US Navy DDG 1000 Zumwalt Class

kwaigonegin

Colonel
I've been scouring the internet looking for info on the repairs of Zumwalt in Panama. I can find nothing. The USN is sure closed mouth on this one.:confused:

I want to know what is going on...period.

Form what I heard it's the shaft seals leaking... Which if proven true very very disappointing. While the Zumwalt itself is a 21st century marvel the shafts and gearing on it is basically 50 yr old technology.

Zumwalt uses the same bunker fuel as everyone else. The LM 2500 turns the turbine with their torque as they are directly connected to a generator via the shaft.
 

Air Force Brat

Brigadier
Super Moderator
Thinking a nice pics in this unusual location and :eek::confused: View attachment 34294

I saw this picture from down there last week:
zumwalt%20panama%20canal.jpg



I'm curious how 'sidelined' LCSs are doing, how their Mission Modules are doing, how EMALS is doing, how AAG is doing, how the CVN-78 (over 13 bil now) is doing, ... at one point I'll pull out my rants about 'concurrency' again

Dang, that stealth ship is amazing, it blends right in with the other junk! Sorry to you fans, really sorry, but its true, looks like it "grew there"
 
Dang, that stealth ship is amazing, it blends right in with the other junk! Sorry to you fans, really sorry, but its true, looks like it "grew there"
oh yeah, the current value of this "super-stealth game-changing revolutionary" ship is similar to that of that cabin(?) next to her (despite "The new estimated total cost of Zumwalt (DDG-1000), Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001) and Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002) – including research and development costs – is now about $22.5 billion with the estimates included.": April 6, 2016
Navy Requires $450 Million More to Complete Zumwalt-Class Due to Shipyard Performance
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
I've been scouring the internet looking for info on the repairs of Zumwalt in Panama. I can find nothing. The USN is sure closed mouth on this one.:confused:

I want to know what is going on...period.
USNI News dated November 30, 2016 3:07 PM:
USS Zumwalt Back Underway After Repairs
USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) is back underway following several days of repairs after breaking down in the Panama Canal, two Navy officials told USNI News on Wednesday.

The guided missile destroyer left former U.S. Naval Station Rodman on Wednesday morning after the ship suffered
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
. that locked both the port and starboard shafts that forced the ship to transit the canal maneuvered by tugs.

The crew discovered bearings that connect the ship’s Advanced Induction Motors to the drive shafts had been contaminated by seawater leaking from failed lube oil chillers. The ship suffered a similar casualty in September causing the Zumwalt to be sidelined for several days at Naval Station Norfolk, Va.

In the September instance, the Navy replaced the affected lube oil coolers using replacements from under-construction Zumwalt-class Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002) and the Navy’s land-based test site for the ship’s electric integrated power system in Philadelphia. It is yet unclear to what the root cause is for the damage in both instances. A message left with Naval Sea Systems Command by USNI News was not immediately returned.

The power system is among the most complex and complicated propulsion and power systems in the Navy that uses gas turbines to power the induction motors that in turn provide massive amounts of electricity to the rest of the ship’s systems and drive train.

Extensive testing of IPS at the General Dynamics Bath Iron Works yard was a major factor in the ship’s delay in delivering on time.

Now operational in the Pacific, Zumwalt is now set to travel to its new homeport in San Diego after a planned port visit in Mexico.

Zumwalt
is the first of three in the $22-billion class. Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001) and Lyndon B. Johnson are currently under construction at BIW.
source:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
Yea! I just hope the ship travels to San Diego without further incident.
this:
CORRECTION: A previous version of this post indicated that guided missile destroyer USS Zumwalt was underway following repairs in Panama. In fact, the ship has completed repairs and shifted berths from former U.S. Naval Station Rodman to Balboa, Panama.
has been added later added to the article you probably commented upon, which is
USNI News dated November 30, 2016 3:07 PM:
USS Zumwalt Back Underway After Repairs
source:
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
updating the post right above:
Navy's Zumwalt back underway after Panama Canal breakdown
The largest and most expensive destroyer built for the U.S. Navy has resumed its voyage after a breakdown in the Panama Canal.

The Navy said Thursday that the USS Zumwalt departed Panama after repairs to the propulsion system by the ship's crew and a team from General Electric and the Naval Sea Systems Command.

Lt. Julie Holland says the ship resumed its journey to its homeport Wednesday evening and will arrive in San Diego "in coming weeks."

