The Group carries out a broad range of advanced numerical and experimental activities involving all types of marine vehicles from ships to offshore structures and including e.g. novel hullforms and sailing yachts as well as sophisticated autonomous underwater vehicles.
The School’s comprehensively equipped marine laboratory and full-scale testing facilities provide a major focus for hydrodynamics research on the propulsive performance of ships including the effects of antifouling coatings, seakeeping and control. The focus is further enhanced by the support of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) activities applied to a diverse range of applications such as high-performance sailing yachts (Yacht and Superyacht Research Group), including sail aerodynamics, as well as hull hydrodynamics. Further inspiration from marine animals and biomimetics also provides an interesting research focus on the enhanced performance and control of future AUVs.
The research activities on marine structures are even wider and more diverse encompassing the structural integrity assessment of intact and damaged ships and offshore structures, structural reliability analysis of components and systems and reliability-based optimal design of structures. These activities are further complemented by the advanced theoretical modelling of the progressive collapse behavior of intact and damaged structures as well as the advanced theoretical modelling of collision and grounding events and subsequent evaluation of the damaged strength of the vessels. Detailed Linear and Non-Linear finite element modelling to estimate the fatigue and fracture strength performance of these structures are in the heart of the group’s activities.