The department's research in marine engineering has spanned many areas including automatic control of marine vehicles, analysis of shaft/bearing/support systems, structural reliability of shafting systems, and the thermodynamics of waste heat recovery. Ongoing research areas include:
Reduction of the Risk of Introduction of Nonindigenous Aquatic Species via Ballast Water. The department has played a key leadership role in the design of the Great Lakes Ballast Technology Demonstration Project which is evaluating the mechanical and biological effectiveness of screen filtration in ships' ballast systems. A modular ballast water filtration system has been installed on the Seaway-max bulkcarrier M/V Algonorth. This involves two-stage, automatic backwashing filters with filtration capability down to 25 mm. Testing of this full-scale installation began in the 1997 shipping season. Testing will compare the water in two identical wing ballast tanks: a filtered test tank and a nonfiltered control tank. Earlier work evaluated the operational and safety aspects of ballast exchange in the open ocean. Interdisciplinary work is also underway to assess the cost, biological effectiveness, environmental impact, and safety aspects of using the nonoxidizing biocide glutaraldehyde as a secondary treatment for ships' ballast water.
Intelligent Control of Marine Vehicles. Research has studied the automatic control of marine vehicles through work on adaptive path control autopilots for surface ships, improved methods for the processing of position information in dynamic positioning systems, pitch control systems for SWATH vessels, and the use of multivariable integral control in propulsion bridge control systems. Most recent work has focused on the development of intelligent control systems for marine use. Fuzzy path control autopilots for ships and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) have been investigated. Work is underway to improve the integrated control of rudder and roll fins on a medium-sized cutter.
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A comparison between lateral offset (nondimensionalized by ship length) resulting from a passing ship when a large tanker is controlled by an optimal (dashed line) ship path controller and by a fuzzy (solid line) ship path controller (Parsons, Chubb, and Cao, 1995). |
FACULTY: Parsons, Perakis, Troesch, Woodward