The 610-foot destroyer built by Maine's Bath Iron Works was in the Panama Canal when it lost propulsion on Nov. 21. The U.S. Naval Institute says the engineering failure locked both propeller shafts, forcing it to transit the canal with the help of tugs.
source is NavyTimes
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 

Air Force Brat

Brigadier
Super Moderator
updating the post right above:
Navy's Zumwalt back underway after Panama Canal breakdown

source is NavyTimes
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Eh What! I say Dear Watson, what we have here is a failure to MOTATE! When the molecular nebulizers and the rotary discombobullators allow that "BAD OLE MEAN SALT WATER" into "dem dar barins", zee shaft, she will cease to "rotate", no shaft, no "SCREWS".

Means "We ain't goin NOWHERE!", sorry for the highly technical engineering terms, I learnt those working in a very large "Chevrolet, Pontiac, GMC, Jeep, and Fiat" dealership!

We had some very helpful "parts-men" oh and the bosses snotty daughter, but hey, I knew way more than she did!
 

Air Force Brat

Brigadier
Super Moderator
Eh What! I say Dear Watson, what we have here is a failure to MOTATE! When the molecular nebulizers and the rotary discombobullators allow that "BAD OLE MEAN SALT WATER" into "dem dar barins", zee shaft, she will cease to "rotate", no shaft, no "SCREWS".

Means "We ain't goin NOWHERE!", sorry for the highly technical engineering terms, I learnt those working in a very large "Chevrolet, Pontiac, GMC, Jeep, and Fiat" dealership!

We had some very helpful "parts-men" oh and the bosses snotty daughter, but hey, I knew way more than she did!

Actually after a little thought, it was "Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, AMC, Jeep, and Renault", I moved to the sales floor on Jan 1, 1980, during "Jimmy Carters" crazy, high interest, low sales volume, I lasted until March when I moved back to the shop, I was disgusted, as I had sold 3 brand new units sold in March, but those were delivered by another salesman! guess who got the commissions on those 3 new units??? the boss

End off topic:

The Zummies troubles are very serious, to have to rob the propulsion equipment off the line, just like the Ruskies had to take the fuselage of 06-1, to rebuild 055, is serious. The Zumwalts are going to be a class of 3 ships, due to the feckless manipulation of the BHO regime. Like cancelling the production of the F-22, rather than to try to preserve that capability, this places the Zummies in a quandary, very effective warship, with a future capability that will NO DOUBT be missed, shutting down production of the very special projectiles for her guns.

The Zummie is under the gun, this issue will be worked, the Zummie will no doubt prove to be a wonder of Naval engineering, but like the "Seawolfs", they have almost defanged her???
 
Eh What! I say Dear Watson, what we have here is a failure to MOTATE! When the molecular nebulizers and the rotary discombobullators allow that "BAD OLE MEAN SALT WATER" into "dem dar barins", zee shaft, she will cease to "rotate", no shaft, no "SCREWS".

Means "We ain't goin NOWHERE!", sorry for the highly technical engineering terms, I learnt those working in a very large "Chevrolet, Pontiac, GMC, Jeep, and Fiat" dealership!

We had some very helpful "parts-men" oh and the bosses snotty daughter, but hey, I knew way more than she did!
LOL the more formal version of what you've said reads:
"Repaired — again — with parts from a sistership, the high-tech destroyer Zumwalt left Panama on Wednesday night bound for California, where a more thorough investigation will try and determine why several rather prosaic pieces of equipment have failed several times in the ship’s short life.

The Zumwalt broke down Nov. 21 while in the Miraflores locks of the Panama Canal during a transit from the Atlantic to Pacific oceans. Tugs towed the ship to the former Rodman US Naval Station, where it remained for several days before being moved across a waterway to Balboa, Panama, on the Pacific side of the canal.

At issue are coolers for the main shaft bearing lubrication oil. Each of the ship’s two propeller shafts has two sets of bearings, each with a lube oil system and cooler. The coolers have proven problematic ever since the ship sailed away on Sept. 7 from its builder’s yard at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine.

It is not clear who makes the coolers, which are a common feature on virtually all powered ships with a propeller shaft. “There are several vendors involved,” said a Navy official, who noted that the Zumwalt has 32 coolers throughout its engineering plant — four on the shaft bearings, 16 on the ship’s two advanced induction motors (AIM) and 12 more on dynamic brake resisters that manage drastic voltage changes.

General Electric’s Power Conversion business is the prime contractor for the power plant. GE, according to the Power Conversion website, supplies “the integrated power systems, including advanced induction propulsion motors, switchboards, propulsion converters, power management, power quality equipment and system engineering and integration services — in essence, the essential equipment to make the power system operate.”

The company noted that “these systems are a first on a US Naval destroyer.”

