As part of our ongoing development of the Boldrewood towing tank we’ve spent a week carrying out the International Towing Tank Conference‘s recommended Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) benchmark case. PIV technique allows the velocity field to be measured across a two -dimensional plane created by a laser sheet. The tank is seeded with small reflective particles and two photos are taken a short time interval apart. Image processing allows the velocity field within a high resolution underwater camera’s image frame to be measured.
Flat plate at angle of attack to flow – matt black finish reduces unwanted reflections from laser sheet
In these tests a rig was built to allow a flat plate to be towed at an angle of attack creating a strong tip vortex. The PIV measurements allow the location and strength of the vortex to be obtained experimentally. The tank test has to be run in the dark with the use of special protective goggles when observing the tests.
Just the carriage lights on prior to a test
The tests for the calibration are carried out at low speed of 0.4 m/s with even the carriage light switch off and just the faint glow of the data acquisition computer screens
Video of a test at 0.4 m/s showing team on the carriage and then the laser sheet pulses and can see the seeded particles
Thanks to the team lead by Magnus with support from Melike, James and David. Funding the LaVision PIV system came through the EPSRC funded National Wind Tunnel Facility
If you are thinking about a future in mechanical engineering or aerospace why not consider maritime? Salaries remain strong, there is a worldwide shortage of engineers with maritime expertise and you as an individual can really make a significant difference.
Looking to the future the UK maritime sector is set to continue growing and to become an ever more important part of the UK’s economy. Already the maritime sector with an economic impact of £116bn is larger than the rail and aviation sectors combined. As an industry it supports over a million jobs that are 45% more productive than UK average, with pay 30% higher than UK benchmark and has expanded by 35% between 2010 and 2019.
These are the highlights from a detailed report by CEBR commissioned by MaritimeUK that discusses crucial maritime activities in the UK: shipping(£49Bn), engineering and science(£34Bn), business services(£13.7Bn), ports(£10Bn) and leisure(£8Bn) all play their part.
Research and development will play a key part in future UK success particularly in green technology developments around: decarbonising the shipping fleet of the world; developing the technology to harvest marine renewables such as floating offshore wind, tidal and wave energy; digital technology to ensure that ships are productive and can operate safely minimising risk to crew through increased use of autonomous systems; data analytics that allow ships to manage their voyage to account for the latest weather; achieving improved performance through use of foiling technology developed through high performance sailing events such as the America’s Cup, reducing ship resistance using air lubrication technology and returning to the age of sail through wind assist.
What industry needs are the highly qualified maritime engineers and ship scientists that can create and implement these innovative technologies. Typically 15 times as many students apply for aerospace as opposed to maritime courses and as a result only a small proportion of aerospace graduates actually go to work in their sector whereas in maritime there are many many opportunities worldwide as well as in the UK.
Our degree programmes are designed for the future and are taught by academics who are at the forefront of the maritime sector worldwide. As part of the School of Engineering we are in the top four of UK Engineering units of assessment for the the quality of its research (REF2021) and its societal and economic impact. The pathways for our final two years of our MEng programme include advanced computational engineering, ocean energy and offshore engineering, international naval architecture, marine engineering and autonomy, and yacht and high performance craft.
Our courses are the only ones that are joint accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Royal Institution of Naval Architects and the Institute of Marine Engineers, Scientists and Technologists. Year-on-year our national student survey results consistently rate us as the top UK maritime engineering and ship science degree programme.
In honour of this year’s theme for World Maritime Day 2019 on 26th September, we are delighted to announce our networking event Empowering Women in the Maritime Community. We will be holding a Q&A/networking session for women in the maritime sector, who will be sharing what they do, how they got there, and any advice they might have. The session will be relatively informal, with lots of opportunities to ask questions and garner advice. More details to follow next month: RAENg Visiting Professor Dr Penny Jeffcoate
The evnt is being coordinated by Dr Penny Jeffcoate our RAEng Visiting Professor – Marine Energy Technologies and Associated Infrastructure.
Penny joined us in 2018 as part of the Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor scheme, alongside her current role at tidal energy developer Sustainable Marine Energy as their R&D Manager. This industry-into-academia initiative aims to utilise the experience of Visiting Professors to enhance student learning as well as the employability and skills of UK engineering graduates, whilst strengthening external partnerships with industry. Under the objectives of this scheme, industry practitioners participate in course development, face-to-face teaching and mentoring of engineering undergraduates at the host university for three years.
Penny worked with Maritime Engineering and Ship Science programmes in 2018-2019 to help develop the Renewable Energy (SESS6067) and Group Design Projects courses for final year students, to give them practice in industry methods, particularly in reporting and critical reasoning. She will be working with the department this year to expand this interaction and give students insight into designing to client specification and management practices. This develop will continue until the end of her placement in 2021 and will hopefully be used for many years of student intake to come. The RAEng scheme also promotes the encouragement of traditionally minority entities in engineering, such as women and BAME. Penny will therefore be organising an event in support of this year’s IMO World Maritime Day: Empowering Women in the Maritime Community.
