What is the HP needed to drive a 20m x 3m 40MT boat at 13kph?

Just looking, with no calculations, the centre of the trailer load, on top of the hull, will put the centre of mass overall very high. In anything much more than a mill pond with no wind, there are high chances of rolling over, going by your hull rendering. You will need to consider the effects of 4 foot high close chop, and standing waves, combined with a gusting side wind of say 40 knots, if the transporter is caught on the lee side of a lake, or in a channel reach with a long fetch, when a squall hits suddenly. You may need to widen your hulls considerably for stability in bad weather. It looks like a good case for to make a scale model weighted to the max, and see how it goes in a swimming pool, or even the bath. Find a scale model trailer, and go from there; even a remote control truck to test loading at a ramp. 45,000 lb even at flat bed level would be pushing it for balance, I think. R & D at the toy shop: balsa wood to make a boat scale model to your design, model trailer, lead flashing cut to sheets on the trailer, and as hull ballast, load it up, and observe. Worst case scenarios not ideal conditions. Computers can lie to you.

 

My design isn't a design, just a drawing to help with discussion. I am not a boat designer, rather a data scientist. In your mind, please replace my drawing with something beautiful and intelligently designed.
Thoughts:
If we decided to go battery electric, having the batteries, motors along the keel would help. Additionally what do you think about flywheel for energy storage? Quick to charge, high energy density, and if placed strategically, they would significantly dampen roll events. The problems with flywheels is that they are heavy and if you try to move them quickly, they fight back. These are both benefits in this space. Now the tech isn't as mature as batteries, but if it is the easiest way forward, it is the easiest way.
Active dampening is another option if a smart design can't solve the problem. Cruise ships use this to great effect to dampen moderate to mild weather events. For major weather events we have anchoring and insurance. Also, as there are no people on board, capsizing is an option. What is the cost of preventing a ship capsizing vs the cost of making the clients whole (and dealing with other external costs)? This can be calculated and factored into the design. (I am a data scientist at a specialty insurance company which insures cargo ships. I can readily work with one of our actuaries to calculate that cost.)

Thoughts?
Again, thank you and keep then coming.

 

I would simply spec the dock and let individuals design a dock as they see fit.
A dock owner would be responsible for keeping the dock in good repair and the staging area secure. They would receive fees for the use of their dock. Anyone who can legally have a dock and meets minimum specifications, can partake in the system.

One idea:
I was thinking a floating dock with a road/ramp to a staging area. (I am open to other suggestions)
The boat pulls up, "ties off" on the dock (probably electro magnets), trailer + boat/dock tractor rolls off and drive up the ramp to a staging area, a new trailer + boat/dock tractor from the staging area rolls on and the boat keeps floating. If charging, this would be the time to do it.


And again, thank you. The more questions I get here, the better prepared I am when I start seriously talking to the politicians...

 

If you ask someone for money for this project sooner or later they are going to ask the hard question:
How are you going to beat the autonomous electric truck?

You see, that electric dolly you envisioned already exists, and it has enough range to be a practical truck. All it needs are enough charging stations (or another concept like battery exchange) and in order to ditch the driver, regulations changes. Electrification and automation don't actually change the equation of truck vs. train vs. ship that exists in todays diesel world. It's not like the competition will sit still, actually you are the one lagging behind at this moment. In fact at your proposed speed you can't even compete with existing diesel trucks with drivers, just do the math.

If you can't answer how you are going to offset the economy of scale keeping todays inland watertransport afloat with your one container model, money will be scarce.

 

Yep, and being considered for other marine applications.

First look at Tesla Semi’s giant 1000 v battery pack https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-semi-1000v-battery-pack-first-look-photo/

Tesla Semi - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Semi

 

Flywheel energy storage is an old and well understood concept. A physicist I know has been talking about them for decades. For marine applications I can see the benefits and dangers of the gyroscope effect, but also the fight against friction it would present in a constantly rolling sea. Weight can be used as an advantage on a boat.
However, in a busy shipping lane, there should be no shortage of wave energy to take advantage of. I can picture a row of smaller weighted flywheels along the keel line that work like the mechanism in the old self-winding watches. Every tilt, heel, pith, or yaw would send the little wheels shifting from port to starboard and either induced small current directly, or wind a spring to store energy in.


