Proceedings of 2018 IEEE

International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation

August 5 - 8, Changchun, China

Design and Optimization of Control System for

Controllable Pitch Propeller with Load Protection
Ming Ji, Peng Zhao, Lihua Liang, Runqi Liu
College of Automation
Harbin Engineering University
Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China
[email protected]

Abstract - Controllable pitch propeller is widely used in ship operated at a speed controlled by the main engine converts the
thrust system for its good property. In this paper, we propose a absorbed torque into the force pushing the ship forward or
joint controller with load protection for controllable pitch pulling the ship backward. Therefore, the load of the main
propeller. Based on an in-depth study of the thrust unit and its engine and the magnitude and direction of the thrust force can
control system of the controllable pitch propeller, the models of
the speed and pitch control subsystems are built and tuned with
be regulated within a certain range at will [5]. The main
good closed-loop characteristics. According to the energy propulsion efficiency and maneuverability of the ship under
conversion and balance condition between the ship, propeller and different sailing conditions can be greatly improved to enhance
diesel engine, an optimal matching control algorithm of engine the degree of automation of the ship and extend the life of the
speed and pitch with load protection is developed for the main engine. The controllable pitch propeller systems are
combined control mode. Take the highest thrust effectiveness as mostly controlled by a joint control method of main propulsion
the optimization goal, the optimization mathematical model with engine and propellers. That is, the main propulsion engine and
constraints is established and solved using exterior penalty and propellers can be matched well under any condition by a single
standard Particle Swarm Optimization (SPSO). The effectiveness
operation handle, giving full play to the superiority of the
and superiority of the proposed control algorithm for combined
control mode is verified by comparing with the speed control
controllable pitch propeller to achieve the best operation
mode which is common used by ships. results.
As the main driving system of ship operation, the
Index Terms - Controller design, controllable pitch propeller matching of the working parameters of the main propulsion
(CPP), SPSO, load protection, PID engine and the propeller is one of the most important indexes
to characterize the quality of the ship. The optimization and
I. INTRODUCTION matching of the parameters of the ship under various operating
conditions can reduce the energy consumption, improve the
With the development of ocean engineering, the types of maneuverability and safety of the ship operation. This paper
ships are constantly increasing, such as salvage and rescue aims to develop a optimal controller of the speed of the main
ship, fire-fighting ship, dredger and icebreaker [1, 2]. These propulsion engine and the pitch of the propeller with load
special ships put forward higher requirements on the protection for the joint control mode of the controllable pitch
navigation performance of ships due to special requirements propeller. The structure of this paper is as follows. Section 2
such as maneuverability and energy saving [3]. Constant pitch establishes the mathematical models of speed control and pitch
propeller is a conventional propulsion device. Its pitch can not control and selects appropriate controller parameters to
be changed since its propellers are fixed. Therefore, the speed achieve good control effect. Section 3 analyzes the match
of the ship can only be controlled by adjusting the speed of the between the ship, main propulsion engine and propeller.
diesel engine, and the full main engine power can not be Section 4 achieves the optimal match curve using SPSO
utilized under all propeller loads. In order to meet the algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed optimal control
requirements of the ship on maneuverability, propulsion algorithm is proved by comparing with the conventional
efficiency and safety, the controllable pitch propeller emerges constant speed control mode. Finally, the conclusion is given.
as times require [4].
The pitch of the controllable pitch propeller can be II. MODELING OF CONTROLLABLE PITCH PROPELLER
adjusted by turning the propellers relative to the hub using the
The propulsion system of the controllable pitch propeller
steering mechanism in the hub [4]. Due to the continuously
consists of a total of five parts, that is the controllable pitch
adjustable blade angle, it is possible to absorb all of the main
propeller, drive shaft system, pitch control unit, hydraulic
engine power at any load. In the case of the same main engine
system and control platform [3]. Compared with the constant
power, the speed of the ship can also be changed by changing
pitch propeller, the controllable pitch propeller system has two
the blade angle to adjust the pitch to achieve the ahead or
control variables, namely, the speed of the main propulsion
astern running. As the pitch angle of the controllable pitch
engine n and the pitch of the propeller H. Therefore, the
propeller can be adjusted steplessly within full range of ahead
and astern running, for any given pitch angle, the propeller control system of the controllable pitch propeller is mainly

