Many Stevens students wouldn’t know where to find ABS 107, and some would not even be able to locate the school’s towing tank if they were consulting a campus map. Despite its somewhat covert location on Stevens’ campus, ABS 107 is home to the Fürth Laboratory, where there is plenty of innovation percolating. Founded by Dr. Mirjam Fürth, the lab consists of undergraduate, graduate, and visiting researchers. The various ongoing research projects are based on aspects of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, but the issues they aim to solve extend far beyond these domains.
One lab-wide project intends to tackle the ever-present obstacle of world hunger by developing a sustainable ocean farming system. Specifically, the lab looks to develop a moored platform from which edible seaweed can be grown. With the added mass of the growing seaweed, the hydrodynamics of the platform will inevitably be altered. Powering the platform is another challenge that this project presents. The lab will continue to use the wave generating capabilities of the Davidson Laboratory towing tank to explore these challenges and their potential solutions.
With the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the drive to find alternative forms of energy has exploded. One of the lab’s projects is a Ph.D. project investigating the usage of Current and Tidal Foil Turbines. Foils are essentially wing-shaped flaps that are attached to lever arms mounted to the ocean floor. As the current and tide of the ocean moves the foils, the arm moves as well, generating energy that can be used for power grids. Another Ph.D project is investigating aspects of wave energy conversion. Giant buoy-shaped objects are attached to a lever arm mounted to a pier. Here, the motion of the waves on the surface moves the buoy up and down, which again moves the arm and generates energy. Both projects seek to use computer simulations to optimize the performance of these alternative energy sources.
Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) ships play a massive role in the oil and liquified natural gas (LNG) industry. These enormous ships are typically anchored offshore and house huge amounts of hydrocarbons and LNG. This precious cargo is constantly being offloaded to smaller shuttle tankers, which transport the cargo into nearby ports. The sloshing effects of the liquid cargo inside the FPSO coupled with the motions of the ship itself make the hydrodynamics of this process very complex. As one would expect, any time there is unexpected downtime, an enormous amount of money is lost. A current Ph.D. project aims to investigate these hydrodynamic effects to carry out a comprehensive downtime analysis of this process. The project is using a model FPSO with cargo tanks to carry out experiments in the Davidson Laboratory towing tank to measure the effect of waves on FPSOs.
An ongoing Master thesis project investigates the concepts of spray deflection technology for the hulls of high-speed boats. Typically, the spray generated from the hulls of high-speed craft cutting through the water goes forward and out to the sides of the boat. Spray deflectors are meant to redirect this spray to go downward and toward the back of the boat, which should theoretically give the boat additional thrust and lift, decreasing drag and increasing fuel efficiency. To this point, there has been a lack of experimental evidence to support this theory, so a combination of master’s and undergraduate students have been using the high-speed towing tank to conduct experiments to explore this concept.
Every year, a large number of ships sink due to structural failure. Ship Health Monitoring is an undergraduate research project that aims to significantly reduce this number with the help of sensors on a ship’s hull. This research looks to actively monitor the health of a ship’s hull and provide early detection of issues that could potentially lead to structural failure. To do this, very large quantities of data must be interpreted. This big data analysis is the main challenge of this research.
Fürthlab’s diverse collection of backgrounds and skill sets has resulted in a constant flow of meaningful research projects. For those working in the Fürthlab, there is always something to be done. Whether it is a task for their own project, lending a hand to someone else’s work, or documenting the lab’s successes and failures on Instagram (@furthlab), their unique skills and abilities are always being put to good use in ABS 107. Wherever that is…
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