RESEARCH REPORT 2020
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE
MAJOR RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
$4,000,000 $997,975 LORENZO MORO, PAUL FOLEY—Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI)—Phase II— Future Ocean and Coastal Infrastructures (FOCI): Designing Safe, Sustainable and Inclusive Coastal Communities & Industries for Atlantic Canada
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NEIL BOSE, HELEN ZHANG, BING CHEN, UTA PASSOW, JONATHON BRUCE— Department of Fisheries and Oceans/Ecosystems and Oceans Science Contribution Framework—Multi-partnership Oil Spill Research Initiative— Dispersant Field Trials in High-energy Canadian Marine Environment
$3,269,000
OCTAVIA A. DOBRE, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY—Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. —Fiber Optic Communication Algorithms Laboratory (FOCAL)
CONTENTS 02
Major Research Highlights
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Message from Dean and Associate Dean of Research
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Departmental Success Stories
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Our Faculty
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Research Stories
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Facility Spotlight
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Research Week 2020
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Lunch & Learn Lecture Series 2020
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In Memoriam – John Shirokoff
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Awards
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Research Service
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Faculty by the Numbers
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Publications
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Partners
Front cover: Conducting wave tank tests at the OHMSETT facility–world’s largest oil spill response research and renewable energy test facility in the world. From left to right: Dr. Baiyu Zhang, Min Yan and Dr. Zhiwen Zhu.
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MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN
DENNIS K. PETERS
PhD, FEC, PEng Acting Dean of Engineering and Associate Professor
The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science’s 2020 Research Report provides highlights of the faculty’s research successes. While the events of 2020 caused significant changes around the world and presented huge challenges, I am very pleased to say that we rose to these challenges and our research continued to thrive despite them. Some of our researchers have even been able to refocus their efforts on projects to help with pandemic solutions, which is a great testament to their agility and responsiveness to the changing landscape. One such example is Dr. Lesley James and her team who, in co-operation with Memorial’s Department of Technical Services, quickly set up testing procedures for personal protective equipment (PPE) necessary for frontline workers. These procedures enabled local testing of locally produced PPE, which helped to ensure supply security in the face of rapidly changing global circumstances. As outlined in this report, there is a wide variety of excellent research being carried out in our faculty, much of it addressing problems that are particularly relevant to the Newfoundland and Labrador environment and economy. For example, Dr. Kelly Hawboldt and her team are working to find effective ways to use by-products of fisheries and forestry to improve sustainability in rural communities. Several other researchers, including Drs. Hodjat Shiri, David Molyneux and Yuri Muzychka are focusing their efforts on systems and technologies to solve problems related to our harsh environmental conditions, with applications for coastal infrastructure and the oil and gas industry. A silver lining during the pandemic is that the world has rapidly learned that physical location does not need to be such a major factor for many things we do, and that interacting over video calls can be very effective. Of course, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have been demonstrating this
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for years with many successful start-up companies reaching global markets. We have seen excellent illustrations of this this year with the acquisitions of inspectAR and Verafin, both of which are companies founded by alumni from our programs as a direct result of the work that they started right here at Memorial. Such globally relevant research continues in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science and you can read about some examples in this report. For example, Dr. Mohammad Al Janaideh’s work on autonomous driving systems and Dr. Lihong Zhang’s work on micro-electromechanical systems, to name a few. Our advanced research helps us to provide very high quality education to our students at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Our nationally accredited undergraduate programs include compulsory work terms so on-the-job training is integrated throughout the education. We offer both course-based and research-based graduate programs, several of which have options for internships. Our programs prepare our graduates to excel in the workforce either as members of the growing and thriving high-tech sector in Newfoundland and Labrador or in the global economy. Beyond the research highlighted in this report, our diverse faculty continue to carry out high quality research in all of our six majors: civil, computer, electrical, mechanical, ocean and naval architectural and process engineering. In 2020, we reported approximately $9.4 million in research activity through more than 200 grants and contracts. This research is having impacts and being recognized worldwide. I am very proud to note that a recent report out of Stanford University listed nine of our faculty, or former faculty, among the top two percent of researchers worldwide.
