Memorial University

  • They can come in all shapes and sizes, silently shuttled along by the currents. The larger versions are white, glistening and beautiful and a potential disaster waiting to happen.
    Icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador are one of the many products of a harsh North Atlantic environment and a hazard to offshore exploration rigs, drill ships, and platforms. In any given year there could be thousands of bergs, ranging in size from several feet in height and weighing hundreds of thousands of tons to the smaller size, known as Bergy bits, but all equally as dangerous.
    Keeping an eye on these floating giants is a full time job several months of the year and requires an action plan by those operating in this environment to thwart off any pending collision.
    Suncor, Husky Energy, Statoil and the various shareholders of the Hibernia platform, presently operate off the Newfoundland coast, some at more ice risk than others, but all potentially a target.
    “We require all of the operators to have ice management plans which are submitted to us as part of the authorization process and you can’t get authorization to operate offshore unless you have an ice management plan,” said Sean Kelly with the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, who also noted the industry “just came out of a pretty heavy ice season.” 
    He said ice management is just one of a number of plans required, all identifying potential risks and what the measures would be to address those risks.
    Husky Energy, which operates the Sea Rose FPSO, a floating production vessel for the White Rose field, has dedicated ice observers on offshore facilities during ice season and liaise with a number of companies in terms of monitoring, said Husky’s Colleen O’Connell.  She said the number of icebergs Husky would deal with annually varies according to ice conditions.
    And Suncor, the major partner and operator of the Terra Nova field, just over 200 miles southeast of St. John’s, has an ice management program that monitors and deflects icebergs when required. Support vessels can encircle the berg with a cable or net and change its direction or use water cannons or wash from a vessel’s propellers to put the iceberg on a different course.
    Neil Riggs, an iceberg expert and senior project manager, Autonomous Ocean Systems Laboratory (AOSL), Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Memorial University, in St. John’s, NL, put some perspective on the iceberg count.
    “If you draw a line of latitude from St. John’s, going eastward, that is almost 48 degrees north latitude, that is the index line that the International Ice Patrol uses and the Canadian Iceberg Service to determine how severe an iceberg year is. So the number of icebergs that cross the line south, that is the measure. So if the number is a 1,000 or more or even a few hundred or more, these installations are in potential jeopardy,” he said.   
    “These people who operate these things (offshore operations) are obsessed with iceberg management which means detecting icebergs that are going to come upon you at some point,” Riggs said. “They go quite far north to look for them and then they track them by aerial surveys and sometimes satellites. As the bergs get closer they are using modeling software to predict how the bergs are going to drift and come up with a probability that there could be a collision or what will be the closest point of the iceberg to the installation. They will deploy various mitigation strategies, depending on what the models are telling them. Mitigating may mean towing the icebergs to maybe going out and attacking them with a fire hose to make them go away or take a different drift path,” Riggs said.
    Nearly 100% of the icebergs heading down the Newfoundland and Labrador coast come from the west coast of Greenland, said Riggs. Actually, one glacier, the Jakobshaven glacier, is the most productive. The icebergs, some weighing millions of tons, calve off glaciers flowing into Jakobshaven fjord and then drift out into Baffin Bay. “They start heading northwards because that is the way the current flows and then when get around the Lancaster Sound area they basically hang a left and go west and start down Baffin Bay past the Labrador Coast and then to the Grand Banks,” said Riggs. Their size is reduced considerably subject to melting in the water but can still be quite large when they reach the Grand Banks.
    “Even the small ones can be dangerous. The big bergs can be detected with radar and other means. The smaller ones are not easily seen on radar and often confused with something called sea clutter which is basically reflections from the top of waves. A bergy bit, as they call them, might be two to four metric tons so you can imagine that thing moving a couple of knots and then striking the hull of ship. So the threat is wide in scope,” Riggs said.

