From the Failure Rate of Components to the Cost-Effectiveness of an Arctic Gas Carrier with an Electric Propulsion System

This chapter presents an attempt to determine the dependence of the reliability characteristics of the electric propulsion system and the comprehensive operational efficiency of the Arctic icebreaking gas carrier “Christophe de Margerie” type when navigating along a Northern Sea Route. To do this, the real possibility of transporting the annually produced by Russian Gas industry company “Novatek” volume of liquid natural gas at the fields of the Yamal Peninsula by 15 Arctic gas tankers in the eastern and western directions of the Northern Sea Route has been determined. The study was based on Markov models for multi-state systems with components degradation of a diesel-electric multi-drive multi-motor propulsion system and real operational data of the icebreaking gas carriers in Arctic navigation. Such kind of operations imposes specific requirements and restrictions to the propulsion system of the liquid natural gas carriers, much of which relates to the requirements on comprehensive reliability and fault tolerance.