PhD, PEng, FIEEE, FEIC Associate Dean of Research, Professor and Research Chair The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Memorial has significant research strength in multiple areas of civil, computer, electrical, mechanical, ocean, and process engineering, such as biofuels, biomedical applications, environmental pollution, fluid dynamics, hardware and software, optical, wireless and underwater communications, remote sensing, renewable energy, robotics, and safety and risk. Our research innovation is made possible through partnerships and funding initiatives. This way, we maintain the excellence of our core facilities, which provide state-of-the-art support to our students, faculty, and collaborators. Our Faculty members had active research support of about $9.4 M and a total of 162 grant applications were submitted during the 2020 fiscal year. The achievement of our researchers is evident by the success in the NSERC Discovery and NSERC Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) grant competitions, with rates above the national average. Successful applications to the CFI John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) and CFI Innovation Fund have allowed the acquisition of infrastructure for the characterization of material vibration response for advancing microstructures, microsystems, and micro-electro-mechanical systems. A world class Harsh Environment Research Facility is also under development by our faculty, with funding secured from CFI, Atlantic Canada Opportunity Agency, Department of Industry Energy Technology, and Husky Energy. This major initiative will bring Memorial to the forefront of research in the harsh environment technology. We continue to maintain and expand our partnership with industry, government departments and laboratories, other Faculties within Memorial, as well as other universities within Canada and abroad. The faculty are active in publishing research outcomes in top tier journals and proceedings of flagship conferences, along with filing patents. This year, our research excellence has been acknowledged through several awards and recognitions, such as prestigious Fellowships, Research Professorships and President’s Award for Outstanding Research at Memorial. As a
recognition of our faculty research contributions, several colleagues serve with evaluation committees of the NSERC Discovery, NSERC RTI and CFI JELF grants. In an unprecedented year, the Engineering Research Office (ERO) continued to support the Faculty by providing development opportunities to prepare high quality competitive applications and encouraging collaboration with other Faculties and institutions. Some of the activities organized by the ERO include virtual workshops on NSERC and CFI grants, as well as Lunch & Learn sessions and an Annual Research Day. The research of our faculty was highlighted at the Lunch & Learn sessions, while cutting edge research of our students and postdoctoral fellows was showcased at the Research Day. The ERO supports student engagement at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Our students benefit from the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award and MITACS grants. They are provided entrepreneurship opportunities through the MITACS Lab2Market and are actively involved in the Memorial Centre of Entrepreneurship.
MESSAGE FROM THE ASSOCIATE DEAN OF RESEARCH
OCTAVIA A. DOBRE
Diversity within research has been a key policy of the University and our office. Diversity is pivotal to harbouring creativity and is vital in ensuring our new technology is equitable and inclusive. Our office has been promoting these as core values within our applications and research output. The Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Memorial offers an exceptional research environment, state-of-the-art facilities, and excellent staff support. We promote a culture of strong community, discovery and innovation, to help our members reach their research ambitions.
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DEPARTMENTAL SUCCESS STORIES
CIVIL ENGINEERING BING CHEN—NSERC Discovery: Intelligent Decision Support for Marine Oil Spill Response in Harsh Environments
HELEN ZHANG; CHUNJIANG AN; PI CONCORDIA; CHARLES GREER—National Research Council— Environment Canada/ Increasing knowledge on plastic pollution initiative: Exploring the Fate and Toxicity of Microplastics Associated with Flame Retardants in the Nearshore Environment
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING OSCAR DE SILVA AND GEORGE MANN— National Research Council/ Collaborative R&D Initiative HQP Grant Application: Multi-Sensor Odometry with Deep Learning Based Map Building and Mode Adaptation for Vertical TakeOff and Landing Vehicles
ROCKY TAYLOR—NSERC Discovery: Compressive Ice Failure During Indentation with Temporally and Spatially Non-uniform Interface Conditions
PROCESS ENGINEERING FAISAL KHAN— NSERC Discovery: Safety and Risk Management in the New Generation of Digitalized Oil and Gas Operations in Harsh Environment
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KELLY HAWBOLDT— NSERC Discovery: Valorization of Biomass Residues to Treat Produced/ Natural Gas
