Oceans of opportunity - Only with research

OCEANS OF OPPORTUNITY -ONLY WITH RESEARCH

By: D E Lennard

For Presentation at

MARITIME TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE NOVEMBER 1995

REPORT AMECRC 095/16

AUSTRALIAN MARITIME ENGINEERING CRC LIMITED

Oceans of Opportunity - Only with Research

by D E Lennard

Executive Director

Australian Maritime Engineering Cooperative Research Centre

Launceston, Tasmania

Abstract

The rate of change in ships, offshore platforms, and other maritime activities is accelerating. To be in the lead, and to stay in the lead, requires constant analysis of market opportunities and evaluation of technologies which will improve operating capabilities. The joint drivers are increasing world trade and opportunities opening up through the declaration of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) at the end of 1994. In terms of technology there are major developments in hull forms, structural design and material applications in the established maritime sectors. The relevance of programs of work undertaken elsewhere in the world are discussed, including opportunities for collaboration. The winning of the opportunities will only be achieved if appropriate fundamental and applied research is undertaken. In short, research is the cheap option.

Introduction

When a scene - such as the maritime sector - is rapidly changing there is a need to target research to satisfy new demands. In addition to development of existing activities, totally new sectors - in part driven by world population growth, and by environmental constraints on some traditional land based resources - are requiring innovative solutions to problems before any cost effective progress

can be made.

The declaration of the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) 200 nautical miles out from the shores of coastal states has given Australia one of the largest EEZs in the world - with an area greater than its

continental land area; and it provides great opportunities.

Finally - and the European Union is a good example - the applications of maritime technology cannot be considered only in a national context. Operations in the seas and oceans - by virtue of the medium in which they occur, and frequently because of the scale of operations - are international.

Is it an Ocean of Opportunity?

As an island continent Australia has for long relied on the sea for transport of goods, and has fished

its coastal and offshore waters.

More recently the recovery of hydrocarbons has featured.

Otherwise, the seas and oceans have traditionally been little used compared with land. Now there

is a realisation that the oceans can offer

more food (fish farming, fish ranching), medicines

(biomass), renewable energies (wave, tidal, ocean thermal), minerals (both in deposit and dissolved

forms) - in addition to hydrocarbon recovery from more extreme conditions (deeper waters with subsea production) and newer, faster means of transport (such as the fast catamarans where

Australia presently leads the world).

On 16 November 1994, when the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea came into force, and the declaration of 200 nautical mile EEZs by coastal states was possible (Figure 1), many of these

-

-potential .developments which had been inhibited by lack Of legal title once outside coastal zone or territorial sea jurisdiction became potentially attractive in a business sense.

Whilst these new and enhanced maritime activities are (usually) high added value businesses, requiring the use of highly trained staff, the cost control imperativehas a very high priority from the beginning: innovative solutions for these activities must be bothtechnologically effective and cost effective: in other words they must be good overall engineeringsolutions; technology alone is not

'enough. The ,demand is therefore for relevant, industry targeted, research. In the southern

hemisphere the opportunities are, largely, awaiting initiatives, apart from the offshore oil and gas. activity and (in Australia) the very successful fast vessel industry.

Since Australia sees a key role for itself within the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) area, and the Asia/Pacific Region and particularly the Pacific Basin -

is seen as the major

economic growth area in world terms, the opportunity for innovative action in the maritime sector' is particularly attractive for Australia. Maritime industrieswill have both a home base, and export potential, and high added value. They will therefore be a majorcontributor to GNP.