978-1-5386-6075-1/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 1037

composed of two parts, that is the speed control system which
controls the speed of the main propulsion engine by a speed
controller, and the pitch control system which adjusts the pitch
through pitch control unit and the corresponding actuating Fig. 3 Simulation result of pitch control system
mechanism, as shown in Fig. 1.
The transfer function of the EHPV can be approximated by
a second-order oscillation element as:
X (s) 1 KX (3)
= 2 2
VP ( s ) Tv s + 2ξ vTv s + 1
where Tv and ȟv are the equivalent time constant of the
proportional valve. 1/KX is the gain coefficient.
The actuating mechanism of the CPP is a hydraulic cylinder.
Its transfer function can be expressed as:
Fig. 1 Controllable pitch propeller control system Kq X ( s ) K ce § Ve · Q
− ¨ s + 1¸ FL ( s ) + tad
A. Speed Control System Av A1 Av © 4 β e K ce ¹ Av (4)
Y (s) =
Speed control system is a closed-loop control system §s 2
2ξ h ·
including speed controller, diesel engine and speed sensor. s¨ 2 + s + 1¸
ω
© h ω h ¹
The diagram of speed control system is shown in Fig. 2.
where Kq is the flow gain of the valve. Kce is the total flow-
pressure coefficient. Ve is equivalent volume. A1 and Av
indicate the effective area and the average area of the piston,
respectively. Ȧh and ȟh are the nature frequency and damping
Fig. 2 Diagram of speed control system coefficient of the hydraulic cylinder, respectively. ȕe is the
It can be known from the dynamic equations and addition coefficient and Qtad represents the amount of
kinematic equations of the ship propulsion system without additional leakage.
deflection that the ship relies on the torque output from the The PI controller is adopted to control the pitch [9]. Let the
main propulsion engine and drives the propeller through a pitch increment be ǻș, the incremental PI control algorithm is:
­ ΔT
series of transmission devices. The actual propeller rotation ° Δθ = K P ( en − en−1 ) + en (5)
speed can be calculated as: ® T
dn °¯θ n = θ n −1 + Δθ
2π I P = M d − Q − M f (1)
dt where KP is the proportional gain and T is the integral time
where Md is the output torque of the diesel engine. Q is the constant. ǻT is the sampling time. en and en-1 are the sampling
torque of the propeller. Mf is the friction torque of the shaft deviation values of this time and the last time, respectively.
system, which is generally a function of the propeller rotation The simulation results of the speed and pitch control system
speed. Take the influence and calculation difficulty into are shown in Figs. 4 and 5, respectively. It can be seen from
consideration, it can be approximated as 10% of the propeller Figs. 4 and 5 that both the two control subsystems have been
torque. I is the moment of inertia of the propeller and the shaft well tuned and have good control characteristics.
system. nP is the rotation speed of the propeller.
PID controllers are widely applied in ship industry [6-8].
The algorithm of the PID control can be expressed as:
­ ΔT T
°Δy = K p ( en − en −1 ) + en + d ( en − 2en −1 + en − 2 ) (2)
® Ti ΔT
° y = y + Δy
¯ n n −1

where ǻT is the sampling period. Ti and Td are the integral and

derivative time constants, respectively. Kp is the proportional Fig. 4 Simulation result of speed control system
gain. en, en-1 and en-2 are the sampling deviations of this time,
the last time and the previous times, respectively.
B. Pitch Control System
As shown in Fig. 3, the pitch control system of the
controllable pitch propeller is mainly composed of pitch
controller, electron-hydraulic proportion valve (EHPV) and
pitch adjusting mechanism (PAM).

Fig. 5 Simulation result of pitch control system

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 III. ENERGY MATCHING ANALYSIS When the rotation speed is too high or too low, it causes
poor combustion in the cylinder or increases mechanical
The ship’s main engine, propeller and hull all have their
friction, decreases the effective pressure . The relationship
own work characteristics. However, when the main engine and
between the power and rotation speed is a convex curve.
propeller are installed on the ship, they constitute an organic
Adjust the fuel injection rate of diesel engine nozzle İ, the
whole. These three constitute an energy conversion system.
speed characteristics of diesel engine under different load
That is, the host outputs energy, which is transmitted to the
conditions can be obtained, as shown in Fig. 6.
propeller through the transmission and the shaft system. The
1H Q + QPD[
propeller acts as an energy converter, transforming the rotating 3H
energy of the main engine into thrust. Its thrust overcomes the 3H