LESLEY JAMES, KAPIL TAHLAN, GEORGE ZAHARIADIS— NSERC Alliance Covid-19 Opportunity: Testing Novel Face Mask Materials COVID-19, with Eastern Health
NOORI SAADY—Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Fisheries and Land Resources— Agriculture growth and Innovation program—Phase II of On-Farm Evaluating Biogas Potential of Dairy Manure from a Typical Dairy Farm in St. John’s Area Using Psychrophilic Anaerobic Digestion
ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING DENNIS PETERS—Mitacs E-Accelerate: The Study of Software Development Operations and Skill Optimization in Service Based Software Companies
ERIC GILL—NSERC Discovery: Radio Wave Scattering from Rough Surfaces Theory and Application to Maritime Remote Sensing with HF and other Radar Technologies
JONATHAN ANDERSON— Department of National Defence: Full Motion Video Integrity
TING ZOU—NSERC Research Tool and Instrument grant: Equipment System for the Development of Bioinspired Inspection Robots
OCEAN AND NAVAL ARCHITECTURE HEATHER PENG, WEI QIU, AYHAN AKINTURK—NRC— Transport Canada’s Clean Transportation System/ Research and Development Program: Improving Efficiency of Newfoundland Fishing Vessel to Reduce the Greenhouse Gas Emission and Propeller Induced Noise
WEI QIU—Department of National Defence: Prediction of Naval Destroyer Maneuvering Forces Using the Open Source Software OpenFOAM
CLAUDE DALEY— Hyundai Heavy Industries: Study of Structural Details for Ice Class Ships
A miscellaneous selection of departmental success stories
Research Report 2020
OUR FACULTY
ADMINISTRATION Dean NATERER, G.F. PhD, FCSME, FASME, FEIC, FCAE, P.Eng.; Professor, Mechanical Engineering Acting Dean & Associate Dean (Undergraduate Studies) PETERS, D.K. PhD, FEC, P.Eng.; Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Associate Dean (Graduate Studies) KHAN, F.I. PhD, P.Eng.; Professor, Process Engineering Associate Dean (Research) DOBRE, O.A. PhD, P.Eng., FEIC, FIEEE; Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Acting Associate Dean (Undergraduate Studies) & Director, First Year Engineering RIDEOUT, D.G. PhD, P.Eng.; Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Director, Ocean Engineering Research Centre MOLYNEUX, D. PhD, P.Eng.; Associate Professor, Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering Director, Office of Industrial Outreach BRUNEAU, S.E. PhD, P.Eng.; Associate Professor, Civil Engineering Senior Administrative Officer ELLIOTT, B. B.Comm.
CIVIL ENGINEERING Department Head CHEN, B. PhD, P.Eng., F.CSCE, F.EIC, MRSC, Professor Specialization: Oil spill response and cleanup; emerging contaminant transport and fate; water/wastewater treatment Deputy Head DARAIO, J. PhD, Assistant Professor Specialization: climate change; sustainable infrastructure Professors HASSAN, A.A.A. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Development; durability; corrosion and service life prediction of concrete structures HAWLADER, B.P. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Geotechnical engineering HUSAIN, T. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Waste management; water treatment; air pollution control ZHANG, B. PhD, P.Eng., Canada Research Chair in Coastal Environmental Engineering Specialization: Biosurfactants; microplastics; marine oil spill response Associate Professors ADLURI, S. PhD Specialization: Research mobilization; entrepreneurship; numerical methods BRUNEAU, S.E. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Arctic ships and structures; energy; marine structural design and analysis
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OUR FACULTY COLES, C.A. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Metal contamination of soils and groundwater; adsorption isotherms; arsenic removal from groundwater DHAR, A.S. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Geotechnical engineering; pipe testing; numerical modelling HUSSEIN, A. PhD, FCSCE, P.Eng. Specialization: Advanced composite materials as reinforcement for concrete structures; testing of concrete under generalized stress conditions; constitutive modelling of concrete structures SNELGROVE, K.R. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Physical hydrology; remote sensing and GIS; climate change and extremes of floods and drought Assistant Professors BAZAN, C. PhD, P.Eng., Engineering Chair in Entrepreneurship Specialization: Research mobilization; entrepreneurship; numerical methods SAADY, N. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Waste-tobioenergy; biological wastewater treatment; site remediation SHIRI, H. PhD, P.Eng., Specialization: Offshore foundations and geotechnique; subsea pipelines and risers; offshore and subsea installation; arctic subsea hazards; offshore fatigue and fracture; reliability assessment Teaching Assistant Professor HURLEY, S. PhD, P.Eng Lecturers SPRAKLIN-REID, D. P.Eng
Professors Emeriti JORDAAN, I.J. PhD, FICE, FCSCE, FEIC, FRSC, P.Eng, C.Eng. LYE, L.M. PhD, FCE, FCSCE, FEIC, FCAE, P.Eng. SHARP, J.J. PhD, FICE, FCSCE, FEIC, P.Eng., C.Eng.
ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING Department Head Li, C. PhD, P.Eng.; Professor Specialization: Wireless communications and networking; communications signal processing; underwater communications and networking Deputy Head HUANG, W. PhD.; Professor Specialization: Remote sensing Professors DOBRE, O.A. PhD, P.Eng., FEIC, FIEEE Specialization: Wireless, optical and underwater communications GOSINE, R.G. PhD, FEC, P.Eng., Associate VicePresident (Research) Specialization: Telerobotics; machine vision; pattern recognition HEYS, H.M. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Cryptography; digital hardware IQBAL, M.T. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Computer vision; instrumentation; control and automation JEYASURYA, B. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Power system stability; synchrophasor applications
MOLONEY, C.R. PhD Specialization: Nonlinear signal and image processing methods; transformative pedagogy for science and engineering; gender and science studies O’YOUNG, S.D. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Unmanned aircraft; instrumentation; controls and automation; robotics VARDY, A. PhD, P.Eng., Joint appointment (Computer Science) Specialization: Swarm robotics ZHANG, L. PhD Specialization: Very large-scale integration; design automation; micro-electromechanical system Associate Professors ANDERSON, J. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Cybersecurity; operating systems; privacy GEORGE, G.H. PhD, CertEd, FRAS, FIMA Specialization: Calculus; probability MASEK, V. PhD Specialization: Instrumentation and control; smart sensors and robotics NORVELL, T.S. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Digital hardware; software, robotics and vision PETERS, D.K. PhD, P.Eng., FEC Specialization: Software design and specification; high performance computing; machine learning Assistant Professors CZARNUCH, S.M. PhD, P.Eng., Joint appointment (Faculty of Medicine) Specialization: Image processing; computer vision; machine learning
OUR FACULTY POWER, S. PhD, P.Eng., Joint appointment (Faculty of Medicine) Specialization: Biomedical engineering; brain-computer interfacing
Professor Emeriti GILL, E.W. PhD, P.Eng.
Teaching Assistant Professors JAMIL, M. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Control systems; power electronics; machine learning
QUAICOE, J.E. PhD, FEC, P.Eng.
SHAHIDI, R. PhD Specialization: Radar signal and image processing; Machine learning for geophysical applications; vehicular ad-hoc networks WANASINGHE, T.R. PhD Specialization: Multi-agent systems with distributed state estimation; digitalization; machine learning Lecturer KARAMI, E PhD Cross Appointments CHEN, Q. PhD Specialization: Ultrafast photonics; lightwave technology; plastic optpelectronics Cross appointment (Physics and Physical Oceanography) MAHDIAPARI, M. PhD Specialization: Remote sensing; machine learning; geo big data Cross appointment (C-CORE) NGATCHED, T. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Wireless communications; visible light communications Cross appointment (School of Science and the Environment, Grenfell Campus) 10
PETERS, G.R. PhD, FEC, FCAE, P.Eng.
VENKATESAN, R. PhD, P.Eng.
