Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science
Spring Term
Fall Term
1.Computer Aided Engineering and Design
2. Sub-Sea Robotics
4. Tank stabilization of ships
6. Manoeuvrability in ice.
(i) ShipDesigner software for design investigations at the concept and preliminary design stages. This software has been developed to a stage where it allows one to explore many alternative vessel configuration and compare both their technical and economic merits. Facilities have been built in which will allow one to perform optimization based on an economic measure of merit like Required Freight Rate or other discounted cash flow criterion. The program will select the optimal vessel characteristics to fulfil the specified mission. Work is still going on to improve and make this software more flexible and easy to use, as well as give the designer better control over the set of basis ships used in estimating vessel characteristics. Work is also being done to try to link the economic part of the design and ship operations model with readily available on line database information to make forecasting the relevant economic factors easier. It is the plan to incorporate a means of generating an initial hull form using commonly available hull form design software and CAD software file formats as output options, in addition to formats used by common stability and hydrostatics programs. Furthermore, it is the intention to develop detailed design tools like the Ship General Arrangement Tool discussed below. Additional design tools could be in the marine engineering area, or ship structural design etc. The current incarnation of the ShipDesigner assumes that one deals with conventional vessel configurations. I hope to be able to take this one step further in later versions, where one should be able to sketch in a vessel configuration (multi- or mono-hull) in diagrammatic form and have the program estimate the characteristics of a set of vessels of such a configuration so that one may be able to determine a design which is likely to fulfil a specified vessel mission.
(ii) Offshore oil production systems design tool for investigation of the economic performance of alternative solutions for floating and gravity based systems. Like the ShipDesigner project, this is a design tool intended for the concept and preliminary systems design stages. Risk analysis is also a major component of this work. The project is being undertaken in connection with the Canadian Offshore Design for Ice Environments (CODIE) project headed up by Dr. Ian Jordaan.
(iii) Ship General Arrangement Layout Tool. This is a project which is being undertaken by one of my M.Eng. students to develop a computer algorithm which will construct an initial three dimensional multi-level layout. The ship problem is just one possible application of such a tool. The area in which much more simplistic tools have been in use since the early 1950s is in manufacturing plant layout design. These tools are all two dimensional in nature and start with a diagrammatic layout. The ship problem is more complicated than most other layout problems since one deals with a strictly defined, compound curvature, boundary for the layout, at least for the part below the main deck. The above main deck layout may be governed by a set of constraints that dictate both the minimum and maximum number of levels in the deckhouse, and its maximum foot print. .A tool which can solve the ship layout problem will also be able to solve other layout problems. The basic construction algorithm is fairly close to being finished to the point where it will be able to fit a set of spaces inside the hull boundary. It is the intention to incorporate cost equations that will allow one to do optimization of the layout from a cost point of view i.e. minimize costs of installation of all the various systems required to service the various spaces as well as the cost of the construction of the spaces themselves.
2. Sub-Sea Robots: A single degree of freedom sub-sea robot is currently being developed by a Ph.D student. The robot uses an unconventional "propulsion" system employing air and water jets. The project is supervised jointly with Dr. M. Hinchey
3. Manufacturing and Production Management: Projects have been carried out in the past in the area of plant layout and associated operations research problems, as well as, in the area of productivity problems. There is no projects currently going on in this area. I have an interest in operations research and management related manufacturing problems, plus Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) problems which make a link with the CAD/CAE related work mentioned above. Furthermore, I have an interest in manufacturing problems related to composite marine structures.
4. Tank stabilization of ships: The use of passive stabilizing tanks for stabilizing 65 ft fishing vessels is being carried out jointly with Dr. D. Bass. Further work is being carried out to find a more generalized design methodology for passive stabilizing tanks in general. It is expected that work will be going on in this area for some time.
5. Ship safety: I am currently involved in an advisory capacity in a project funded by the Transportation Development Centre in which the effects of damage is made at amidships is made in a Roll-On-Roll-Off (RO-RO) ferry representative of one of the existing Canadian vessels. A model of this vessel is to be tested in beam seas to assess its survivability in damaged condition. Work is being done to get a more extensive research program in this area started with participation from the Ocean Engineering Research Centre(OERC), Institute for Marine Dynamics (IMD), and the RO-RO Industry.