    Tracking the Ice

    Helping to determine iceberg flows and developing iceberg behavior modeling are what bring AOSL into the picture. AOSL has undertaken a long-term study into modeling the behavior of icebergs that includes acquiring real world data that will increase the accuracy of predicting the rate and direction of their drift. It will be information that will be available to offshore operations.
    ”What our lab is about is unmanned systems and using unmanned systems to solve problems for people,” said Riggs. “The unmanned systems we use are the autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and more recently for us autonomous surface craft. The work we are doing here involves using a combination of both of these, using them to measure the above water and underwater shapes of the icebergs and also to measure the current field and in the vicinity of the icebergs as they are drifting along. We want to get that information as we measure it to the folks who want to use it as quickly as possible. It is all in the research and development stage but we are having some good results and hopefully we may be doing some trials in a year or two,” he said.
    “One thing we are doing is learning about high persistence, that means unmanned systems that can stay out there for a long time without needing attention,” said Riggs, and AOSL has done some work in that particular field.
    The concept was developed at ASOL by director Dr. Ralf Bachmayer and his team.
    “It is an unmanned surface craft and it is in the shape of what we call a spar, like a spar buoy or telephone pole. We are now building a propelled spar that will be able to operate by remote control or under its own control. It will be equipped with a lot of instrumentation for measuring above water things like dimensions, size and shape of the iceberg but also weather, sea state, that sort of thing,” Riggs said. “It will also be equipped with a sonar system and other instruments for underwater that will be able to measure the shape of the berg, at least to a certain depth. We have other technology we are developing in concert with that (the spar) that will allow us to see the whole iceberg. We are adapting a particular type of underwater autonomous vehicle to be able to circumnavigate an iceberg underwater, like a corkscrew,” said Riggs.  The vehicle is equipped with sonar and will be able to look at the sides of the iceberg as it circles around plus know its position. It will collect data that can be processed later into a shape and size estimation. With information collected from the surface craft and the sub-surface craft “we can put all the data together and come up with an estimate of underwater size and shape,” Riggs said. The technology also measures currents and other vital data pertaining to the icebergs with the view to get it to people who want to use it as quickly as possible.
    AOSL hopes to have the spar technology in the water for testing in early 2015 and have it ready for testing in the North Atlantic by summer of 2015.
    Riggs said AOSL also works co-operatively with the National Research Council of Canada which has also developed new iceberg modeling.
    “They have put together the biggest database of underwater shapes of icebergs probably in the world,” said Riggs. “They have shared that with us and we have used in our R&D work. Basically we have developed a technique in processing it in such a way that when we make a measurement underwater on the shape of an iceberg, we can use their experience in the data they have collected on how accurate our estimation is on the underwater shape and size.”
    Aside from industry benefitting from the AOSL work, the International Ice Patrol (IIP), which falls under the U.S. Coast Guard and has a mandate to monitor iceberg danger in the North Atlantic and provide relevant iceberg warning products to the maritime community, may also see some benefit.
    Michael Hicks, with the IIP, said the ice patrol “would benefit from the availability of actual iceberg drift (and deterioration) data to validate the iceberg drift model that we presently use as well as to assess the operational effectiveness of other models that come available.”
    He said the IIP has used satellite tracked beacons deployed on icebergs but that has not proven to be totally effective because iceberg surfaces are irregularly shaped and the icebergs tend to roll and break apart.
    He said data from an autonomous vessel that can reliably detect and track and iceberg over a lengthy period would be a useful model for validation purposes.
     

    (As published in the APRIL 2015 edition of Marine Technology Reporter - http://www.marinetechnologynews.com/Magazine)

  • forefront of this grand undertaking are the Arctic academics, and the best of them can be found on – and off – Newfoundland and Labrador’s shores. Memorial University and its Fisheries and Marine Institute (Marine Institute or MI for short) is home to world-leading cold ocean experts, facilities, and education

  • structures, and a 31-meter by 75-meter stability tank for the study of graduated wave impacts. Establishment of the research c e n t e r at Memorial University will bolster the cold-water engineering efforts of that institution's Ocean Engineering Division. It will also aid those of the Centre

  • and radar technology, to aerial and satellite ice management. Central to this burgeoning brain trust and array of cutting-edge technology is Memorial University, which has its main campus in the provincial capital of St. John’s. Memorial, and its Fisheries and Marine Institute (Marine Institute, or MI

  • should be made payable to POAC 77 Memorial University and should be mailed to Secretary, POAC 77, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada A1C 5S7

