Baza natječaja

Low Energy and Emission Design of Ships

Sea transport is the backbone of global trade and the sea transport work is estimated to grow considerably in the years ahead. At the same time, it is required that ship transportation becomes greener and achieves a gross reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from shipping.

The baseline for energy usage and emission level is to a large degree set with the ship design. To achieve the ambitious emission reduction targets, radically new ways of designing ships and a continuous line of new ship designs are required. Current studies of energy usage and CO2 emissions from shipping use a simplified representation of important aspects like machinery, resistance, and propulsion. At the same time, optimization studies of machinery, resistance and propulsion typically use simplified models of the operational environment and operational profiles of the ship.

The objective of this project is to develop knowledge for concept design, system design and technology options to be used for radical ship design for low energy consumption and GHG emission.

An important aspect of the project is to bring together researchers focusing on hydrodynamic resistance, machinery and propulsion, with researchers focusing on system innovations and radical designs as the overall design and optimization problem, and thereby establish an overall optimization process where state-of-the-art tools are applied to address the underlying technical processes.

The knowledge areas addressed will be related to one post-doctoral and five PhD fellowships as follows:

Post doctoral position and PhD in design: Establish tools, methodologies and processes for the conceptual design of radical, innovative ship design solutions able to deliver sustained value to stakeholders over time, in a complex, uncertain and changing life cycle, measured in a multi-criteria context.

PhDs in hydrodynamics: Propose innovative energy-saving propulsion concepts, and establish tools and methodologies to enable evaluation of hull and propeller performance in a broad range of operational conditions, including heavy weather. Specific problems could be related to propulsion hydrodynamics, performance of propellers in waves, optimisation of ships in a seaway, added resistance and speed loss due to waves, or manoeuvring and controllability of ships in waves.

PhD in machinery systems: Establish new and improved marine propulsion system for flexibility, high energy efficiency and low emissions, including alternative energy converters for utilizing and handling alternative fuels such as LNG, and tools and methods for optimization, testing and evaluation of such propulsion systems.

PhD in risk based design and verification: Establish a set of tools and methodologies for risk based assessment of reliability and safety oriented performance of complex marine power systems.

To work in this project we seek analytically strong candidates that would like to work towards a PhD dissertation within a topic related to this project, or candidates that already got a doctoral degree to pursue further development of their research career in a post-doctoral position. We see one of the following academic backgrounds as strong alternatives for the positions; naval architecture, marine engineering, ship design, industrial design, operations research, shipping economics and finance, financial engineering, or other relevant backgrounds.

The PhD students and the post-doctoral fellow will work with project research tasks together with academics and researchers from the project partners.

The project is a partnership between the Department of Marine Technology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Det Norske Veritas (DNV), Rolls-Royce Marine, and the Norwegian Research Council.

Further information about the project may be obtained from:

Professor Bjørn Egil Asbjørnslett (Project manager/ design); bjorn.e.asbjornslett@ntnu.no; +47 918 97 687

Professor Stein Ove Erikstad (ship design); stein.ove.erikstad@ntnu.no; +47 932 01 255

Professor Sverre Steen (hydrodynamics); sverre.steen@ntnu.no; +47 934 06 429

Professor Eilif Pedersen (hybrid machinery systems); eilif.pedersen@ntnu.no; +47 909 29 242

The employment period is 3 years for four (4) of the PhD positions, and 4 years for one (1) PhD position. For the post doctoral position the employment period is two years.

PhD candidates are remunerated in code 1017, grade 48-56 on the Norwegian State salary scale, gross NOK 391 100 to NOK 448 100 per year (before tax). PhD students are normally remunerated at wage level 48. There is a compulsory 2 % deduction to the pension fund.

Post doctoral fellows are remunerated in code 1352, grade 57-76 on the Norwegian State salary scale, gross NOK 455 900 to NOK 654 600 per year (before tax). Post doctors are normally remunerated at wage level 57. There will be a 2 % deduction to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund from gross salary.

The positions adhere to the Norwegian Government’s policy of balanced ethnicity, age and gender. Persons with immigrant background and women are encouraged to apply.

Applications, marked IVT-41/12, should to be submitted electronically via this page.

Application deadline: 27 April 2012.