Dr. Adrian S. Onas is a Naval Architect with over 25 years of ship design, operation, and research experience in the maritime industry and academia. His experience includes a 15-year career with DNV, followed by an ongoing academic appointment as Professor of Naval Architecture and Director of the Circulating Water Channel at Webb Institute since 2011. Dr. Onas’ interests include extreme events in nonlinear systems, biomimetics, theoretical and computational hydromechanics, and innovative ship design. Dr. Onas holds a Ph.D. in Ocean Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. He is a member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME), the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA), and the International Hydrofoil Society (IHS).

Professor Onas is the new Chair of the SNAME T&R Hydrodynamics Committee, within which he also leads the Seakeeping Characteristics Panel (H-07). He is now a member of the SNAME Council and SNAME T&R Steering Committee. Prof. Onas is also a member of the SNAME T&R Marine Forensics Committee. While he is excited about these new opportunities to contribute to SNAME in a meaningful way, he also feels that Webb students and alumni need to learn more about the SNAME T&R Program and potentially join one of its panels sometimes after graduation. He thinks it is a most rewarding experience to contribute by improving the technical knowledge base to assist the naval architecture and marine engineering community in designing safer ships, while reducing the impact on our environment.

SNAME has had a long tradition of spearheading programs that helped refine our understanding of how marine vehicles and offshore structures respond to their operating environment through quality research in several key disciplines. The importance of encouraging and sponsoring research is clearly outlined in SNAME’s mission. Such research activities have been carried out through SNAME’s Technical and Research (T&R) Program.

According to SNAME’s website, “The Society encourages and sponsors maritime research into areas of the ocean sciences by means of the Technical and Research (T&R) Program, with particular emphasis on marine vehicles and offshore structures. The T&R Program consists of ten T&R Committees, each dedicated to a general area of research. T&R Panels serve as subcommittees of each T&R Committee, to provide more focused research into defined areas.”

SNAME T&R program, with its ten committees, comprises a total of 72 panels, including one ad-hoc panel and two sub-committees. Here is a list of SNAME T&R committees and current chairs:

• Hydrodynamics (H); Chair: Adrian S. Onas, Webb Institute
• Hull Structure (HS); Chair: Roger I. Basu, Roger Basu & Associates Inc.
• Ship’s Machinery (M); Chair: Richard D. Delpizzo, American Bureau of Shipping (ABS)
• Operations, Safety and Economics (OSE): Chair: Peter K. Wallace, SeaOne Holdings, LLC.
• Offshore (OC); Chair: Alberto C. Morandi, Gusto MSC
• Environmental Engineering (EC); Chair: Eleanor K. Nick Kirtley, Green Marine
• Ship Design (SD); Chair: Robert G. Keane, Jr., Ship Design, USA, Inc.
• Marine Forensics (MF); Chair: William H. Garzke, Jr., CACI
• Small Craft (SC); Chair: Christopher D. Barry, USCG SFLC
• Ship Production – NSRP (SP); Chair: Donald M. Hamadyk, Newport News Shipbuilding

The organization chart of the SNAME T&R Program is shown in Figure 1 below.

The T&R Program provides an opportunity to SNAME members who are interested in sharing their expertise to advance research and help publish their results in the form of bulletins and technical reports. Due to recent improvements of the SNAME portal, virtually all published T&R bulletins or technical report can now be accessed for a nominal fee. The big challenge, of course, is to attract passionate SNAME members with the right expertise that can find the time to volunteer in the T&R Program. This is required by the high standard historically set by SNAME in the bulletins and reports published by the T&R committees. Such bulletins are used extensively by the industry, academia and often considered when regulatory requirements are updated. However, in the case of the Hydrodynamics Committee, although 44 bulletins were published between 1947-1993, the most recent is Bulletin 1-44, “Design Workbook on Ship Maneuverability”, (1993, 260 pages).

The SNAME T&R Hydrodynamics Committee is presenting much needed new material now and is in the process of drafting two new bulletins: (1) CFD-Informed Maneuvering Model for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) by D. Njaka, S. Brizzolara and D. Stilwell, editor A. Onas (CFD Marine Panel, H-11); (2) Hydrodynamic Loading of Marine Vehicles by A. Onas et al; (Seakeeping Characteristics Panel, H-07). The hydrodynamics committee is planning to add new panels soon, including Biomimetics and Extreme Events.