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Department Head MUZYCHKA, Y.S. PhD, FCSME, FASME, FEIC, P.Eng.; University Reseach Professor Specialization: Thermo-fluids; heat transfer; multiphase flow Deputy Head POPE, K. PhD, P.Eng.; Associate Professor Specialization: Thermal fluids; energy systems Professors MANN, G.K.I. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Robot trajectory control; multi-robotic systems; robotic mapping NATERER, G.F. PhD, FCSME, FASME, FEIC, FCAE, P.Eng. Specialization: Energy systems; heat transfer; fluid mechanics RIDEOUT, D.G. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Modeling and simulation; engineering mechanics; vibrations SHARAN, A. PhD Specialization: Robotics; rotor dynamics
Associate Professors DUAN, X. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Heat transfer; multiphase flow; energy NAKHLA, S. PhD Specialization: Computer aided design; finite element modelling; structural health monitoring (metal corrosion and composites) TAYLOR, R.S. PhD Specialization: Ice-load estimation for the design of offshore structures; mechanics of compressive ice failure YANG, J. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Machinery dynamics; random vibration; wind turbine dynamics Assistant Professors AL JANAIDEH, M. PhD Specialization: Mechatronics; precision engineering; micro/ nano-positioning DE SILVA, B.M.O. PhD Specialization: Navigation systems; machine learning; unmanned aerial vehicles ZOU, T. PhD Specialization: Robotics; mechatronics; mechanism design and control Teaching Assistant Professors BHOURI, M. PhD NYANTEKYI-KWAKYE, B. PhD, P.Eng. ROSALES, J. PhD
OUR FACULTY
OCEAN AND NAVAL ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING Department Head QIU, W. PhD, P.Eng., FSNAME, FRINA; Professor Specialization: Ship and offshore hydrodynamics; wave and body interaction; seakeeping; marine propulsion; CFD for marine applications Deputy Head QUINTON, B. PhD, P.Eng.; Associate Professor Specialization: Accidental limit states; polar class structures; moving (sliding) sliding loads; marine structure and materials; numerical modelling Professors BOSE, N. Ph.D., FCAE, F.I.E.Aust.; VicePresident (Research) Specialization: Maritime robotics; autonomous underwater vehicles; marine propulsion DALEY, C.G. Dr.Tech., FEC, FSNAME, FCAE, P.Eng. Specialization: Arctic ships and structures; marine structural design and analysis; materials and mechanics; offshore and marine safety; safety and risk; simulation; structures and materials VEITCH, B.J. Dr.Tech., FRINA, FSNAME, FCAE, P.Eng., NSERC - Husky Energy Industrial Research Chair in Safety at Sea Specialization: Offshore and marine safety Associate Professors MOLYNEUX, D. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Ocean engineering; marine safety
PENG, H. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Marine and ship hydrodynamics; development and application of marine hydrodynamics to ship and offshore structure design WALKER, D. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Ship performance; small craft performance Assistant Professors MORO, L. PhD Specialization: Marine acoustics; marine noise and vibration; maritime health and safety SMITH, D. PhD Specialization: Safety management; human factors; complex systems Professors Emeriti HADDARA, M.R. PhD, C.Eng., P.Eng.
PROCESS ENGINEERING
Department Head IMTIAZ, S. PhD, P.Eng.; Associate Professor Specialization: Process control and monitoring; alarm management; managed pressure drilling Deputy Head AHMED, S. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Process safety and control; alarm system design; system identification Professors BUTT, S.D. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Petroleum and mining engineering; drilling and geomechanics engineering
HAWBOLDT, K.A. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization Chemical engineering; bioprocessing KHAN, F.I. PhD, P.Eng., Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Offshore Safety and Risk Engineering Specialization: Green engineering; mineral processing; offshore and marine safety; safety and risk engineering Associate Professors JAMES, L.A. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Enhanced oil recovery; carbon capture utilization and storage; digital oilfields ZENDEHBOUDI, S. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Energy and environment; transport phenomena; carbon management, and reservoir analysis ZHANG, Y. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Chemical and process engineering ZHANG, Y. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Mineral processing; hydrometallurgy; materials chemistry Teaching Associate Professors ABORIG, A. PhD Specialization: Reservoir engineering; enhanced oil recovery; well logging and formation evaluation Lecturer AZARGOHAR, R. PhD, P.Eng. Specialization: Chemical engineering and bioprocessing
Research Report 2020
FACULTY RESEARCH Pipe pullout tests
PIPELINE, PIPELINES EVERYWHERE
in the structures lab. From left to right: Abu Hena Muntakim, Dr. Mark Talesnick, Auchib Reza, Tanmoy Sinha, Dr. Ashutosh Sutra Dhar, Sudipta Chakraborty, Thabiso Mthethwa.
