Electric ship power system - research at the University of Texas at Austin

Recognizing the importance of electric ships and the myriad of technical challenges they present, the University of Texas at Austin, with seed funding from the Office of Naval Research, established a virtual electrical ship research and development center. The reason for the virtual center is that the complex challenges of the future require multidisciplinary solutions. The virtual center contains staff members from electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and two research centers who work collaboratively with a number of other universities and with industry. This program has two anticipated significant outcomes. At the system level, the first anticipated outcome is to develop a comprehensive set of modeling approaches that guide the evolution of electric ship power systems. The second outcome is an approach to the replacement of the hydraulic system on current ships with electrical actuators on future ships.