Aproximación al problema de toma de decisión de las plantas propulsoras combinadas en buques militares

Abstract

One of the most important decisions in the design of a vessel and especially in the design of a military vessel it is the selection of the propulsion plant. The specific characteristics that define to the military vessel cause that this decision was of a high complexity. At this moment, the combined propulsion plant is often used in the military vessels; these systems consist of the use of several machines turning the propellers, simultaneously or separately, conferring this way the necessary flexibility of operation that these types of vessels need. Exist several configurations of combined plants, where are used as principal machines, gas turbines, steam turbines and engines diesel in different combinations. Likewise there exist different types of military vessels that have different uses. It has been studied the propulsion plants used in the different types of military vessels, we can conclude in this paper that for the same group of main requirements a specific propulsion plant configuration is not found, vessels with the same characteristics (displacement, type of vessel, speed,…) define propulsion systems substantially different. And depending on the ship-owner, the shipbuilder, the shipyard, the country, each military vessel will use a type of propeller plant or other, and it doesn't seem that the decision in this sense has a certain pattern a priori. It is not clearly defined which it is the best propulsion plant for a specific set of vessel requirements, and the decision will depend on variables not clearly defined, like the shipyard's experience, shipowner´s preferences, etc. Being therefore a noticeably subjective decision when it should be a determinist from the technical point of view For all that we outline that this problem of decision should be approached from a more scientific point of view trying to identify which is the environment of decision in which the problem moves as well as the variables that it would be necessary to consider.