  • Dr. Ian Jordaan, Professor Emeritus and University Research Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Memorial University, and President of Ian Jordaan Associates, Inc.   How did a South African engineering student end up in Newfoundland? I immigrated during the time that Mandela was

  • effects on ocean equipment such as platforms, vessels, and pipelines.  Having kept its eyes on ice for decades, C-CORE – located on the campus of Memorial University in St. John’s, NL – now also encompasses two centers of excellence: LOOKNorth and CARD. LOOKNorth (Leading Operational Observations and Knowledge

  • and Labrador houses some of the most advanced simulators in North America. Central to this is the Center for Marine Simulation (CMS) housed at Memorial University’s (MUN’s) Fisheries and Marine Institute (MI). The CMS is home to a suite of 16 marine simulators, with a 17th soon to be added in the form

  • Research Vessel," by A.F. Aboulazm. Marine Institute. "Ship Resistance in Pack Ice," by A.F. Aboulazm. Marine Institute, and D. Muggeridge. Memorial University. "Propulsion Tests on the Class 4 Icebreaker M.V. Kalvik," by P.L. Semery. Transport Development Center. "Why Welding Certification," by

  • way out of the halls of academia and into commercialization.  Agile was established in late 2014 to commercialize technologies developed during a Memorial University (MUN) project that was originally focused on the so-called “sense and avoid” problem for unmanned aerial vehicles – it evolved to include technologie

  • paradigm shifting ocean-based research and development achievements. Autonomous Oceans Systems Laboratory (AOSL) is a research facility within Memorial University’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, focused on the advancement of persistent unmanned systems technology in harsh environments. Masters

  • degree in agriculture. But he drifted away from the land to the sea and into aquaculture where he earned a Masters degree in Marine Biology from the Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador. In his search to find a career path, he began integrating some of his agriculture background with his work in

  • MR Feb-24#22 R&D
MATT HART 
Matt Hart, Manager & Platform Leader)
    February 2024 - Maritime Reporter and Engineering News page: 22

    R&D MATT HART Matt Hart, Manager & Platform Leader, Marine & Stationary Power Systems, Wabtec, offers insights on how the megatrends of decarbonization, energy transition and autonomy all inspire Image courtesy Wabtec and impact the marine power solutions from Wabtec. By Greg Trauthwein Matt, to start

  • MT Jan-24#52 TECH FEATURE BATTERY SAFETY 
Images courtesy Engineered)
    January 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 52

    TECH FEATURE BATTERY SAFETY Images courtesy Engineered Fluids Inc. This experiment has since been replicated with other batteries and cell con? gurations, and demonstrates the inherent ? re safety of SLIC Technology. jacent cells were not affected, and continued to operate nor- Failures) of electronic

  • MT Jan-24#49 “As a WHOI scientist myself 20 years ago, I was 
‘customer)
    January 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 49

    “As a WHOI scientist myself 20 years ago, I was ‘customer number one’ and applied early versions of the NBOSI sensor technology to my ? eets of Webb Research, now Teledyne Slocum, gliders, L3Harris (OceanServer) Iver2 vehicles, and Liquid Robotics Wave Gliders.” Dave Frantantoni, CEO calibration.

  • MT Jan-24#18 TECH FEATURE WAVE POWER
All images courtesy Mocean Energy
MO)
    January 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 18

    TECH FEATURE WAVE POWER All images courtesy Mocean Energy MOCEAN ENERGY AIMS TO CREATE AN OFFSHORE RENEWABLE MICROGRID Garnering power from ocean waves is a generation behind the progress of offshore wind, but Mocean Energy, led by founder and managing director Cameron McNatt, is aiming to help offshore

  • MT Jan-24#6 MTR Editorial Advisors
Gallaudet Hardy
The Honorable Tim)
    January 2024 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 6

    MTR Editorial Advisors Gallaudet Hardy The Honorable Tim Gallaudet, Kevin Hardy is President PhD, Rear Admiral, U.S. of Global Ocean Design, Navy (ret) is the CEO of creating components and Ocean STL Consulting and subsystems for unmanned host of The American Blue vehicles, following a career