resistance of the ship and makes the ship advance at the 3H 

QPLQ
corresponding sailing speed. Therefore, there is a problem of 3H

mutual cooperation in the process of energy conversion 3H

between the hull, the main engine and the propeller. Their 3H
cooperation in operation is related to the advantages and
disadvantages of energy conversion. Therefore, it is important
to analyze the characteristics of energy conversion process in  Q
Fig. 6 Working range of diesel engine
ships under various conditions to find out the optimal
In order to make the diesel engine work safely and reliably,
conversion process. A 300 t fishery ship is selected as the
the working range of the diesel engine must be limited. As
research object. The principle parameters of the ship are: ship
shown in Fig. 6, the area covered by a-b-c-d-a is the working
length L=60.6 m, beam B=10 m, horsepower HP=2040 KW,
range of diesel engine. The main engine and propeller can be
maximum sailing speed Vm=20 kn. The blade number,
stably matched at any point within the allowable working
diameter and rotary speed of the CPP are 5, 3400 mm and
range of the diesel engine.
~230 r/min.
The balance between the main engine and the propeller can B. Ship resistance Characteristics
be expressed as: The resistance of a ship when it sails is mainly composed of
MD ⋅i = M f + Q (6) friction resistance Rf, viscous pressure resistance Rpv and
wave-making resistance Rw. The ship resistance R can be
n = nP ⋅ i (7) calculated as:
where MD and n are the output torque and rotation speed of the 1
main engine, respectively. Q and nP are the rotation torque and R = ( C f + C pv + Cw ) ρ SVs2 (12)
2
rotation speed of the propeller, respectively. i is the reduction where Cf, Cpv and Cw are the coefficients of the friction
ratio of the reduction gear. Mf is the friction torque of the resistance, the viscous pressure resistance and the wave-
transmission and shaft system. making resistance, respectively. ȡ is the fluid density. S is the
Considering the influence of the propeller’s wake effect and wetted surface area of the hull and Vs is the ship sailing speed.
thrust deduction, the equilibrium condition between the The effective power of the ship PE can be expressed as:
propeller and the hull can be expressed as:
PE = R × Vs (13)
T (1 − t ) = R (8)
The result of the fishery ship-model resistance test is shown
VP = (1 − w ) VS (9) in Fig. 7. It can be seen from Fig. 7 that the ship resistance is
where T is the propeller thrust. R is the ship resistance . t is the almost proportional to the square of the ship sailing speed.
thrust deduction coefficient. VP is the propeller advance speed 300

and VS is the ship sailing speed. w is the wake coefficient. 250

A. Characteristic Analysis of the Main Engine 200

Most marine main engines are diesel engines. The output
R / kN

power of a diesel engine can be expressed as: 150

V iτ
Ne = i ⋅ Pe ⋅ n (10) 100

60000 50
where Vi is the cylinder volume. i is the number of cylinders. IJ
is the number of working stroke per revolution. Pe is the 0
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

average effective pressure and n is the rotation speed.

Vs / kn

Fig. 7 Result of ship-model resistance experiment

The Vi, i and IJ are constant for a diesel engine. To simply
the analysis, let C=ViIJi/6000 be the cylinder constant and the C. Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Propeller
effective power formula of diesel engine can be rewritten as: The hydrodynamic characteristics of propeller refers to the
N e = CPe ⋅ n (11) relationship between the thrust and torque of the propeller and
its movement. The advance of propeller in still water per