The Range of Research

The range of maritime activities already listed leaves a very great deal to be desired when it comes to reaching decisions on priorities. In the European Union (EU) this was tackled in 1992 and 1993 by bringing together industrialists and researchorganisations from the maritime European. countries

- including those who, at the time, were awaiting a decision on joining the EU

-together with a part of the European Commission responsible for industry (Directorate General TEE)., which over a period of 16 months came up with a series of detailed projects where, it was believed, good opportunities existed. This group wascalled the Maritime Industries Forum (MW) and it presented a synopsis of these opportunities to a broadly based group of industrialists -including many who at that time had no maritime interests - in Rotterdam, and following that became an input to EU considerations for future overall research work - the EU Framework Programme which has a four-year rolling cycle. Figure 2 tabulates the output topics of the Marine Resources Panel of the MW and it will be seen

that this is a catholic broad-ranging group. Not all ofthese will be followed up, but it is a very useful indication of the breadth of thinking which is growing in one geographical area, which can have implications for most of the world. As remarked inthe Introduction, operations in the oceans are frequently international. Also, frequently, the investment necessary for ocean activities requires that a business enterprise must look beyond a home market if the return on investment is to be ,adequate. Which means the Europeans are looking at the samemarkets in many cases which will be of interest to Australia - both are examining the same set of opportunities. The approachused by the EU is surely one which must be undertaken in Australia if the right decisions on priorities are to be taken here. To pick out just one example from Figure 2 -Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion and Deep Ocean Water Application (OTEC/DOWA) - and consider it a little further may be helpful in illustrating the point.

OTEC generates power from the temperature difference between surface water and water at a depth of up to 1000m, where the water is polar and at a temperature of 4°C. Figures 3 and 4 illustrate a floating OTEC plant designed to deliver 10MVV. But electrical power is only one of the possible outputs. Figure 5 shows a fuller range of possibilities, mostimportant of which are probably power, plus potable water and food. When it is borne in mind thatOTEC has its principal applications in tropical and sub-tropical waters, and that there are many countries surrounded by these waters which require drinking water, food and electricity, then the market opportunity is clear - 'assuming that it is economically attractive., Much research and development work has already been carried out, in seven countries in particular, but the final technological and economic work is still to be

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-completed. OTEC/DOWA is a subject to which Australia has so far contributed little - indeed that applies to marine renewable energies generally, this country preferring to concentrate on new developments of more traditional maritime technology, for example shipbuilding.

Within that overall shipbuilding area, Australia has established, currently, a leading worldwide position with fast catamarans, in particular the wave piercing concept - and a proposed 1500 tonne cargo cat is shown in Figure 6. But if Australia is to retain its lead - a number of other countries is now making rapid progress - research is absolutely essential.

A Mechanism for Relevant Research

One very relevant body is the

Australian Maritime Engineering Cooperative Research Centre

(AMECRC) which includes research inthat area among its portfolio.

AMECRC was formed on 1 July

1992. Its key objective: "to enable Australia's maritime

engineering industries to take best advantage of science and technology opportunities". It presently

has 25 Participants from around Australia, but that number is

continually growing. The

headquarters is in Tasmania, and it operates four research cores at: Launceston, Melbourne, Perth,

and Sydney.

AMECRC has three current research programs:

Calm Water Performance of MarineVehicles

Ocean Influence on Ships and MaritimeStructures

Structural Design and Fabrication of Shipsand Maritime Structures

and a technology transfer program, including a range of courses and workshops throughout Australia on specialised maritime engineering topics. It will be noted that all these programs have relevance to wave piercing fast cats (among other applications), and this is noaccident. Among the AMECRC Participants is a core of the fast cat specialists.

But also a balance of research must be struck, from basic right through todevelopment. CRCs must undertake both long term fundamental research and strategic research - which are generally inappropriate for an individual industrial body to support. Development work is expensive when compared with research, and is not core business for a CRC. But there is a frequent gap between the completion of research and commercialisation, and AMECRC is ready, on occasion, to fill that

gap.

Companies are demanding a closer

targeting of research expenditure towards areas where

commercial advantage can be realised. This implies a fast innovation cycle from concept to market, and a rapid exploitation of research, development and demonstration results within those wealth-generating (and cost-reducing) activities. There is recognition that competitive advantage hinges more upon the integration of new techniques within business activity, than on the ownership of Intellectual Property on its own.