How to avoid pipeline failure: developing tools to make informed decisions regarding risk and maintenance of buried pipelines Underground water and gas pipelines are subject to corrosion and failure. Aging infrastructure, as well as ground movement, contributes to pipe failure, which can be dangerous and costly for municipalities or private companies that own and manage the pipelines. If water or gas pipes leak, the repercussions are felt throughout the community. The soil surrounding the pipes can become unsafe, and households can be without water or gas for significant periods of time. By appropriately maintaining watermains, municipal expenses can be significantly reduced by avoiding catastrophic incidents of pipe failure. By conserving the gas distribution pipes, the adverse effects to the community can be minimized. This is where Dr. Ashutosh Dhar, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, comes in. Dr. Dhar’s research focuses on urban water and energy transmission and their distribution systems. His team, including more than thirty graduate students, undergraduate students, and post-docs over the last six years, develop tools that can be used by industry and municipalities to maintain the integrity of the buried pipelines. “With the aging of municipal water, sewer, and gas distribution systems and their exposure to various natural hazards, including climate change, pipe failure incidents have been rising in recent years,” said Dr. Dhar. “Although the pipelines are the lifelines of modern society, they are often forgotten until failures
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RESEARCH STORIES occur, resulting in significant economic loss and environmental damages. Our goal is to minimize risks associated with pipe leaks or failure by advancing technology to ensure pipeline safety.” In partnership with the City of Mount Pearl, Dr. Dhar and his team have been working to develop a municipal water distribution management tool to identify leaks in cast iron or ductile iron pipes and make maintenance decisions. Using acoustic sensing, Dr. Dhar and his team are developing a model to detect potential leak locations. Computer modeling and lab work further assist in predicting the remaining strength of the pipelines. Through their research, they can recommend a timeline for pipeline maintenance and replacement, within the next five or ten years. In the case of gas pipelines, Dr. Dhar works with FortisBC Energy Inc. and SaskEnergy Inc. to study the integrity of gas distribution systems maintained by private companies rather than municipalities. In Saskatchewan, British Columbia and some other provinces in Canada, many homes are heated with gas. The pipelines that bring gas to these homes are subject to movement, especially in mountainous areas. To avoid damage to the pipelines, Dr. Dhar’s research defines how much ground movement the pipe network can withstand before failing.
“HE AND HIS TEAM ...DEVELOP TOOLS THAT CAN BE USED BY INDUSTRY AND MUNICIPALITIES TO MAINTAIN THE INTEGRITY OF THE BURIED PIPELINES.”
“The ground can move in any direction, and depending on the direction, a pipe gets strained and can develop leaks. If we can identify what will happen to the pipe when the ground moves, we can suggest what action should be taken by the company. For example, we can predict whether the pipe should be replaced within a certain timeframe to avoid a potentially dangerous and costly break. We can simulate a landslide to see how it will affect a pipe and then develop a computer model to predict the lifespan of the infrastructure,” he said. For the next five years, Dr. Dhar and his team will improve their model by collecting more data and developing new modeling techniques. In this way, they are assisting society and industry avoid potential health concerns like gas inhalation, fire and other environmental concerns associated with gas leaks.
Dr. Ashutosh Sutra Dhar (B.Sc. Eng., M.Sc. Eng. (BUET), PhD (Western Ontario), P.Eng.) is an associate professor in civil engineering with a research focus on structural strength assessment of municipal water mains and offshore and onshore energy pipelines considering soil-structure interaction.
“We are excited that we are reducing the risk of pipeline failure, a challenge currently being faced by industry and municipalities,” adds Dr. Dhar, who has received funding from NSERC, Mitacs, the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador and industry partners. “The major challenge is to have quality data to validate the developed models that we are addressing through acquiring a large scale test facility equipped with advanced sensors for measuring pipe and soil responses.”
Prior to joining Memorial in 2014, Dr. Dhar worked in industry as a senior geotechnical engineer and as a faculty member at New Mexico State University, USA, and in the Department of Civil Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).
