A large full mission engine room simulator is in operation at the nautical college
of ... engine room simulator consists of an electrical switch board, a control room
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FULL-INTEGRATION SIMULATION USING BOTH ENGINE ROOM AND BRIDGE SIMULATORS, DESIGN AND EXPERIENCES Maanen-Jan van der- Marti MSc, Maarten Harms, Rene Teekema Msc, ****. Hanno B Smits MSc, Cees Muijskens BSc. Director Development and Supply of Nautical Simulator Systems MSCN*,"Director MSTC?, ***Project Manager-MSCN,****Director Consultancy & Training MSCN, ***** Instructor MSTC ABSTRACT A large full mission engine room simulator is in operation at the nautical college of Terschelling, in its simulation centre MSTC (Maritime Simulator Training Centre).. This engine room simulator consists of an electrical switch board, a control room console and large touch screens for the engineer engine room actions. The MSTC engine room simulator can be coupled with the full-mission bridge simulator.. Consequently a true fullintegiation mode is realized.. In addition to this a cargo handling simulator is part of the system. For training efficiency all full-mission simulators are preceded with part-task simulation of all processes.. This ensures familiarity with the system and knowledge of the processes. The training on the full-mission simulators will prepare the students for the fully integrated simulation and for reality. The modelling of all engine room processes is very realistic/detailed. Consequently in addition to procedural training, engine specific training can be given. The instructor can fail all elements of the simulator either totally or gradually, The complete modelling of the engine room means that when a student does not adequately respond to a failure, the problems will propagate through ihe whole system. In the full-integration mode even to the bridge This adds the possibility of team training of all ship officers, an essential element. This paper will discuss the training goals in the design stage, the technical simulator aspects, the training aspects and die training experiences with the various simulation types (part-task, full-mission and full-integration) With most components a year's experience with a large throughput of students will allow a full assessment of the simulator design, the training design, and the training efficiency
MSCN of Wageningen the Netherlands, trains professional seamen on its bridge simulators and its Vessel Traffic Services simulator, it is a nautical consultant and MSCN builds advanced nautical simulators. MSTC of Terschelling the Netherlands trains all Dutch students of the nautical polytechnics of the Netherlands, on the bridge simulator, the engine-room simulator and the cargo-handling simulators (stand-alone, full-integration). MSTC is the largest simulation training centre in the Netherlands..
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Figure 2 - Lay-out of the main engine summary The power supply switch board is still a mechanical / electrical approach controlled by software The inner engine room is controlled by four huge touch screens. Software is based on the Unix operating system running on different platforms e.g. HP 9000 series and SG indigo series The SG's are dedicated for touch screen generation. Eadi HP controls an operating position e g Instructor, Man Console and auxiliary position (ATJX) One HP 735 is dedicated to run the engine room models on Manual controls and indications are interfaced to A/D converter boxes (MANCON), which again are connected to the HP platforms via a SRS 232 cable The engine room models are coded using ADA The mimics are coded in C and C++ and generated using dvdraw. The user interface part uses a Motif based Teleuse package Seefigure3 for the ardntecture overview
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Figure 4 - The engine room control touch screens These touch screens are fitted with a sound system The image on the touch screens is built up from computer drawings and photographic textures. On this it is possible to push buttons, to pull levers, to turn valves, to add oil to beaiings etc. in an almost realistic feshion The toudi screens are put beside each other, creatingawall of almost 4 metres long and 1,5 metres lii^ with images of an engine room The complete engine room system is quite complex with a lot of possibilities which are not always available in a normal engine room. This approach was chosen, to be able to show the students many different possibilities of propulsion Figure 5 gives a presentation of the engineer control position
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modularity of both the bridge, the engine room and the cargo handling simulator aiables future changes in the systems in an easy way Addition of functional elements, addition of computers, displays etc is easily accomplished, enabling a constant upgrading of the tjaining sessions In the next chapter we will discuss the way in which this type of simulator has been used at the MSTC training centre. ENGINE ROOM SIMULATOR TRAINING The Maritime Simulator Training Centre (MSTC) TerscheLling comprises a bridge simulator, a cargo handling simulator and an engine room simulator Since August 1994 the engine room simulator has been operational, enabling students of secondary and higher nautical colleges to practise engine room Iraining besides bridge procedures training Jh November 1994,fecilitieswere extended with the installation of a cargo handlirig simulator. The MSTC now provides training for as many as 1000 nautical students per annum The year is divided into four blocks corresponding with four nautical education levds i..e. 4 HBO, 3 MBO, 2 HBO and 2 MBO (H for Higher and M for Secondary Vocational Education) The size of the block depeids on the number of stadents per' grade. Jh the course of his nautical education a student is to receive 2 weeks of simulator training In common practice one week of simulator training has 24 to 28 students training on the engine room simulator, the bridge simulator and the cargo handling simulator, divided as follows:
bridge cargo handling engine room
7 exerdses cf 2 5 hours each 1 exerdse of 4 hours 7 exerdses comprising a total of 10 5 hours
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Ihe resulting engine room simulator encompasses to total of the above objectives and training given aims at achieving them Actual training scenarios reflect the practical applications of the various objectives and some 17 scenarios are listed bdow: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Preparing engine room plant for departure, manoeuvring and sea operations Carrying our standard weekly jobs Preparing engine room plant for switch-over from sea operations to port operations Starting oilfiredboiler and standing harbour watches Bunkering procedures Standing sea watches Remedying a black-out at sea Remedying a fault in cabin alarm situation Purging engine room bilges Carrying our emergency stop Svnchronising diesd generator andfinetuning heat generating systems Staring and stopping shaft generator and turbo generator Correcting boiler failure Correcting thermal overload of main engine. Executing Performance Rqiort Removing oil residue Calculating indicated power.
In devising the various engine room simulator exercises, the teacher-instructors focused on those of the overall training goals immediately feasible with the engine room simulator in its present configuration It appears that as regards dynamic performance control and pertinent calculations practical applications remain limited yet So training scenarios focus on: 1 2 3, 4 5 6. 7
Preparing engine room plant for departure Manual parallel switching of auxiliary diesd driven generator Removing oil residue Purging engine room bilges Standing watches at sea. Starting and stopping shaft generator. Calculating indicated power of main engine.
Apartfromsome fimctionality problems in thefirstfew simulator training weeks, educational problems also arose, calling for some adjustments in the duration and degree of difficulty of the exerdses These problems can be summarized as follows: variety in levd of theoretical knowledge of the students, leadingto some "steam course lecturing" during briefings poor or non-existing preparation for simulator training of students on the part of their own college Students are not able to antidpate and more or less passivdy "undergo" the training personal motivation and enthusiasm are cf vital importance for a successful training
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training the student will use his best endeavours to carry out the assignment unaidedly In order to optimize thetraining process, some parts of thetask are actually performed first by theinstructor to set an example and to predude time consuming, system disrupting errors: eg manual synchronization of a generator Should one of the students go wrong, all dght students would be hampered by its effects During the training students are aided by extensive checklists, besides the assistance oftheinstructor The answe r' to the question "why" is amply provided for Figure 6 gi ves an example of one of the mimic screens, the salt water cooling system
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Figure 6 - Mimic screen, the salt water cooling system
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