Hydrogen Fuelled High Speed Marine Transport – EngD Thesis Ivo Veldhuis
Looking to the future of how shipping can reduce its emissions of greenhouses gases and local pollutants such as NOx and SOx Professor Stephen Turnock spoke at an industry event recently organised by SC Group and chaired by Steve Austen. Other talks addressed the regulatory challenge of reducing emissions and in delivering diesel engines that are IMO Tier III compliant. https://proteum.co.uk/videos/
The challenge for today’s ship designers are significant as the future direction of how ships will be powered is not clear. Work at Southampton has considered how best to apply Nuclear technology, possible methods of using hybrid power storage solutions in bulk carriers, and recently on the methods of energy management for hydrogen fuel cells powered vessels. Container ship moored at Southampton Port – would cold ironing significantly improve air quality in Southampton
What is clear is that to tackle the problem will allow significant and rapid innovation. will we end in a world where electric motor are the prime units of motive power or will conventional engine technology but with new fuels such as LNG in the short term or Hydrogen in the long term. While the global emissions is an ever present challenge it is often the local air quality health related issues especially in port cities that appears to be driving the need for rapid change.
A recent undergraduate project used AIS data for month to evaluate over a month who much emissions of NOx, SOx and particulates were emitted due to all the ship movements within Southampton water. The AIS data allows the time and location as well as the likely amount of emissions to be estimated.
The Ship science team will be welcoming visitors this summer and autumn as part of the University of Southampton’s Open Days.
Talks will give opportunities to learn more about the maritime sector and the exciting careers possible with a degree in Ship Science as well as demonstrations in our impressive 138 m long , 6 m wide and 3.5 m long wave and towing tank.
Maritime is a rapidly growing sector where there is significant skills shortage. A recent article by the chair of Maritime UK, Ocean economy offers UK a trillion pound opportunity in undiscovered gold and precious metals highlights what are seen as the many opportunities enabled by the 4th industrial revolution enabled by digital technology. Ship scientists and maritime engineers are at the heart of the application of the new developments in technology ensuring that these can be applied safely and in an environmentally sensitive way.
Fleur in Action – autonomous surface vessel that crawls across the oceans using wave energy gathering data
Our staff and students will be on hand to explain and answer any questions you might have.
We are fortunate to offer three research internships based in the fluid structure interactions group. These are intended primarily for ship science students just finishing their 3rd year and provide an eight week research experience.
Professor Dominic Hudson is looking for someone to work Prediction of ship power using machine learning
and
Dr Joe Banks has two positions related to his work on the characterisation of the fluid structure interaction of ship propellers Research Intern into propeller performance –
and as part of the on-going work of teh performance sports engineering lab investigating performance of elite swimmers Research Intern into Swimming Performance –
If you are interested please contact Dominic or Joe directly.
We also have some PhD opportunities in swimming for students who qualify as suitable for EPSRC.
Professor Stephen Turnock and Laura Marimon Giovannetti had a busy day on the 7th July talking about the University of Southampton’s experience in engineering excellence in performance sport. Firstly in the afternoon at an event hosted by the Bishop Wordsworth school in Salisbury to an audience of 230 year 10 to year 12 students from four different school’s in the Salisbury area. Then again in a slightly longer format to the IMechE’s Wessex Region as the 11th Annual Arnold Barks Christmas Lecture to an audience of over 100 . Laura demonstrating her skills in competitive sailing
The talk linked the long standing work at Southampton in performance sailing led for nearly five decades by the internationally renowned Wolfson Unit for Marine Technology and Industrial Aerodynamics now based in B185 adjacent to our new 138 m long towing tank, the work on developing F1 and Indy cars in the R.J.Mitchell wind tunnel from the late 70s as well as over a decade of collaboration with UKSport/EIS(R&I) supporting a wide range of sports. The pursuit of performance that ensure that all athletes have the best possible equipment relies on a deep understanding of the physics of the problem coupled to possible engineering solutions. A common thread was the human aspects of the work where able PhD students work alongside sport scientists, coaches and athletes. To date PSEL has graduated 8 EngD/PhD students many of whom have an undergraduate Ship Science degree. Dr Webb running a swimming test
In a final section the relevance of the techniques and technologies developed in performance sport to the wider world and in particular the necessity to find solutions to the essential challenge of improving the energy efficiency of global shipping which transports 90% of the worlds goods, emits 3% of CO2 in 100,000 ships. How will these ships be fuelled in a low carbon world? An example of the cross-over is in Dr Angus Webb whose spin out company Dynamon offers services to the logistics industry.
For both talks the audience asked challenging questions and were in turn asked to spread the word that many more maritime engineering and ship scientists are needed!
A combined SMMI and FSI panel discussion Wed 12th October 2016 at 18:00
University of Southampton, Boldrewood Campus, 1125/176L
FSI post grad student Josh Taylor has organised a panel discussion as part of Southampton Sustainability Week. This public event explores the challenges faced by the maritime industry on the route to becoming more sustainable. The unique framework of the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute facilitates the continued exchange of ideas between people in both academia and industry.
This event is part of Southampton’s first annual sustainability week and should provide a stimulating discussion to create opportunities for change while showcasing the maritime industry’s presence in Southampton. Southampton sustainability week is a series of city-wide events which encourage sustainable behaviour change by increasing awareness of issues and celebrating progress to date. The week is organised by a group of volunteers and headed by the founder Jenny Barnes.
A distinguished panel of industry experts and academics will discuss the challenges the maritime industry faces in achieving environmental sustainability, guided by structured questions from the chair, Professor Ajit Shenoi, University of Southampton director of the SMMI. The discussion topics will include Ship design, Maritime law, Regulation and innovation, Fleet operation, Waste management.
For those interested in attending please register for free via Eventbright: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-route-to-sustainable-shipping-tickets-28168759518
If you are interested in exploring our study opportunities in maritime engineering and ship science then the video interviews with two of our graduates Thomas and Emily from graduation this summer maybe useful.