The Hydrodynamics Committee held its kick-off webinar on May 7, 2021, titled “Seakeeping in Modern Ship Design”. It was presented by Prof. Onas and Mr. Bastien Abeil (MARIN). The webinar included a brief review of the theory of seakeeping, and a summary of the problems encountered in modern commercial ship design and operation. The supporting case study presented the findings of a series of model tests performed at MARIN in bathymetric and metocean conditions representative of those encountered by the Ultra-Large Containership MSC Zoe. Her accident occurred off the coast of the Netherlands in early 2019 and caused the loss of an estimated 345 containers, producing heavy of an IMO designated Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA), Fig. 2.

It was found that although ships are designed to avoid low transverse stability, excessively high stability can also lead to hazardous situations (MSC Zoe’s beam is 59m). Large transverse metacentric heights can cause the ship to experience roll resonance in beam seas. Combined ship motions can then induce accelerations on deck and container stacks that exceed design values, which otherwise would be considered well within safety margins by classification societies. In addition, such resonance events are producing contact with the seabed in shallow waters, as it was clearly demonstrated experimentally in the seakeeping basin at MARIN (see Fig. 3).

The dynamic stability failure mode called parametric rolling, was mainly found to affect container ships with more conventional (reduced) stability and varying waterplane areas in incident waves. Feeders seem to be increasingly affected by this dynamic stability failure mode, with the smallest of the three scale models shown in Fig. 3. Parametric roll can also yield accelerations on container stacks that are far beyond the design limits of lashing equipment.

In this webinar, a brief overview of the work currently under progress was given in which the motion response of smaller ship sizes (Feeder and Panamax classes) in the North Sea is put under scrutiny. SNAME members can watch the video of the webinar “Seakeeping in Modern Ship Design” by logging on the SNAME webinar library at https://www.sname.org/webinar-library-load-video/1955).

As described on their website, Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN) “is a globally recognized top institute for hydrodynamic and nautical research.”

This article is also available on Webb News.

Webb Institute President, R. Keith Michel to retire; search committee has been announced

After nine years of service as Webb President, R. Keith Michel announced his plans to retire effective June 30, 2022.  He made the announcement at the October 15, 2020, Webb Board of Trustees Meeting, at which time the search for the sixteenth President was formally launched.

President Michel will leave a lasting influence on Webb with major milestone accomplishments including the Campaign for Webb, where members of the Webb community contributed a record-breaking $51.6 million in gifts and pledges; the design and construction of the state-of-the-art Couch Academic Center; and the expansion of the scholarship program to meet all demonstrated financial need of incoming students, to name a few.  Throughout President Michel’s tenure, Webb has continued to maintain its academic rigor, high graduation rates, and improved retention rates. During COVID-19, President Michel has continued to ensure the safety of students and employees as well as ensuring financial sustainability for Webb.

In August 2021, a committee of trustees, with the input of selected faculty members, administrators, and students, initiated a national search to identify qualified candidates. Jon LaBerge, Vice Chairman of Webb’s Board of Trustees, is chairing the search committee.  The search committee, working together with the national search firm WittKieffer, will conduct the search process, select and interview candidates, update the Webb community on the process and progress, and recommend a candidate to the Board for final approval.

“Webb provides a unique educational experience for its highly motivated and academically gifted student body,” notes Jon LaBerge, Chair of the Search Committee. “President Michel has had a remarkable tenure as President of Webb.  Selecting his successor to build on Webb’s recent successes and lead us into the future is a critically important role of the Board of Trustees and one that we take very seriously.  We look forward to an open and transparent process to identify a broad and diverse pool of candidates from which we will select Webb’s next president.”

The transition is expected to be complete by July 1, 2022. The finalists will be invited to campus to meet with the board, faculty, administration, and student representatives during the upcoming academic year.

The members of the search committee are as follows:

Jon J. LaBerge, Search Committee Chair; Bruce S. Rosenblatt, President of Bruce S. Rosenblatt & Associates, LLC; Dr. George Campbell Jr., President Emeritus of Cooper Union; Joseph J. Cuneo, retired Chairman of MARINEX International; Roderick MacKinnon, Professor at The Rockefeller University; Dr. Jennifer K. Waters, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at SUNY Maritime; and Christopher Wiernicki, Chairman, President, and C.E.O. of American Bureau of Shipping.

About Webb Institute:

Founded in 1889 by New York-based shipbuilder William H. Webb, Webb Institute is a top-ranked undergraduate institution specializing in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. Webb is the only full-tuition scholarship, private undergraduate program of its kind in the United States, with a maximum of 28 students being accepted into the program each year. Webb Institute’s beautiful, waterfront campus, is located in Glen Cove, NY, on the North Shore of Long Island.

