Mid-March
2006
Table
of Contents:
Pacific Northwest Section |
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Greek Section |
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Northern California Section |
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Mid-March
2006
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Pacific
Northwest Section January 21, 2006 The SNAME Pacific Northwest Section hosted a very successful Student Meeting on January 21, 2006. Over 25 students from the University of British Columbia (UBC), The University of Washington (UW) and Western Washington University gave nine technical presentations on a range of topics. There were approximately a dozen SNAME members present. The human powered submarine teams, from all three universities, gave updates on the new and unique components of their sub designs. The team from Western had great concept sketches for a range of vessels. The UW team had a good foundation laid for a self-contained computer system that will help with navigating the course and collecting data for future improvements. The UBC team has a new carbon fiber hull and a linear drive system underway; they look to be a threat in the coming competition this summer. We wish all the teams the best of luck and hope they continue to think of new and challenging projects to test their skills and learn what it takes to put together an underwater system. The Sailboat team from UBC gave an update on their team project. They are building a new semi-autonomous sailboat for the June competition in Kingston, Ontario. We know they will do well in the competition that they started last year. Bill Rawling talked about the future of ocean energy research at UBC and their new wave-buoy test bench. They are s working to become a major research center for the growing field of ocean energy collection. Their estimate of power potential in British Columbia (6000-8000 MW between tidal current and wave power) shows that there is real promise in this field. UBC’s entrants into the International Student Workboat/Small Craft/Yacht Design Competition (ISWSCYDC) gave a presentation on their design of a Rescue Diver Deployment Vessel. The three-person team designed the hull form, structure, general arrangement and machinery system, and they analyzed resistance, seakeeping, stability and cost for their design. This all was done in just a few months. Their design was very impressive and earned them second place in the competition. Kevin Gould gave a presentation of his team’s work on -Reduced Wave Drag through Hull Parabolization for a trimaran. They are continuing to work on developing a method of reducing wave-creation losses while keeping skin friction low enough to achieve a net gain in hull efficiency. To help them research this, they are developing new numerical tools to accurately model the wave and skin friction together. Their base hull form is a trimaran, which they believe will give them some increased efficiency. A design team from UBC gave an overview of their project design of a vessel to help assess small fishing vessel stability. Their goal was to design a system to determine the stability characteristics of small vessels with a faster and cheaper method than is currently used. Their design of a mobile facility to lift, inspect, laser scan and incline a vessel appears to have some promise. A
presentation was given by a team from UBC working to design a horizontal
pendulum device to capture wave energy for use on sailboats. They believe
their device and a storage bank of batteries could help increase the reliability
and amount of power that a long-range sailboat could use. Their test model
created only a miniscule amount of energy, but they have hopes of improving
their design and creating a future market for their invention. February 11, 2006 by Todd Barber The Pacific Northwest Section held its annual joint meeting with the Canadian Institute of Marine Engineering (CIMarE) on Saturday February 11th, 2006. The meeting was held at Cheer's Restaurant in North Vancouver, British Columbia, and was well attended for an early Saturday morning, with 44 people in attendance to hear four speakers. The meeting began with a continental breakfast and social hour followed by four technical presentations. The first presentation was by Jeff Smith, a maritime lawyer with BC Ferry Services Inc. Jeff gave an overview of his paper entitled "Goal Keeping in the 21st Century. The Role of the International Maritime Organization in Shipbuilding and Design: Current Trends." The author began with a brief review of the history and mandate of the IMO, and then discussed how Canadian law and IMO standards apply together in the construction and repair of Canadian and foreign flag vessels. Jeff then discussed some technical advances and regulatory initiatives of the IMO and concluded with offering predictions about coming trends in ship design and construction. The second paper of the day, “New Technology in Hull Coatings,” was presented by Michael G. Steele of SR Metal Coatings (2004) Inc. Michael's presentation provided an overview of some of his company's new coatings that contain properties, which may provide significant benefits to the marine industry in the areas of corrosion protection, antifouling capability and hull drag reduction.
