A Proposed Gas-Turbine Propulsion Plant for Great Lakes Ore Carriers

The present status of overage ships in the Great Lakes bulk carrying fleet, the problems of economic replacement, and the requirements for main propulsion and auxiliary machinery are delineated. With established requirements, the paper develops a gas-turbine machinery plant and compares it to the steam plant used in recent construction. The operating and environmental conditions existing on the Great Lakes are presented as influencing factors in the final plant selection. The study concludes that there is an existing need for new construction to replace obsolete vessels and that the gas-turbine plant will be lower in initial and operating costs when compared with the steam plant, for this application.