Significant energy savings revealed by MARIN self-propulsion tests
Conference/JournalMARIN Report 147
Date26 May 2026
After successful model tests exploring the open water characteristics of an ABB DynafinTM - a full electric cycloidal propulsion system driven by individual fin servos (see MARIN Report magazine 144), ABB provided a pair of two DynafinTM models to carry out full self-propulsion tests at MARIN.
Self-propulsion tests were carried out on various ship models, replacing either the traditional twin shafts with propellers and rudders, or its well-known ABB Azipod® systems, to investigate the interactions of this new system with various hull forms.
Self-propulsion tests were carried out on various ship models, replacing either the traditional twin shafts with propellers and rudders, or its well-known ABB Azipod® systems, to investigate the interactions of this new system with various hull forms.
Contact
Jie Dang
senior project manager
Bram Starke
senior researcher
MARIN developed a pair of two dedicated measuring systems to capture the loads on the ABB DynafinTM models during the tests, which were the improved versions of the system used for the open water tests. With these measuring systems, the propulsion factors were determined with high levels of accuracy, after careful calibrations of the systems and the ship’s level of runs – the influence of the trim.
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Calibration of the fin angles
ABB Dynafin LDA Model test
MARIN carried out self-propulsion tests on ABB's Dynafin models (a full electric cycloidal propulsion system driven by individual fin servos) revealing significant energy savings.