To grasp the opportunities, AMECRC therefore sees three key rolesfor itself:

3

-plan for all possible exploitation of research from conception of the program to its completion

wherever possible, involve the parties to exploitation within theresearch program itself initiate the necessary post-program activities (such as application workshops and technology development projects), including assessment of commercialisation potential

and achievement.

and to achieve these "case studies" will become an important constituent part of programs. In the meantime, AMECRC's grasping of opportunities can best beillustrated by reference to fast cat work within the current three research programs. Examples include:

High speed catamaran peiformance

An investigation into the prediction of the resistance of high speed catamarans was initiated by industry as a result of concerns arising from extrapolation of experimental results made by towing tanks worldwide. This has involved wind tunnel testing and should lead to a significantly increased understanding of the hydrodynamics of long thin hulls, and hence to a reliable method of extrapolating results for the towing tank.

High speed catamaran response

A key interest to manufacturers of Australia's high-speed vessels is the prediction of the response of their boats in a seaway, so that, with good design, the motions can be

minimised. This is not a

simple matter for a number of reasons. Firstly, one must

consider all six degrees offreedom (surge, sway, heave, roll, pitch, and yaw). Secondly, it is necessary to operate the vessel in a variety of conditions,where the frequencies and

amplitudes of the waves depend on

the particular situation. Thirdly, of primary

consideration is the well-being of the passengers on board and their susceptibility to kinetosis (seasickness). Fourthly, it is not sufficient just to optimise the design of the vessel keeping the above important aspects in mind. The vessel must also have a low resistance so that engine power can be kept to a minimum and, above all, the economics of the operation of the ferry mustbe kept competitive.

Prediction of ship motions - catamarans and monohulls

There is need for a more thorough knowledge of ship motions given the hull form and the seaway. To this end, anumber of computer programs is being developed underthe auspices of AMECRC. One such computer program under development by AMECRC,

called SEALAM, is able to compute

the linearized heave-and-pitch response of

monohull forms, in which the hull sections have fairly traditional geometric properties, and this program has recentlybeen extended.

Ride control system for ferries

An impressive achievement from the AMECRC research program is the developmentof a ride-control system for use on high-speed ferries. These systems can take many forms. AMECRC staff assisted in the development of an automatic version. Vessel motions have been reduced by over 50% through an onboard computer, which receives

signals from motion sensors and, in turn, sends its own control signals to hydraulic pumps, which then continuously adjust the angles of fins and flaps, in order to produce forces which oppose the ship motions. Figure 7 illustrates two vessels fitted with these

ride control systems.

These are examples taken fromAMIECRC work related to just one topic, fast catamarans. They are adequate, but not sufficient if Australia is to retain its lead in these vessels, and they are taken from the first two of the AMECRC programs mentioned at the beginning of this section ofthe paper. It is perhaps self-evident that as the speed and size of these catamarans continues to increase the method of construction - and the materials of construction - must be reviewed. Merely to develop current manufacturing techniques will result in very non-optimum structures - and the present lead over the rest of the world will not be maintained. Consequently other AMECRC work with the Participants is seeking to optimise the design and manufacturing processes for these larger, faster

craft. It is work such as this, the results of which are confidential to the Participants, which is the

ethos of the CRC concept, and clearly it is not possible to describe that workhere.

Other work of AMECRC, reflecting the interests of other Participants, includes bulk carrier structural monitoring, behaviour of autonomous underwater vehicles - with applications to both defence and the offshore oil and gas industry, subsea pipelines, towed arrays - which interestingly have both fishing and defence applications, and whole-life design of structures - which has application to virtually all the Participants.

These few examples still do little more than scratch the surface of the whole program. Also, predominantly, they refer to the cooperative research undertaken, but it should be pointed out that AMECRC carries out a considerable range of contract and consulting activities in the maritime engineering field using both experimental and analytical tools. For these purposes it uses a towing tank, circulating water channel, wave flume and structural test facilities. And, of course, has extensive and powerful computing capability available to it. It is already adding to the equipment available to undertake the programs, the AMECRC Cavitation Tunnel being opened in May, with proposals for more extensive world-leadingfacilities in the pipeline.

