Modernizing The Mechanical Rotor Sail

01/11/2022, 10:40 Modernizing the mechanical rotor sail | CompositesWorld
MARINE
Updated
7/13/2022
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Published
11/23/2020
|
9 MINUTE READ
Modernizing the mechanical rotor sail

Composites are key for Norsepower’s award-winning redesign of a century-old rotor sail for
reducing carbon emissions on passenger and cargo ships.
#focusondesign
HANNAH MASON

Technical Editor, CompositesWorld
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a challenge each transportation sector is working to

solve in various ways, and the marine shipping industry is no exception. Greenhouse gas
emissions released by fuel-powered ships and other marine vessels has been on the rise in
recent years, rising about 10% between 2012 and 2018, according to a 2020 study released
by the International Maritime Organization (IMO, London, U.K.). The study also reports a
150% increase specifically in shipping-related methane emissions, and a 12% increase in
black carbon emissions.
https://www.compositesworld.com/articles/modernizing-the-mechanical-rotor-sail- 1/8
In 2012, Finnish entrepreneur Tuomas Riski realized that there are few options for
reducing the emissions produced from burning fuel on ships and sought out a technology
that could help. “I could see that we have a huge problem with global carbon emissions,”
Riski says, “and I wanted to find a technology that we could make commercial, and that has
potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions substantially.”
Riski met and teamed up with Finnish naval architect Kai Levander, who was working on a
design for mechanical sails that worked as an auxiliary, wind-based propulsion system for
cargo ships. Riski and Levander reviewed several mechanical sail concepts, and ultimately
decided to develop and commercialize a modernized version of a century-old technology:
the Flettner rotor sail. To achieve this goal, the company Norsepower (Helsinki, Finland)
was founded in 2012 with Riski as CEO.
Rotor sails for greener shipping. Composite rotor sails such as these on board the Maersk Pelican tanker vessel provide auxiliary power to
reduce fuel consumption and accompanying CO2 emissions by 5-20%. Photo Credit: Norsepower
The rotating, cylindrical Flettner rotor sail is a mechanical sail that was first invented in the
early 20th century by Finnish engineer Sigurd Savonius. It was then popularized (and
named after) German aviation engineer Anton Flettner, who successfully sailed a prototype
rotor ship across the Atlantic in 1926.
The Flettner rotor sail concept works by harnessing the Magnus effect (see image below).
According to this principle, wind pushing against a rotating, rounded object, such as a
cylindrical rotor sail, creates motion perpendicular to the flow of the wind. When wind is
flowing in the correct direction — sideways across the deck of the ship, perpendicular to
the direction the ship is traveling in — and hits against the rotor sail, the rotation causes air
flow to accelerate on one side of the sail and to decelerate on the other side. The different
wind speeds on each side of the sail create higher and lower pressures on either side, which
creates lift force, or thrust, perpendicular to the direction of the wind flow. This thrust
propels the ship forward.
The rotor sail is said to be 10 times more efficient than a conventional sail, creating more
lift with a smaller surface area. However, like conventional sails, it depends on the
direction of the wind, so is best used as an auxiliary propulsion system to supplement a
typical fuel-powered vessel.
The Magnus effect. Wind pushing against a rotating circular object creates motion perpendicular to the flow of the wind. The same principle that
causes spinning tennis balls to abruptly curve midair propels rotor ships forward. Photo Credit: Norsepower
According to Riski, while Flettner proved the technology worked and that it was safe,
effective and efficient, the timing wasn’t right for commercialization. In the 1920s, he says,
“Fuel was cheap, and nobody was interested in reducing emissions.” Plus, he adds, the
original metal rotor sails were heavy and expensive to manufacture. “We could solve all of
those problems with composites. We saw that this is the technology which has the best
potential to become the leading or market entrant mechanical sail for shipping vessels,”
Riski says.
Since 2012, Norsepower has “step by step taken out a product to the market — designed it
for the first pilot customers and, now, made it a commercial product,” Riski says.
Redesigning the Flettner sails

The overall design of the rotor sail is a hollow, mast-like cylinder that is rotated by an
internal shaft. One modern improvement on the original Flettner sails is that the internal
steel shaft in Norsepower’s sail design is operated by an automated, push-button start and a
modern electric motor system patented by Riski and Levander. This automation means
fewer crew members are needed to operate the sail compared to boats with conventional
sails.
The design of the exterior tube came with a number of design requirements, Riski says: a
lightweight structure, good fatigue strength and manufacturability in high volumes at a
reasonable cost. “You have to make a robust rotating part which is also lightweight and
extremely well-balanced,” he says, noting that the original Flettner rotor sails had trouble
with balance on board ship decks.
At Norsepower, composite and aluminum designs were evaluated, and the composite
design was ultimately chosen, as it was about half the weight of the aluminum version, with
higher fatigue strength and endurance. “When investigating different manufacturing
technologies, we concluded that modern composites are the only way to make this kind of
structure,” Riski says. “Without them, it would be very, very hard to make a working
Flettner rotor. We can now make it a standardized, high-quality end product, and cut down
the cost enough so that it has a business case with large volumes.” CAD and finite element
analysis (FEM) software, from Ansys (Canonsburg, Pa., U.S.) among others, were used to
complete and validate the design.

