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GE to build “digital twins” of two MSC ships

Written by Nick Blenkey
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William McLean (T-AKE 12)

FEBRUARY 6, 2018 — Aiming to improve performance and mission readiness, the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) is to run a pilot program for GE’s Predix Asset Performance Management (APM) on two T-AKE replenishment dry cargo ammunition vessels – William McLean (T-AKE 12) and Medgar Evers (T-AKE13).

The first phase of the pilot program will see GE deliver the Motor Fleet APM solution, enabling high-speed data sampling to analyze the electrical signature of critical marine equipment and provide predictive analytics.

To do this, GE will build a “digital twin,” a virtual replica built on the data collected from marine equipment, such as variable frequency drives, propulsion motors, diesel engines and generators.

Powered by Predix, GE’s application development platform for the Industrial Internet, Predix APM will compare the real-time asset performance against its digital twin’s data profile, spotting data variance – often a sign of performance degradation that leads to potential failure – and inform operators to solve the problem before it occurs, increasing asset reliability and availability, and reducing maintenance needs and its associated operational expenditures.

“The pride we derive in serving our armed forces to advance the cause of freedom is held throughout our team,” said John Mansfield, chief digital officer for GE Aviation’s Digital Solutions. “Building on the strong partnership we have with the Military Sealift Command will allow us to continue to share both our physics and digital based capabilities, improving their asset availability, efficiency and operations. We’re taking the field data for each vessel and modeling the overall health of their systems so they can make informed decisions to significantly increase their mission readiness.”

All remote monitoring and diagnostics will be performed in GE’s Power Conversion’s Houston Remote Monitoring & Diagnostic center in collaboration with the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPARWAR) where they will determine asset health and take immediate actions to avoid asset failure.

“Digitalization is an imperative strategy for navies to stay competitive in today’s ever-changing world. With deep marine engineering domain expertise and digital know-how in equal measure, we are proud to work with MSC to bring real and tangible outcome to drive vessel performance and enable them to be always mission-ready,” said Azeez Mohammed, president & CEO, GE’s Power Conversion.

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