On May 9th Rolls-Royce, MARINTEK and NTNU celebrated the official opening of a new University Technology Centre (UTC) on “Performance in a Seaway”, in the presence of Norway’s Minister for Industry Børge Brende, Head of Research and Techno-logy of Rolls-Royce Mike Howse, the President of Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine Duncan Forbes and several other high-level Rolls-Royce management personnel.

Tests with a ventilating ducted propeller in the
cavitation tunnel (Overaae). Studies of propeller
ventilation will be an important topic in the UTC.

In the course of the past ten years Rolls-Royce has developed a model for co-operation with universities and research institutes that aims to promote research with commercial potential. Some 25 universities and research institutes all over the world have this relationship with Rolls-Royce. The UTC partners are chosen among the top players in relevant fields, and the UTCs are long-term relationships, typically for ten years.Traditionally, ships and propulsion units have been optimised for operation in calm water. Operation in heavy seas has only been taken into account in terms of crude safety factors.

As we all know, ships only occasionally operate in calm water. The use of crude safety factors to accommodate the effects of waves and ship motions usually results in designs that are too heavy, costly and inefficient. What is worse is that in some cases this strategy produces vessels or propulsion units that are insufficiently strong or powerful, leading to costly and sometimes dangerous failures. With the establishment of the “Performance in a Seaway” UTC, Rolls-Royce, MARINTEK and NTNU intend to take design tools for ships and propulsion units to a level at which the effects of waves and ship motions can be taken into account in a sound and scientific manner.

Opening ceremony of the University Technology
Centre. From left: Mike Howse (Head of Research
and Technology Rolls Royce plc.), Kjell Holden
(Vice President Marketing MARINTEK), Sverre
Steen (Professor NTNU), Børge Brende (Minister
of Industry), Rune Garen (Director R&T Rolls-
Royce Marine). (Photo: NTNU Info/Rune Petter Ness)

The subject of the UTC will be ship performance in a seaway, but most emphasis will be put on the propeller and the dynamics of propellers in a seaway. The following topics will be covered:

Dynamic forces on propellers in a seaway due to effects of ventilation, cavitation and ship motions
Interaction effects between hull and propulsors
Added resistance and speed loss in waves for modern hull forms
Use of intelligent control methods to enhance performance; such as roll damping by use of tunnel and azimuth thrusters, and use of active control to reduce dynamic forces on propellers and azimuth thrusters
Optimum design of azimuth thrusters
Development of an advanced ship simulator for simulation of ships in a seaway. The simulator will be utilised as a platform for implementation of the results of basic studies in other parts of the UTC.

The Centre is headed by Professor Sverre Steen. NTNU does the most basic research, while MARINTEK performs more applied projects, and implements methods in the simulator and other computer-based tools, such as the ShipX Hydrodynamic Workbench.

MARINTEK contacts:

Published June 17, 2005