If you would like to apply, express a suggestion or an idea for consideration,
please email Lucy Leske and Julia Bradley at moc.reffeikttiw@tnediserPetutitsnIbbeW.

Please visit our Presidential Search webpage for updates: https://www.webb.edu/presidential-search/

Designers: Jonas Armstrong, Addison Harris, Kevin O’Keefe, and Gracie Schmitz

Vessel Type: Inland Waterways Dredge

Mission Requirements:
This self-propelled cutter suction dredger with hopper capacity will support maritime operations within the Nigerian Lagos Lagoon and associated waterways through channel deepening and maintenance dredging. It is designed to operate at extremely shallow drafts and has capability for offshore discharge of spoils.

Operating Modes:

▪ Discharge through bow nozzle during dredging
▪ Discharge through floating pipeline during dredging
▪ Dredging spoils to hopper for intermediate storage
▪ Hopper discharge through hopper doors, bow nozzle, or pipeline

View Built Different handout

View Presentation

Visit our Junior Class Small Vessel Design Project page to view all of this year’s projects.

About Junior Class Small Vessel Design Project (SD1):

As a part of Professor Bradley D.M. Golden’s ’99 Ship Design 1 (SD1) class, the juniors spent the first two-and-a-half months of the spring semester preparing their first complete concept designs.

Using the knowledge they’ve gained in their nearly three years studying at Webb and the experiences from their winter work periods to date, this was the students’ first opportunity to apply the naval architecture and marine engineering principles they’ve studied including stability, ship’s structures, main machinery systems, auxiliary systems, resistance and propulsion, and electrical engineering.

Working in small groups of three and four, the students selected one of the vessel types and took their first couple of spins around the design spiral to prepare vessel concept designs. To help make the project as realistic as possible, members of industry familiar with each of the vessel types helped prepare the statements of design requirements that each of the designs had to meet. To challenge the students even further, one or two “curveballs” were thrown into each design statement to make the students think long and hard about how they would achieve their objectives.

At the end of the spring semester, the students presented their final designs to their fellow students, faculty, and members of industry who served as part of an evaluation team. After three years at Webb, the Junior class can now say with confidence that they’re familiar with the design process and are well on their way to joining the fields of naval architecture and marine engineering.

List of Awards and Awardees

— Total Performance —

CHAFFEE MEMORIAL PRIZE
Lina Tenenbaum
for general excellence
{Sponsored by Trustee, Joseph J. Cuneo ’57}

— Leadership and Ethics —

PATRICK S. MATRASCIA GOOD SHIPMATE AWARD
Jackson Juska
for working unselfishly and in harmony with classmates
{Sponsored by President R. Keith Michel ’73 & Family}

THE CHARLES KURZ II (Hon.) COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD
Jackson Juska
for exemplary commitment of service to others through volunteerism, community service, and civic outreach
{Sponsored by Charles Kurz II (Hon.)}

PAUL E. ATKINSON MEMORIAL PRIZE IN ETHICS
Henry Rouland
for demonstrated commitment to ethics
{Sponsored by Paul E. Atkinson Memorial Fund}

— Academics —

J. LEWIS LUCKENBACH MEMORIAL PRIZE
Maggie Maguire
for highest general average in four year course
{Sponsored by the American Bureau of Shipping}

CHARLES A. WARD, JR. MEMORIAL AWARD
Maggie Maguire
for excellence in naval architecture
{Sponsored by Chairman of the Board, Bruce S. Rosenblatt and the Ward Family}

JENS T. HOLM ’41 MEMORIAL AWARD
Benjamin Hunt
for excellence in marine engineering
{Sponsored by George A. Gilmore ’57}

KEELER MEMORIAL PRIZE
Benjamin Hunt
highest average in mathematics
{Sponsored by Trustee, Dr. Luther Tai}

RICHARD A. PARTANEN HUMANITIES AWARD
Lina Tenenbaum
for excellence in humanities
{Sponsored by Chairman of the Board, Bruce S. Rosenblatt}

CURRAN MEMORIAL PRIZE
Alexander Bidwell
for most outstanding and consistent improvement
{Sponsored by Trustee and Mrs. John A. Malone ’71}

— Thesis —

STEVENSON TAYLOR MEMORIAL PRIZE
Jack Becker
Maggie Maguire
for excellence in the senior thesis
{Sponsored by the American Bureau of Shipping}

LEWIS NIXON MEMORIAL PRIZE
Benjamin Hunt
Alexander Koziol IV
for excellence in the senior thesis
{Sponsored by Trustee Emeritus, John W. Russell ’67}