Topic outline

  • General


    Welcome to the Ship Dynamics -course

    You will learn about the basic principles of ship dynamics and their application for design development and assessment. The knowledge offered links with Ship Structures Course (MEC-E2007) and will help you to complete your  group ship design exercise.

    Teacher:  Professor of Practice Teemu Manderbacka (teemu.manderbacka@aalto.fi) and Jani Romanoff (jani.romanoff@aalto.fi)

    Brief course content: The course starts with an introduction to the basic principles of ship dynamics including ship resistance, propulsion, seakeeping and maneuvering. It also reflects on their application in ship design and safe operations. Then we go deeper on practical ship dynamics for ship resistance, propulsion, motion control and stabilisation. After these basic concepts the focus is on the random wave environment and the linear and nonlinear surface wave theory which is followed by the ship theory and equation of motion. This allows the assessment of seakeeping and loading including rigid body dynamics, hydroelasticity of ships, model tests and full scale measurements. The course is concluded with a brief introduction to the added resistance, effects of waves to people and maneuvering in waves. 

    Intended Learning Outcomes: After the course, you will be able to 

    • Observe and explain physical phenomena associated with seakeeping, resistance, propulsion and maneuvering of ships progressing in waves. 
    • Explain the meaning of practical methods for the assessment ship dynamics associated with resistance, propulsion, dynamic stability and motion control. 
    • Explain the general theory of surface waves and interpret modelling assumptions for use in computational models and experiments used for ship design. 
    • Classify, synthesize and explain common approximations to the general models known as seakeeping and wave loading models and assess their applicability and deficiencies for application in design development and operational management practices. 
    • Explain the basic principles of added resistance and maneuvering models in waves, as well as analyze and synthesize their use for ship design and the management of maritime safety.

    The course completition: 

    The course comprises of 10 lectures, 5 assignments, a presentation at the Marine Technology Spring Gala and exams. The assignments and Gala presentation support learning, they are compulsory and count 40% of your final mark; 30% comes from mid term exam based on Lectures 1 - 5 and 30% from final exam based on Lectures 6 - 10. In case you select to drop your mid term exam mark or skip it then you will have to seat a full course exam based on Lectures 1 - 10 counting 60% of your final mark. The strict grade boundaries are (no rounding applied):

    <50%=0

    50%=1

    60%=2

    70%=3

    80%=4

    90%=50

    For detailed schedule including lectures, tutorials, exams and submission deadlines for group assignments is given at the margin on the left.