  • MR Jan-24#24 MEET THE CTO
s maritime navigates a  ment track record and)
    January 2024 - Maritime Reporter and Engineering News page: 24

    MEET THE CTO s maritime navigates a ment track record and business sense to tasked with future proo? ng a ? eet had future premised on meeting deliver. “So three weeks later, I started never, in fact, sailed onboard a com- and beating decarboniza- here in Antwerp.” mercial ship. Ation targets

  • MT Nov-23#43 Jonas Wüst, now CEO 
at Tethys Robotics, 
set out to build)
    November 2023 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 43

    Jonas Wüst, now CEO at Tethys Robotics, set out to build an autonomous underwater drone following a student research project at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH Zurich), a public university in Switzerland. Professional divers and the Tethys ROV Underwater drone from Tethys

  • MT Nov-23#42 CASE STUDY ROV DVL TECH
Tethys Robotics’ 
underwater drone)
    November 2023 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 42

    CASE STUDY ROV DVL TECH Tethys Robotics’ underwater drone in Lake Zurich during a harbor inspection. All image courtesy Nortek Tethys Robotic’s new ROV Leverages Nortek DVL Tech new Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) from Swit- pulse along a minimum of three acoustic beams, each pointing zerland’s Tethys

  • MT Nov-23#40 SEAFLOOR MAPPING
All images courtesy Curtin University
Digit)
    November 2023 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 40

    SEAFLOOR MAPPING All images courtesy Curtin University Digital 3D model of WA Shipwreck he underwater remains of a ship built in Fremantle in reconstruction,” Professor Woods said. 1876 and which sunk off the coast several years later can “The new 3D model of the Star allows the wreck site to be now be

  • MT Nov-23#20 EYE ON THE NAVY
NATO GAINS EXPERIENCE 
WITH UNMANNED)
    November 2023 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 20

    EYE ON THE NAVY NATO GAINS EXPERIENCE WITH UNMANNED SYSTEMS All photos courtesy NATO By Edward Lundquist allies and partners have taken Messenger is in its second year. Both are conducted at the Navy advantage of recent demon- Operational Experimentation Centre in Tróia, one of two Por- NATO strations

  • MT Nov-23#7 MTR Editorial Advisors
Gallaudet Hardy
The Honorable Tim)
    November 2023 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 7

    MTR Editorial Advisors Gallaudet Hardy The Honorable Tim Gallaudet, Kevin Hardy is President PhD, Rear Admiral, U.S. of Global Ocean Design, Navy (ret) is the CEO of creating components and Ocean STL Consulting and subsystems for unmanned host of The American Blue vehicles, following a career

  • MT Nov-23#6 Authors & Contributors
Frank Ewing Gullick Konowe
Skucas)
    November 2023 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 6

    Authors & Contributors Frank Ewing Gullick Konowe Skucas Lundquist Paradise Strachan Ewing Konowe the changing landscape of the electric Tom Ewing is a freelance writer Celia Konowe is from Reston, Va., and industry, advising clients regarding specializing in energy and environmental has a bachelor’s

  • MR Dec-23#31 CHALLENGER
type. While Shofu Maru has been operating since)
    December 2023 - Maritime Reporter and Engineering News page: 31

    CHALLENGER type. While Shofu Maru has been operating since October gineering of the system, planning for larger scale production. 2022, Makoto Yamaguchi said that “We are collecting and Makoto Yamaguchi could not disclose the total additional analyzing data. The sail is performing as we expected both

  • MR Dec-23#28 G    REAT
of
HIPS
S
2023
NSMV 1: EM
mpire State VII is the)
    December 2023 - Maritime Reporter and Engineering News page: 28

    G REAT of HIPS S 2023 NSMV 1: EM mpire State VII is the ? rst in a series of ? ve Na- that there are two separate engine rooms with a pair of diesel tional Security Multi-Mission Vessel (NSMV), generators in each, both feeding dual high voltage switch- built at Philly Shipyard, powered by Wabtec

  • MN Nov-23#57 recent years, Kytölä said. In 2022, the company dedicated)
    November 2023 - Marine News page: 57

    recent years, Kytölä said. In 2022, the company dedicated €241 million (about $255 million) to R&D expenditure, or 4.1% of its net sales, up from €165 million (about $175 million) and 3.2% in 2018. In particular, the company has been working to maxi- mize the ef? ciency of its portfolio of gas, diesel

