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Innovations Counteracting Marine Failure In The Spotlight At Imarest Conference

Created on 11 September 2009 by host

Innovation is the lifeblood of all business sectors, and this will be clearly indicated during Innovation Hour at the 1st Marine Failure Conference - Mechanical, metallurgical & structural failure and prevention in the marine industry, being held by the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) on Thursday 10 and Friday 11 September.

The final session of the first day is designed to be both informal and highly informative and will see two complementary techniques, of growing importance to the industry, described and demonstrated.

Dr Len Rogers, Managing Director, Assent Engineering Ltd will address the acoustic emission technique and the sensitivity of the method. Acoustic emission is about plotting the size and activity of cracks or corrosion, while the structure/machine is undergoing loading cycles and the crack(s) are active.

In the second half of the Innovation Hour session, Martyn Wright, Senior NDE Specialist, Lloyd's Register will give a similar talk and demonstration on the phased array ultrasonic detection of defects, a technique quite widely used in the offshore industry but, as yet, comparatively unused in the marine world where it has significant potential. This technique is about locating cracks in materials, generally without being subject to loadings, and forming an image of their size and shape.

Following Innovation Hour, delegates can then opt to attend a highly relevant IMarEST evening technical meeting when Andrew Trumble, Chief Engineering Superintendent, BP Shipping Ltd talks on 'A risk based approach to maintenance'. This will be followed by a networking reception.

A wide range of marine failures and potential failures, the reasons behind them, and the means of counteracting them come under the conference spotlight at the first Marine Failure Conference organised by IMarEST.

"Failures of various types occur in practice and these can cause delays, loss of earnings and also sometimes injury and death," explains Conference Chairman, John Carlton, Global Head of Marine Technology and Investigations at Lloyd's Register. "This week's conference brings together the leading researchers and practitioners in the field from home and overseas, in order to disseminate the information on failure mechanisms and scenarios to the members of the marine industry."

In addition to the Innovation Hour, topics being covered over the two days come under the main headings of Materials and Modes of Failure, and Ship Structures and Corrosion, and cover Recent developments in fracture of materials; Technical failure investigation; Welding issues with ship structures; Maritime industry's challenges in controlling quality; Failures in shafting systems; Through life integrity of diesel engines; and Cavitation erosion on propellers and rudders on Day One.

And, on Day Two Vortex induced noise and vibration; Acoustic emission monitoring techniques applied to ship structural integrity; Erosion and corrosion; Microbial corrosion; Mitigation of hydrogen embrittlement by potential control of sacrificial anode cathodic protection; and Current position with IMO regulations.

Further information on all aspects of the conference including the full programme and online registration is available at www.imarest.org/events and from the IMarEST Events Department at 80 Coleman Street, London EC2R 5BJ, UK. Tel: +44 (0)20 7382 2636; Fax: +44 (0)20 7382 2670.