After a brief coffee break, Robert E. Spicer from EMD gave an interesting presentation covering the history of EMD and its engines, and how the company’s engines are evolving to meet the growing emissions regulations. The fourth speaker was Jonathon Seymour of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. Jonathon gave an overview of the mandate of the Transportation Safety Board and its role in investigating incidents and providing recommendations for improving vessel safety. A number of Transportation Safety Board Marine Investigation Reports were distributed to attendees. Jonathon concluded by reminding the audience of their responsibility to safety when designing, building and repairing vessels and their equipment. The
meeting concluded with a buffet lunch providing attendees to an opportunity
to discuss the morning's papers.
Greek
Section February 22, 2006 On February 22,2006 the Greek Section had a joint meeting with the Hellenic Offshore Racing Club of Piraeus that also hosted the meeting. The guest speaker, Mr. Paul Bieker, P.E., a Naval Architect from Seattle, WA and Head of Structural Design for the 2007 BMW Oracle America’s Cup Yacht, lectured on the subject of “Modern Composite Yacht Structural Design and Construction.”
There was a wide-ranging audience of younger enthusiastic sailors, academics, and practicing sailors who were curious to know more about these wonder boats, as well as naval architects with sailing interests throughout the Hellenic shipping industry and many university students. The presentation began with a breath-taking film showing characteristic scenes on Alingi’s triumph over the KIWIs, which brought the cup, back to Europe, after a long time, and then went on to outline the general particulars and design constraints of America’s cup boats which made the challenge worth considering. The audience was captivated by the explanations of available materials and considerations,, which could cope with the requirements, and quickly illustrated that the finite element analysis (FEA) tool was indispensable for such considerations. The author explained that detailed FEA was an essential element in producing ultra lightweight structures able to compete and win without breaking. In these constructions very modern materials, such as HS and HM Carbon Prepreg are used to extend the performance weight ratio by at least one order of magnitude over traditional Eglass Mat and Roving or Epoxy composites. These materials are only marginally more expensive than the traditional ones. However, they lead to more fragile construction. The long string of composite layers forming these boats, and the whipping loads which momentarily act on these minimised structures, give emphasis to “delivering a victory” by marrying the best aero-hydrodynamics, the best engineered, most optimised, and best raced sailing machines of our times. With the presentation of graphics that illustrated some characteristics underlying structural options inside the boats, Mr. Bieker convinced all, that apart from a powerful computing contribution, this field also needed a string of well-founded structural assumptions and ultimate production control to create such complex assemblies. This was the world of the future for the audience. All of these advancements require the selection of top specialists in every aspect of boat design, and excellent team work in all fields of activity. Also proven managers are required to organise every single detail of this almost military operation, coping with a myriad of unpredictable problems. Of course, sufficient financial backing from generous sponsors who can afford the investment for its publicity returns are a necessary ingredient. The presentation ended with some questions on the numbers of people involved, the logistics of such an undertaking and the time required to prepare for a challenge. At
the end, everyone had the question in mind of when these wonderful materials
are going to be used by the series-producing builders of composite “plastic”
boats that dominate the world market! Then, real progress would be made.
Northern
California Section March 8, 2006 On March 8, 2006 members of SNAME Northern California Section and ASNE Golden Gate Section gathered at Northrop Grumman in Sunnyvale for a tour of the Marine Systems facility. The fascinating tour provided many insights into the high-tech fabrication of modern steam turbine propulsion units and generators for ships of the U.S. Navy. Following the tour attendees enjoyed a buffet dinner and a technical program presentation. Reg Ricket, a consulting engineer to Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems presented a summary of ongoing development efforts to design a high-temperature superconductor (HTS) generator for use aboard Navy combatants. A Northrop Grumman Corporation-led team has been selected by the Naval Sea Systems Command to begin a design of a 40-megawatt HTS generator intended to provide a smaller, lighter and quieter main power source for future surface combatants. As the U.S. Navy transitions to an all-electric surface ship, superconductivity will be a key enabling technology for achieving these power density goals. Conventional generators are heavy, large and noisy. HTS generators can be at least half the size and weight of currently available generators of equal rating, while providing low-noise acoustic signatures and increased system stability.
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