  • MN Nov-23#55 Feature
Great Vessels of 2023
Derecktor Shipyards
MARCELLE)
    November 2023 - Marine News page: 55

    Feature Great Vessels of 2023 Derecktor Shipyards MARCELLE MELOSIRA Marcelle Melosira is a research and teaching vessel oper- icance of our great Lake Champlain,” said Jason Stockwell, ated by the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natu- director of the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory. ral

  • MN Nov-23#54 Feature
Great Vessels of 2023
All American Marine
SHACKLEFOR)
    November 2023 - Marine News page: 54

    Feature Great Vessels of 2023 All American Marine SHACKLEFORD Built to service the growing offshore wind market as allowing accurate and repeatable lever arm calculations to well as accomplish many other scienti? c survey missions, all survey sensors. Coordinate Uncertainty Analysis of the Shackleford

  • MN Nov-23#33 Feature
Hybrid Propulsion
s the world looks to renewable)
    November 2023 - Marine News page: 33

    Feature Hybrid Propulsion s the world looks to renewable energy sources tering the vessel, giving CTV owners vying for contracts a to combat climate change and reduce reliance competitive advantage when implementing hybrid solu- on fossil fuels, offshore wind has emerged as a tions that optimize fuel

  • MN Nov-23#28 Feature
Power & Propulsion
Seabulk Towing
Seabulk’s ?  rst)
    November 2023 - Marine News page: 28

    Feature Power & Propulsion Seabulk Towing Seabulk’s ? rst ever electric-hybrid tugboat, Spartan, was built by Master Boat Builders and delivered in 2022. is based. Kirby’s role goes beyond vessel operating. The ing. Thus, these vessels may be candidates for electri? cation vessel was built in

  • MR Nov-23#70 In the Shipyard
Latest Deliveries, Contracts and Designs
Mar)
    November 2023 - Maritime Reporter and Engineering News page: 70

    In the Shipyard Latest Deliveries, Contracts and Designs Marcelle Melosira: Hybrid Research Vessel Derecktor Shipyards NY in Mamaroneck, N.Y. has deliv- tion with UVM and Chartwell, the 64-foot research catamaran ered a new hybrid research catamaran to the University of has been crafted to ful? ll the

  • MR Nov-23#12 Back to the Drawing Board 
Max Planck’s Maxim
By Rik van)
    November 2023 - Maritime Reporter and Engineering News page: 12

    Back to the Drawing Board Max Planck’s Maxim By Rik van Hemmen he physicist Max Planck (actually born as Today, this may well be humanity’s most Marx Planck) is best known for the de- important maxim, sort of the Maximum velopment of his universal constant Maxim. Today, there is an existential Tthat

  • MT Sep-23#65 FLIP – The   Standard ‘Cool Tech’
Bearer for 60 years –)
    September 2023 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 65

    FLIP – The Standard ‘Cool Tech’ Bearer for 60 years – RETIRED A dynamic era in naval oceanography recently ended Fifty-five feet remain as the iconic Floating Instrument Platform — popularly visible after the crew of known as FLIP — was of? cially retired from service. Built the Floating Instrument

  • MT Sep-23#64 MTR
Cool New Tech 
100
U Un niver rs s sity of Hou us ston)
    September 2023 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 64

    MTR Cool New Tech 100 U Un niver rs s sity of Hou us ston (UH) S Sm martTouch technology Courtesy University of Houston perform key inspection repair and maintenance (IRM) tasks can swim along a subsea pipeline to inspect ? ange bolts – precisely and safely under remote control with the potential to

  • MT Sep-23#55 Figure 1
Stony Brook University PhD candidate, Ashley)
    September 2023 - Marine Technology Reporter page: 55

    Figure 1 Stony Brook University PhD candidate, Ashley Nicoll, assembles the interior mount for a GoPro Hero/CamDo Blink controller time lapse underwater camera. The springs are used to gently press the camera against the interior face of the acrylic viewport. Read about Ashley’s MS project in Lander Lab #2