SD1: Ship Design - Junior Ship Design Highlights

SD1:SHIP DESIGN

2020 JUNIOR SHIP DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS by Bradley D. M. Golden '99, Assistant Professor of Naval Architecture

Each year, one of the highlights of the spring semester for our Junior class is the opportunity to participate in the small vessel design project. This project is a major milestone in their professional careers as naval architects and marine engineers since it’s the first time they get to LAFD’s existing large and small vessels.

apply what they’ve been learning at Webb and during their winter work internships towards a complete vessel design.

Having spent the first three years learning about the different elements of ship design, including stability, structures, resistance, powering, machinery, piping systems, and electrical systems, this is their first opportunity to put all this information together into a concept design.

Working in small groups of three and four, the Class of 2021 produced six different vessel designs which they themselves helped select. With the help of industry experts, a statement of design requirements was prepared for each of the vessels, and the design teams were sent to design for its vessel, and the designs were presented to a

work. Members of the Webb faculty and industry mentors helped each team along the way to develop their vessels. This year, the designs included:

• A cross-harbor RoRo truck ferry designed for the NYC

Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) to help facilitate express courier and delivery services into and out of Manhattan.

• A humanitarian relief vessel intended to support the

Bahamas Maritime Authority (BMA) and National

Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to respond to natural disasters around the Bahamas and the rest of • A wind farm service vessel with walk-to-work and crew transfer vessel capabilities to support the operation and maintenance of the developing offshore wind industry in the northeast United States.

• A medium-sized fireboat to serve the ports of Los

Angeles and Long Beach to bridge the gap between the

• A salvage support vessel to respond to NOAA’s efforts to remove oil remaining in a significant number of shipwrecks identified as being high- and mediumpriority under the agency’s Remediation of Underwater

Legacy Environmental Threats (RULET) program.

• An LNG bunkering vessel to deliver LNG fuel from a new export terminal in Jacksonville, FL, to the passenger cruise ship sector operating in Miami, FL, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Although the members of the design groups were separated from each other as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, each of the groups was successful in producing a the Caribbean.

panel of industry evaluators in May. Traditionally, these presentations are given in-person but, again because of the global pandemic, the presentations were given in an online seminar that was watched by over 90 attendees.

While all of the groups can be commended for their efforts, two designs in particular stood out and are highlighted to the right.

Cross-Harbor RoRo Truck Ferry

Humanitarian Relief Vessel

Wind Farm Service Vessel

Fireboat

LNGenius (LNG BunkeringVessel)

LNG Bunkering Solutions, consisting of Alec Bidwell, Oscar Como, Luke Herbermann, and Ben Hunt, designed the LNGenius, a self-propelled, 4,200 m3 LNG bunkering vessel.

A luxury hotel brand is about to enter the passenger cruise ship sector, and the company is currently building two new 2,000 passenger luxury cruising vessels for operation in the Caribbean. To meet emissions requirements and to demonstrate its commitment to the environment to its customers, both of these vessels are to be powered by dual-fuel engines which will be predominantly run on LNG.

To make this service possible, the vessels’ owners have an agreement with an LNG terminal in Jacksonville, FL, that will be able to provide the quantity of fuel required. The

Cthulhu (Salvage Support Vessel) The Cthulhu, designed by Ian Cosic, Dillon EspositoKelley, Bret Sharman, and Cross Weeks, is a salvage support vessel whose primary purpose is to provide salvage services for NOAA’s Remediation of Underwater Legacy Environmental Threats (RULET) program, to remove oil and other potentially harmful substances from shipwrecks that pose a substantial pollution threat. The vessel is to be capable of operation along the U.S. East, West, and Gulf Coasts, as well as in the Great Lakes. The vessel is also to be capable of similar salvage operations worldwide, and is therefore to be capable of international voyages with no restrictions to operational area. It is also desired that the vessel be capable of so-called “general” marine salvage operations, to maximize the versatility of the vessel and provide support services in delivery of the fuel to the two vessels, one of which will be based in Miami, FL, and the other in San Juan, PR, will be the responsibility of the new cruise ship company. To accomplish this goal, the cruise company has commissioned LNG Bunkering Solutions to design a bunkering vessel that will be self-propelled and have onboard capacity for a one-week supply of fuel for both cruise ships.

Utilizing two independent Type C spherical-ended containment tanks and an LNG propulsion system of its own, other notable features of the design include port and starboard bunker manifolds, a 16-m-long knuckle-boom crane for hose handling, four pneumatic fenders with hydraulic davits for ship-to-ship transfer operations, a gas combustion unit for boil-off gas (BOG) management, and an LNG sub-cooler to minimize BOG production during

transfer operations. the event of a marine emergency. To this end, the salvage support vessel is also to be capable of towing a vessel casualty or deck barge, operate in shallow waters to assist with vessel groundings, launch and recover small RHIB boats for personnel transfers, and fuel removal operations. It is anticipated that the vessel would generally remain in operation on-site for a minimum of 14 days (up to 28 days depending on location of salvage), with crew transfers and replenishment possible by ship-to-ship operations.

With an overall length of 250 feet and beam of 75 feet, the vessel’s design includes a subsurface oil recovery capacity of 2,000 m3, three-chamber hyperbaric system, workclass ROV, and 30 ton capacity deck crane. A DP3 system controls the vessel’s 12 MW of installed power, and the oil extraction system utilizes a hot tap system.