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revolution hP can be expressed as: device. ȘH is the efficiency of the ship. ȘR is the relative
hP = VP nP (14) rotation efficiency. Ș0 is the open water efficiency of the
propeller. ȘS is the transmission efficiency of the shaft system.
where VP and nP are the propeller’s advance and rotary speed.
The ship efficiency ȘH can be calculated as:
The relative advance J can be expressed as:
P 1− t (20)
hP V ηH = E =
J= = P (15) PT 1 − w
D nP D
For the discussed fishery ship, its thrust deduction
where D is the diameter of the propeller. coefficient t is 0.2 and its wake coefficient w is 0.22.
The thrust and torque have a certain magnitude when the Therefore, the most critical parameter affecting propulsion
relative advance and rotary speed of the propeller remain efficiency is the open water efficiency of the propeller Ș0.
constant. The thrust T and torque Q can be expressed as:
According to formula (18), it can be seen that the propeller
T = KT ρ nP2 D 4 (16) open water efficiency is determined by the relative advance J,
Q = KQ ρ nP2 D 5 (17) the dimensionless thrust coefficient KT and torque coefficient
where KT and KQ are the thrust and torque coefficients. KQ. While KT and KQ are the functions of the pitch ratio H/D,
The efficiency of propeller Ș0 is its most important indicator disk area ratio AE/AO, relative advance J and the number of
and can be calculated by the following formula. blades of the propeller Z. Both KT and KQ can be obtained by
TVP J KT looking up the propeller map for given parameters. As it’s
η0 = = ⋅ (18) impossible to obtain the specific design information of the
2π nPQ 2π K Q target propeller, this paper selects the AU-type five-bladed
It can be seen from above formulas that the thrust propeller with geometric shape approximation to estimate the
coefficient KT, torque coefficient KQ and efficiency Ș0 of performance of the target propeller.
propeller are functions of relative advance J. B. Optimization Mathematical Model
According to Newton’s theorem, the dynamic and
D. Speed Regulation Characteristics Analysis
kinematics equations of a ship propulsion system is [6]:
Fig. 8 is the speed regulation characteristics curves of the
dV (21)
CPP. The oblique line represents the propulsion characteristics M s = Te − R
of the propeller when pitch changes. The horizontal line dt
dn (22)
represents constant speed lines with different magnitude. It 2π I P = M D ⋅ i − M f − Q
can be seen from Fig. 8 that the expected sailing speed can be dt
obtained by various combination of engine speed and the pitch nD = nP ⋅ i (23)
of the CPP. Therefore, there is an optimal matching between VP = (1 − w ) Vs (24)
the engine speed and the propeller pitch.
where M is the total mass of the hull and is usually increased
by 10% considering the attached water that moves with the
hull based on experience. I is the moment of inertia of the
propeller and shaft system, and shall be increased by 15%
considering the moment of inertia of the attached water.
From formula (21), it can be seen that the effective thrust Te
is equal to the total resistance R at the equilibrium state.
Te = (1 − t ) KT ρ nP2 D 4 = R (25)
The power from the main engine PS can be expressed as
QPLQ QPD[ Q
Q ⋅ 2π nP 2π K Q ρ nP D
3 5
Fig. 8 Speed regulation characteristics of CPP = = PS (26)
η Rη S η Rη S
IV. JOINT CONTROL OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM
In order to ensure that the main engine is not overloaded,
A. Optimization Objective the output power should meet the following formula.
In this paper, the maximum efficiency of the propulsion PS ≤ Pex = f ( n ) (27)
device is selected as the optimization objective. The
propulsion efficiency represents the energy loss between the Therefore, the optimal matching between the CPP pitch and
power from the main engine and the effective propulsion the engine speed can be summarized as:
power of the ship, and can be expressed as: max η = f ( n, H D ) = η0η Hη Rη S (28)
P P P P (19) J KT
η = E = E ⋅ T ⋅ DB = η H ⋅η0 ⋅η R ⋅η S Te − R = 0ˈPS ≤ Pexternalˈη0 = ⋅
PS PT PDB PS 2π KQ (29)
where PE is the effective power. PT is the propeller thrust V (1 − w )
power. PDB is the power received by the propeller. PS is the J= ˈnmin ≤ n ≤ nmaxˈ( H D ) ≤ ( H D )max
nP D
main engine power. Ș is the total efficiency of the propulsion