The coolers are not in an exotic installation, although the Zumwalt is packed throughout with new technologies and configurations. Essentially, rotating propeller shafts sit on bearings that also rotate at high speed, kept rotating smoothly by lubrication oil. The oil gets hot and is cooled by recirculating through tubes, which pass through coolers containing seawater.

The leaks appear to be from seawater in the coolers getting into the lube oil, which is routinely monitored for quality. Leak problems have been discovered from inspection of the oil and from noticing seawater gathered in sumps — basins that collect excess fluids.

Two of the main shaft bearing coolers are located immediately inside the AIMs.

Each of the Zumwalt’s two AIMs is in its own machinery space, along with a shaft and a gas turbine. The shafts run directly into the AIM, without the reduction gearing familiar to most large-ship propulsion plants. The coolers are independent systems not connected to each other.

On Sept. 19, while getting underway from Norfolk, Virginia, a seawater leak was discovered in the lube oil system for one of the ship’s shafts, and a systemic problem was suspected. Navy officials ordered all four shaft bearing coolers to be replaced — two taken from the third ship in the class, the Lyndon B. Johnson — still under construction at Bath — and two from a land-based test facility in Philadelphia that replicates much of the Zumwalt’s power plant. The work was completed before the ship left Norfolk on Oct. 7 for her commissioning ceremony in Baltimore, Maryland, which was carried out Oct. 15.

The Navy official noted that one of the AIM coolers failed on Oct. 24 while the ship was at sea, and two of the dynamic brake resister coolers also have failed. Pit corrosion was found in one of the coolers, the Navy official said, but it remains unclear what is causing the failures.

“They have not figured out why they are failing,” the Navy official added.

The coolers that failed Nov. 21 were two of those installed in September in Norfolk.

“There was a loss of propulsion on the port shaft,” the Navy official said. “Then the starboard shaft was shut down after water was found.” Again, the problem was traced to seawater getting into the main shaft bearing lube oil from the coolers.

In Panama, the Naval Sea Systems Command replaced three coolers — the two that failed and, according to the Navy official, another on the starboard shaft “as a precautionary measure.” The latest replacement coolers came from the other Zumwalt-class sistership, the Michael Monsoor, christened at Bath in June.

As a precaution, the Navy official said, engineers have hooked up a temporary potable-water feed to the Zumwalt’s coolers rather than using seawater as the cooling agent, an effort to avoid damage should the leaks recur.

While the investigation continues into the cause for the leaks, the Navy official noted no mishap or criminal investigation is being carried out.

“There is no indication of noncompliance or procedural problems,” the Navy official said. “The crew responded appropriately. There is no other damage to the ship.”

The US Pacific Fleet on Dec. 1 issued a more complete statement about the latest cooler problems.

“On Nov. 21, USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) experienced two engineering problems while transiting the Panama Canal, requiring it to be towed to port for repairs,” said Cmdr. Clay Doss, a spokesman for the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor. “Both problems involved failed lube oil coolers for the ship's advanced induction motors (AIM) that propel the port and starboard shafts.

“In response to a loss of propulsion in the port shaft, the crew found water in an AIM bearing sump, and after inspecting all four bearings, found water in a bearing sump on the starboard shaft as well. Each AIM has two shaft bearings, forward and aft, each of which is supported by a lube oil cooler. Water in the bearing sumps meant that the lube oil cooler for that bearing was leaking.

“Over the next ten days while the ship was moored in ex-Rodman naval station and in Balboa, Panama, the crew worked with technicians from Naval Sea Systems command and the engineering plant's prime contractor, General Electric, to inspect the propulsion system, replace the failed lube oil coolers and conduct dock trials. Apart from the failed coolers, additional damage was not found in the bearings or in other parts of the drivetrain. [On Nov. 30] the ship got underway and resumed transit to San Diego during which the bearings will be monitored constantly. Upon arrival in San Diego, the ship will prepare for a post-delivery availability and combat systems activation.

“The technical community is working with the equipment manufacturers to determine why the failures occurred and to prevent recurrences,” Doss said. “At this point it is unclear if the problems were caused by a design flaw. In addition to reviewing the design, the technical community is looking at ways to operate the lube oil coolers more effectively.”

The cooler failures are the latest embarrassment for the Zumwalt — which has attracted enormous interest because of its unique design and new technologies. Defense News reported Nov. 6 on a Navy decision to end procurement of shells for the ship’s 155mm guns due to excessive costs — upwards of $800,000 per round. The Navy is seeking alternative shells to arm the ship’s guns.

The Zumwalt is expected to arrive in San Diego early in December."

Destroyer Zumwalt Resumes Voyage to California
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
 
Top