Mega composites construction
Norsepower currently offers five sizes of rotor sails, ranging from 3 meters in diameter and
18 meters tall to 5 meters in diameter and 35 meters tall, the latter, for comparison, also
being the wingspan of an A320 aircraft.
The main cylinder of each rotor sail is composed of

multiple, shorter tubes — resin-infused sandwich
structures fabricated and bonded together by
composites manufacturer Comaxel (Goldap, Poland)
at its specially designed assembly facility. Dry
preforms for the tubes comprise 50K carbon fiber
unidirectional (UD) reinforcements from Zoltek
(Nyergesújfalu, Hungary) and stitched glass fiber
reinforcements from several different suppliers, with Viking Line combines a cruise line with
passenger and freight transports. Photo
Gurit (Wattwil, Switzerland) Kerdyn Green structural Credit: Norsepower
core made from 100% recycled PET. The laminate
preforms are laid up and double vacuum bagged into composite, one-third-cylinder molds
made by Comaxel, which are wired for resistance heating.
According to Michael Rann, managing director of Comaxel, mold construction was the
largest challenge in the manufacture of the rotor sails. For precise assembly and minimal
weight, the cylinders are manufactured at very tight dimensional tolerances that can be
stricter than 0.1% — which Comaxel is able to accomplish partly through its mold
construction. Traditional glass fiber molds are reinforced with a smaller amount of UD
carbon fiber, Rann says, to decrease the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) values to the
needed levels. The molds are also controlled by an advanced and innovative
microprocessor control system developed by Comaxel. Using this system, the molds are held
to ±2°C during ramping of the heating process, and ±0.1°C during final post cure. According
to Rann, this system enables control of multiple units at the same time with only one
control unit, which can handle molds with one heating zone or up to 960 zones of up to 2.5
square meters each, he adds. The control system is also equipped to run a diagnostic check
before each process to self-detect any possible failures and to calibrate even heating across
all zones.
Mega assembly. Comaxel’s assembly facility in Goldap, Poland is 55 meters long and 15 meters high, with two cranes and specialized assembly
lines for production of the massive rotor sail cylinders. Photo Credit: Comaxel
The laminates are infused with high-strength PRIME 27 epoxy infusion resin. Demolded and
trimmed cylinder sections are then bonded and tabbed together using Gurit high-strength
Spabond 340LV epoxy adhesive and Gurit Armpreg 31 epoxy laminating resin with carbon
and glass tapes. This same method is used to bond the completed tubes together into the
final cylinder for the rotor sail. This durable composite construction, well-proven in
thousands of yacht masts and wind blades, is then finished to achieve smooth windward
surfaces and rotational tolerances using Gurit S-Fair epoxy fairing system. The finished
structure is then shipped — a feat strikingly similar to transporting wind blades — for
installation onboard cargo ships, cruise ships or ferries.
Since the start of the project, Rann says that, through Comaxel’s partnership with
Norsepower, weight of the rotor sails has been reduced by 10%, and production and
assembly time has been reduced significantly. “From day one, the collaboration between
Norsepower and Comaxel has been very open and trustful,” Rann says. “Due to this
relationship, we have one of the most amazing products on the market.”
Typical fuel savings provided by use of rotor sails is 5-20% per ship, cutting emissions from
fuel consumption per Norsepower’s goals. For the overall rotor sail solution, Norsepower
won a 2020 Innovation Award from JEC Group.
On the road. Assembled rotor sails travel from Comaxel’s facility by truck, similar to wind turbine blade transport. Photo Credit: Comaxel

Commercializing the design
In August 2018, Norsepower first announced that two of its 30-meter rotor sails had been
installed onboard the Maersk Pelican tanker vessel in cooperation with partners Maersk
Tankers (Copenhagen, Denmark), Energy Technologies Institute (ETI, London, U.K.) and
Shell Shipping and Maritime (The Hague, Netherlands). Currently, Norsepower is producing
components for its rotor sails at several manufacturing facilities located in Poland, with a
larger production facility expected to open in the coastal Chinese province of Jiangsu by the
end of 2020. This first Chinese production line is expected to produce up to 50 rotor sails
per year, Riski says.
Expanding options. Norsepower currently markets five sizes of its rotor sails, plus a tilting option, for ships ranging in size from large shipping
tankers to passenger ferries, like the one shown here. Photo Credit: Norsepower
Rotor sails can either be built directly on new ships under construction, Riski says, or
retrofitted onto existing ships. Norsepower also offers a tilting rotor sail option, introduced
in June 2020. This does not affect the rotor sail product itself, but allows the device to be
installed on a tilting foundation via hydraulic hinges, Riski explains, to enable a temporary
lowering of the rotor sail for passage under a bridge. Norsepower also works with
shipbuilders on installation of the rotor sails. “It’s a ship-specific thing to pick the right
rotor sails and to design where and how many rotor units will be installed,” he says, adding
that Norsepower can help shipbuilders determine the correct distance between rotor sail
units on different ship sizes to ensure proper balance.
Next, Norsepower plans to scale up production both in Europe and at its new Chinese
manufacturing facility. Riski notes that Asia is a growing market for the technology, and the
source for most of the company’s orders on new ship builds. “We foresee that the business
will grow quite fast during the following years,” he says.
Read: UniFORM: High-quality, high-complex EV battery enclosures at low cycle

times, low tooling costs
Norsepower plans to produce more than 200 rotor sails by 2025, but the larger goal,
Riski says, still remains to reduce emissions. “If all feasible ships that could be fitted with
rotor sails were fitted with them, we could reduce the global annual carbon emissions from
shipping by roughly 70 megatons of carbon.
This article was originally published 11/23/2020, updated 7/13/2022

Landscape Photo Credit: Comaxel

Modernizing The Mechanical Rotor Sail - CompositesWorld

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01/11/2022, 10:40 Modernizing the mechanical rotor sail | CompositesWorld

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a challenge each transportation sector is working to

Redesigning the Flettner sails

The main cylinder of each rotor sail is composed of

Read: UniFORM: High-quality, high-complex EV battery enclosures at low cycle

This article was originally published 11/23/2020, updated 7/13/2022

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