Kicked off in January 2020, the VENTuRE project (a Virtual and physical ExperimeNTal Towing centre for the design of energy Efficient sea-fairing vessels) continues successfully despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic may have disrupted the physical activities, but it did not affect the extensive collaborative endeavours between the University of Malta, University of Strathclyde, University of Genoa and the Naval Architecture Services Ltd. The physical activities were converted to online activities as a response to COVID-19 restrictions and they have been successfully completed.
The three joint research groups (namely i. Resistance & Propulsion; ii. Seakeeping & Manoeuvring; and iii. Combined CFD/EFD groups) have been holding regular online meetings with three distinct research topics and successfully published one journal article in a Quartile 1 journal, while three more jointly written articles will follow soon. The details of the articles can be seen below.
- Song, S., Demirel, Y. K., De Marco Muscat-Fenech, C., Tezdogan, T., & Atlar, M. (2020). Fouling effect on the resistance of different ship types. Ocean Engineering, 216, 107736. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2020.107736 (published, 15 November 2020)
- Terziev, M., Tezdogan, T., Demirel, Y. K., Villa, D., Mizzi, S. & Incecik, A., 17 (2020). Exploring the effects of speed and scale on a ship’s form factor using CFD. International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering. (under review)
Song, S., Ravenna, R., Dai, S., De Marco Muscat-Fenech, C., Tani, G., Demirel, Y. K., Atlar, M., Day, S., Incecik, A. (2020). Experimental investigation on the effect of heterogeneous hull roughness on ship resistance. Ocean Engineering. (under review) - Song, S., Demirel, Y. K, De Marco Muscat-Fenech, C., Sant, T., Villa, D., Tezdogan, T. & Incecik, A. (2020). Investigating the effect of heterogeneous hull roughness on ship resistance using CFD. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (under review)
The partners have also been organising Short Specialist Courses on technologies, systems, design and techniques in virtual and physical towing tank testing. Following the first course – ‘Physical towing tank testing for the prediction of ship resistance and propulsion’ organised by the University of Strathclyde in July 2020, the second Short Specialist Course – ‘Virtual towing tank testing for the prediction of ship resistance and propulsion’ was organised online by the University of Genoa on 15-17 September 2020.
The special networking activities were also held on 10 December 2020, in order to increase the national, regional and international networking of the project partners. The partners attended a public workshop organised by the University of Strathclyde regarding their SFC Global Challenges Research Fund project entitled “Assessment of the current practices and local needs for developing smart antifouling strategies towards energy-efficient fishing boats in Turkey” in collaboration with the Turkish partners, Karadeniz Technical University, Yusuf Reis (SME) and Trabzon Aquaculture and Fishing Cooperative. Following the workshop, an online public networking session was organised by the VENTuRE partners. The project coordinator, Professor Claire De Marco presented the VENTuRE project activities to the potential stakeholders. Following this presentation, a Questions & Answers and Discussion session was held.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. Project No. 856887.
More information may be obtained on https://www.strath.ac.uk/engineering/navalarchitectureoceanmarineengineering/events/venture/ .