilities are limited. A potential disaster in the making.

Colin
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derekwarner

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ms Nieuw Statendam cruise ship losing power 24.03.2019
« Reply #10 on: March 24, 2019, 08:12:30 pm »


Holland America ms Nieuw Statendam cruise ship losing power 24.03.2019

https://www.cruisehive.com/new-cruise-ship-adrift-after-suffering-power-loss/30697

Premature news reporting >>:-( ....from vessel adrift to one gen set fault
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Derek Warner

Honorary Secretary [Retired]
Illawarra Live Steamers Co-op
Australia
www.ils.org.au

derekwarner

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Re: Viking Sky Cruise liner May Day off Norway 24.03.2019
« Reply #11 on: March 25, 2019, 03:00:06 am »

Curiously, Viking Sky is shown to have two [electric] Bow Thrusters which are not listed in the Vessels propulsation system specification...
These could each be 1000 kW input


In another Viking line text, 'emergency generators' are listed as separate equipment's, they also are not listed under the vessels electrical generation specification

So in terms of accuracy, I suppose we are only as good as reading the print  :o  

https://www.rolls-royce.com/~/media/Files/R/Rolls-Royce/documents/customers/marine/indepth/ID24.pdf

Derek
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Derek Warner

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Illawarra Live Steamers Co-op
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www.ils.org.au

Colin Bishop

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Re: Viking Sky Cruise liner May Day off Norway 24.03.2019
« Reply #12 on: March 27, 2019, 07:39:03 pm »

An update.

Colin

******************
 Viking Sky Engine Failure Caused By Low Oil Pressure

The Norwegian Maritime Authority (NMA) has released a statement on the Viking Sky engine failure, saying that the engine failure was directly caused by low oil pressure.

Throughout the night, the NMA worked together with the ship's classification society, Lloyd’s, and the cruise line in order to identify the reason why the Viking Sky suffered a power failure in challenging weather conditions over the weekend.

"For the present, our conclusion is that the engine failure was directly caused by low oil pressure," the NMA said. "The level of lubricating oil in the tanks was within set limits, however relatively low, when the vessel started to cross Hustadvika. The tanks were provided with level alarms, however these had not been triggered at this time. The heavy seas in Hustadvika probably caused movements in the tanks so large that the supply to the lubricating oil pumps stopped. This triggered an alarm indicating a low level of lubrication oil, which in turn shortly thereafter caused an automatic shutdown of the engines."

The NMA has drawn up a general safety notice about ensuring a continuous supply of lubricating oil to engines and other critical systems in poor weather conditions.

This should be done in cooperation with the engine supplier and, moreover, be included in the ship’s risk assessments in the safety management system, the NMA said, in a statement.

“We welcome the prompt and efficient investigation carried out by the NMA and we fully understand and acknowledge their findings," Viking said, in a prepared statement. "We have inspected the levels on all our sister ships and are now revising our procedures to ensure that this issue could not be repeated. We will continue to work with our partners and the regulatory bodies in supporting them with the ongoing investigations,”

On Tuesday, the NMA granted Viking Cruises a permit to sail on a single voyage to Kristiansund to have necessary repairs made.
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