-Will

 

Shipping by waterways is simply more energy efficient than Air, Truck or even Rail. Using a canal boat as a proxy and scaling from there, It is easy to beat the per ton-mile price of trucking by 50%. With a well designed ship we should be able to drop it down much further. If it weren't for the Jones act, shipping in the US would be far more common place. The Jones act (1920 I think) requires that all commercial ships which go from an American port directly to another American port must be built in the US, owned by an American (company) and have no foreign crew. The bill was designed to stimulate the ship building industry, but ended up driving intra-US cargo away from ships. If I can build a boat which complies with the Jones act, integrates seamlessly with trucking for the "last mile", and has a low total cost of usage, it will reduce the cost of transportation in the US and help stimulate the economy and allow for the revitalization of the rustbelt.
https://www.cato.org/publications/policy-analysis/jones-act-burden-america-can-no-longer-bear

This country has been very kind to me. I have more money than I will ever know how to spend. This is all about giving back using the only real tool at my disposal. Math!

I agree with what you are saying. If it isn't significantly cheaper than trucking, it isn't worth doing.

 

I find this quote disturbing. Maybe no people on board, but the contents of the trailer, and the trailer itself, and the boat's propulsion and control systems will contain toxic materials, and capsizing could cause spills, pollution in waterways, fish kills, and channel blockages. Best to keep the likelihood of capsize an extreme outlier, and design a very stable transporter, saving on insurance costs, and possible litigation expenses if an inquiry finds that capsize is a design factor in the business plan. A capsize onto another boat resulting in deaths could be a bad look.
You could have a bank of air cylinders charging flotation air bags in an emergency. Triple redundancy on all autonomous functions.
You would have to make all your autonomous systems totally hack proof, so bad intensioned players, and bored teenagers, can't commandeer them and wreak havoc in many ways. Transients will also see them as a free ride; no ticket inspector. Fisher's boats hooking on for a free ride, or to go trolling, ot trawling behind.

 

In Europe we have several of such initiatives or parts of this.

Hubs and ships with only deckload no holds. link
Autonome shipping link also operating in the US.
Remote navigation (drones) link

 

I agree with the capsizing. It is just that a human life is incalculably more valuable than just stuff. I won't "do the math" to minimize total costs if it involves people dying. With just stuff, Math on! If it would cost an additional hundred million per boat to bring the rate of failure from 0.001% to 0.0005% per decade of use, it probably isn't worth it. Now 25% to 1% for $1000... easy. All I was meaning with that is that just with stuff, those numbers can be run.

Completely agree with the other things you mentioned as well. These are all things a good design team will need to address. I'm just trying to figure out if this can work at all.

 

Great links thank you. Those show some very creative thinking about how to get around the port, labor and fuel bottle issues. I'll dig into these in more detail tonight.
And the remote override will probably be a requirement put into place by some governments.
As a kid in the Boy Scouts our troop sailed a 100' triple mast sailboat donated to a district in Washington. Most of the ports would allow us to dock only using sail power. Some (to the eternal frustration and disgust of the ship's captain) required us to use... a motor. Even if you can, sometimes you aren't allowed to.
Hopefully we can make this as autonomous as possible.

 

I'm skeptical of that regulation. You sure the captain wasn't having you scouts on? The safety factor alone would lean the other way.

-Will

 

I'm sure he was having us on about a great many things, but his distain for "modern lazy sailors" who use technology to do men's work, was very real. He solidly believed that ships were made of wood and canvas and that the ability to sail one was a differentiator between a boy and a man. He spent most of his time for the two decades after he retired working to turn boys into men. He was as crusty and salty as they came, but he knew his boats. It has been nearly 40 years and I can still hear him swearing like a...well sailor, at a kid who dared to call a line a rope. Man I miss him. Thank you for the trip down nostalgia lane.

 

Sounds like quite the opposite of your intention ...

Btw, i never understood why everyone wants to combine electric drive technology with autonomy - these are completely independent things.

 

It is the opposite of my intention. Just because I like someone doesn't mean I need to share their world view.
Electric drive technology and autonomy are 100% independent. So are my desires for energy efficiency and labor efficiency.