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 V. OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM without constraints.
It can be seen from the above analysis that the propulsion
A. Standard Particle Swarm Optimization
efficiency only depends on the CPP open water efficiency.
Particle swarm optimization (PSO) was proposed in 1995
Therefore, the auxiliary function constructed by the objective
by American scholars J. Kennedy and R.C. Eberhart inspired
function and constraints using exterior penalty is
by bird feeding behavior. Similar with other evolutionary 2
algorithms, the PSO algorithm has the characteristics of min F ( x, σ ) = −η0 + σ (Te − R ) 2 + σ ª¬ max {0, −( Pex − PS )}º¼ (33)
evolution and swarm intelligence. It has a simple concept, less where ı is the penalty factor. The parameters selected in the
input parameters, and is easy to implement. It has been widely algorithm are shown in Table I.
used in many fields such as parameter optimization, fuzzy TABLE I
system control and system identification. The difference OPTIMIZATION PARAMETERS
between the standard PSO model and the original PSO model Penalty Factor ı=5000
is that it coordinates the PSO’s global and local optimization Inertia Weight wstart=0.9,wend =0.4
capabilities by an inertia weight w. Acceleration Factor c1=c2=1.49445
Considering the minimization problem, let the search space
Space Dimension N=2
be N-dimensional and the particle swarm size be M. Then at
the tth iteration step, the current position of the ith particle is Particle Swarm Size M=30
Xi(t)=[Xi,1(t), Xi,2(t),...,Xi,N(t)], the current speed of the ith Max. Iteration Number tmax=100
particle is Vi(t)=[Vi,1(t), Vi,2(t),...,Vi,N(t)], and the best position Min. Fitness Value Fmin=-0.70
of the ith particle is Pi(t)=[Pi,1(t), Pi,2(t),...,Pi,N(t)]. If the fitness
Range of Parameter [0.6, 1.6; 30, 230]
of the current position is better than that of the best position,
then let Pi(t)=Xi(t), otherwise let Pi(t)=Pi(t-1). Range of Speed [-0.1, 0.1; -10,10]
The current best position searched by the particle swarm
B. Results Analysis
(that is, the position that currently has the best objective
The ship speed is gradually increased from 6.5 kn to 19 kn
function value) is called the global best position, and can be
and the relationship curves between the optimal engine speed
expressed as G(t)=Pg(t)=[Pg,1(t), Pg,2(t),...,Pg,N(t)], 1”g”M. The
and propeller pitch and the sailing speed obtained by the
update formula for the speed and position of the standard PSO
proposed optimal control algorithm are shown in Figs. 9-11. In
algorithm is
practical applications, for different control handle positions,
Vi , j ( t + 1) = w ⋅Vi , j ( t ) + c1 ⋅ r1,i , j ⋅ ( Pi , j ( t ) − X i , j ( t ) ) the ship speed controller outputs the corresponding engine
(30)
+ c2 ⋅ r2,i , j ⋅ ( Gi , j ( t ) − X i , j ( t ) ) speed and pitch signals and respectively sends them to the
speed and pitch control system according to its best matching
X i , j ( t + 1) = Vi , j ( t + 1) + X i , j ( t ) (31) curve to achieve the highest propulsion efficiency.
where 1”i”M, 1”j”N. t represents the tth iteration step. c1 and 180
c2 are called learning factors. c1 adjusts the step in which
Optimal engine speed (r/min)

160
particle fly toward its best position and c2 adjusts the step in
140
which particle fly to the global best position. r1,i,j(t) and r2,i,j(t)
are independent sequences of random numbers mutually 120

distributed between (0, 1). w is the inertia weight, and its value 100

determines the degree to which the particle inherits the current 80

speed. The inertia weight can be calculated as: 60
w − wend
w = wstart − start ×t (32)
40
6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
tmax Ship speed (kn)
Fig. 9 Optimal matching curve of engine speed vs ship speed
where tmax is the maximum iteration number and t is the current
iteration number. wstart and wend are the initial inertia weight
1.6
and final inertia weight, respectively.
It can be seen from the analysis in the above section that it is 1.55

an optimization mathematical model with constraints. In this

Optimal pitch ratio H/D

1.5

paper, the penalty function method is adopted to convert it into 1.45

an unconstrained problem. Therefore, the constraint problem 1.4

can be solved using the unconstrained optimization methods. 1.35

The solution must consider both the fall of the objective 1.3
function and the satisfaction of the constraint. The way to 1.25
achieve this is to make the auxiliary function by the objective
function and the constraint function, and therefore turn the 6 8 10 12 14
Ship speed (kn)
16 18 20

original constraint problem into a minimal auxiliary function Fig. 10 Optimal matching curve of pitch ratio vs ship speed

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 Comprehensive Pilot Special Funding of College of
Automation of Harbin Engineering University, and Harbin
20 Science and Technology Innovation Talent Research Special
Fund Project under Grant 2017RC2017XK009006.
Ship speed (kn)
15

10
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Fig. 12 Comparison of two control modes
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efficiency is mainly influenced by the engine speed and
increases with the increase of the pitch under constant speed
control mode. Its overall propulsion efficiency is low. While,
the propulsion efficiency of the joint control mode is relatively
stable and maintained at around 0.75. The comparison not only
demonstrates the superiority of the joint control, but also
further proves the effectiveness of the optimized matching
control algorithm proposed in this paper.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we proposed an optimal control method with
load protection for the joint control mode of the controllable
pitch propeller using the standard particle swarm optimization
algorithm. Take the highest propulsion efficiency of the
controllable pitch propeller as the optimization objective, the
optimal matching curves between the main engine,
controllable pitch propeller and ship hull are obtained using
the proposed optimization method. Comparing to the ship
common used constant speed control mode, the superiority of
the joint control mode is proved. The propulsion efficiency of
the joint control mode using the proposed optimal control
algorithm is stable and maintained up to 0.75 which further
demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed optimization
method.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported by Discipline Construction

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