Reference to just two sources of research - the EU and then AMECRC - have, it is hoped, given a

very clear idea of the diversities of the opportunities in the ocean.

But Is Research Necessary?

The range of ocean opportunities described, albeit briefly, is still only a small part of the whole. Figure 8 re-presents the list of items in the text at the beginning of this paper. Any idea that it is possible to just "design and build" for these activities would be naive, and no-one is suggesting that. What is, though, sometimes suggested is that because significant research investments are required to bring these new, or enhanced, products or services into being, it is better to leave it to others. Not

really an option it

is suggested for Australia. These are high-added value activities, with

considerable export opportunities, providing real opportunities for Australia to expand its GDP. A recent report - "Ocean Outlook - A Blueprint for the Oceans" - indicates that in the next25 years the present $20B/year contribution to the Australian economy from the maritime sector canincrease to $50-85B/year. Presently maritime activities contribute some 4% to GDP. An increase to 10% or more will have a very significant effect on the wealth of this nation; probably greater than the change in any other single business sector. There seems, therefore, little option but to pursue the best maritime market options: otherwise opportunities will be lost to other nations.

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-Which then should be followed? That is a matter for market evaluation and the new Australian Maritime Industries and Sciences Council (AMISC) will presumably be seeing that these are undertaken. Then it will be possible to prioritise the maritime topics, and then quantify and cost -the work which will be necessary to bring ideas through to concepts and on to practical realisation. It is that process which will specify the research tobe undertaken. Not in isolation, but with the industrial and/or government partners who will make use

of it.

And, as remarked in the

Introduction, it will frequently not be possible to undertake work on a national basis - the cost will be too great and the human resources to undertake the research may well not be available in any one

country.

So, research is necessary if we are to gain the benefits from existing and new maritime activities. With the opportunities which the declaration of EEZs made possible, just one year before this particular Conference, we dare not miss the opening: which is why prioritised, industrially relevant, research is needed. One key organisation - perhaps in terms of industry relevant Australian maritime research the key organisation - is that described in this paper, AMECRC. But probably not in isolation, and the fact that there is a Memorandum of Understanding between the EU and Australia, which includes maritime matters, is a pointer to where one potential for cooperation

exists.

Conclusion

The only figures quoted in this paper have been GDP figures. That is intentional. They indicate that the size of the opportunity is of oceanic scale - a doubling, at least, of GDP in 25 years for this sector. This cannot be achieved by laissez-faire approaches. It is hoped that this paper has made it clear beyond doubt that selective research is necessary to realise the massive opportunities.

Acknowledgment

I would particularly wish to thank my

colleagues in AMECRC who are responsible for the

activities, and for the projects briefly exampled. They are the Associate Directors at each of our Core Research Nodes - AJProfessor L J Doctors, A/Professor J B Hinwood, Mr K Klaka, andDr M

R Renilson.

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-Figure 1: World Exclusive Economic Zones

Figure 2: Maritime Industries Forum - Panel 2: Marine Resources - Listof detailed Projects

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Oil/Gas

Fisheries and Aquaculture

Marginal Field Technology

Multi Purpose Fishing Vessel

Sub Sea and Deep Water

Selective Fishing

Technology

Sea-Bed Charts and Information

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Technology Transfer and Training

Centres for Fisheries and

Aquaculture

Renewable Energies

"ITC Aquaculture"

Wind Energy Conversion

Wave Energy Utilisation

Current Energy Conversion

Minerals and Potable Water

Transmission and Transport of

Deep-Sea Intervention

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Energy

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Shallow Sea Drilling System

and Deep Water Application

Shallow Sea Mining Vessel

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Sea-Water Desalination by

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Renewable Energy

European Fresh Water Transport

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