Ahmad Reza Kohansal

Throughout history, driving factors for ship advancements have been remarkable. Initially, humans relied on their own physical strength to propel ships. After years passed, they began utilizing sails and masts. However, these methods did not fully meet the fundamental human need for utilizing the seas. With the replacement of steam turbines with diesel engines and the design of propellers, vessels gradually became larger and faster, leading to significant growth in the maritime industry. In this context, understanding the design, performance, and constituent parts of propellers is crucial. One of the essential components of propellers is shafts, which have a significant impact on the ship's motion. Vessels can have one or multiple shafts. Therefore, understanding the effect of shafts on the performance of ship propulsion is considered important. In this research, an algorithm has been introduced to examine the performance of propulsion for multi-shaft vessels. It begins with introducing multi-shaft vessels and explaining the relevant relationships. Then, using the proposed algorithm, coding is implemented in the MATLAB environment and compared with a laboratory test for validation. The modeling results indicate an approximate difference of 2% to 5% between the obtained data and the laboratory sample, which can be attributed to the laboratory conditions and simplifications considered. A multi-shaft service vessel is analyzed at different speeds, and ultimately, the desired vessel is compared with each other based on the number of shafts.