Research Report 2020
SOIL-PIPELINE INTERACTION: ICEBERGS MAY THRILL TOURISTS, BUT THEY ARE NOT FRIENDLY WITH SUBSEA PIPELINES AND RISERS Imagine thousands of pipe sections made of hightensile steel, welded together and hanging from a massive floating platform down to the ocean floor. These pipes occupy a space larger than downtown St. John’s. They are not motionless but oscillating against the impact of monster waves, wind storms, harsh sea currents, and mammoth icebergs. “This is the future of deepwater developments of subsea riser systems in Newfoundland and Labrador’s harsh offshore environment” said Dr. Hodjat Shiri, assistant professor in civil engineering at Memorial and one of the world’s leading experts in riserseabed interaction. Subsea risers transfer oil, gas and other materials from wells under the ocean floor to floating platforms and vice versa. These risers are subject to dynamic environmental and operational loads, and thus vulnerable against fatigue failure that can result in environmental disaster. The fatigue life assessment of the subsea risers in the touchdown area is one of the most challenging engineering aspects due to a complex interaction between the riser, the seabed soil and the seawater. As a result, the industry calls upon researchers to investigate the effects of riser-seabed-seawater interactions on fatigue performance of subsea catenary risers. Exploring this multidisciplinary challenge needs the involvement of several engineering disciplines including structural, geotechnical, naval architectural, mechanical, and process engineering. Dr. Shiri works to help industry and academic partners design safe, reliable and cost-effective risers that can withstand Newfoundland and Labrador’s harsh offshore environment. Combining his vast industry experience in offshore structures and his strong academic background in offshore geotechnics, Dr. Shiri is in a unique position to lead research in this multidisciplinary field involving structure, soil and fluid. His primary goal is to extend the fatigue life of subsea catenary risers used in deepwater developments. Dr. Shiri’s research is broader than investigating riser-seabed interaction and its impact on the fatigue life of risers; he also investigates the impact of ice gouging on subsea pipelines. 14
Dr. Hodjat Shiri’s research crosses multidiscipline areas such as: modeling the motions and station keeping of floating structures, modeling the multiphase flow-induced vibrations in pipelines and risers and its contribution to the fatigue damage, developing advanced constitutive soil models capturing the cyclic and dynamic responses, developing sophisticated numerical models for large deformation finite element analysis, modeling structural dynamic and vibrations of pipelines, drilling risers, and operation risers, modeling the fluid-soilstructure interaction using computational fluid dynamics, performing reliability and risk analysis, developing artificial intelligence models for prediction of fluid-soil-structure interaction, performing advanced experimental studies and model testing.
RESEARCH STORIES Iceberg Sour Picture this: A several-million tonne iceberg travelling hundreds of kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland. As this fifteen-storey chunk of ice enters shallow water, grounds and begins scouring the ocean floor, it may destroy everything in its path, including the pipelines which can stretch for hundreds of kilometers under the ocean floor. To protect subsea pipelines, oil and gas companies operating in the North Atlantic as well as other areas where icebergs are present, bury pipelines in trenches deeper than the gouge depth to ensure that the pipeline will not be damaged by icebergs. The subsea trenches are costly, can be several pipe diameters deep and run tens of kilometers long. As a result, the industry calls upon researchers to investigate the minimum pipeline burial depth for a safe and costeffective design. When digging a trench in the ocean floor to bury a pipeline, displaced soil becomes less rigid than the undisturbed soil forming the bottom and walls of the trench. This significantly affects the subgouge soil deformation and the load applied to the pipeline. The influence of trenching/backfilling on the pipeline response to ice gouging is of particular interest to Dr. Shiri, who from 2015 to 2020, was the Wood Group Chair in Arctic and Harsh Environment Engineering at Memorial University.
Dr. Shiri. “Together we produced more than sixty-five journal and conference papers over the past five years, some published and some still under review,” he said. “Before joining Memorial University, I trained twenty-six graduate engineers in the industry. All of them are now senior engineers and managers in the worldwide industry.” Recently Dr. Shiri and his team have initiated several new projects with industry including machine learning techniques for predicting pipeline-seabed-ice keel interactions, monitoring ice keel-seabed-pipeline interactions using AI-based unmanned aerial vehicles, the impact of icebergs on exposed flexible pipes, fatigue performance of subsea drilling risers and the station keeping of floating wind turbines and other floating renewable energy structures. Also, as a member of establishing the Center for Sustainable Infrastructures at Memorial University, Dr. Shiri has initiated new projects involving the climate change effect on coastal and offshore infrastructures. One of the projects, in collaboration with YashilTech Inc., involves the coastal protection against climatechange-induced erosion and flooding. Dr. Shiri considers himself privileged to be involved in this research. “In this field, you learn new things each and every day, and the learning never stops.”
“To put it in perspective,” said Dr. Shiri, “if you were to reduce the thickness and size of the pipes by a mere few millimtetres and the dimensions of the subsea trenches by a few centimeters, a company could save tens of millions of dollars and even more on one pipeline. A few years ago, two pipeline-seabed interaction design coefficients were adjusted based on advanced studies saving about $50 million for an offshore export pipeline project in South Africa.” Dr. Shiri has secured more than $1.5M funding over the past five years, through industry collaborations and leveraging the investments by funding agencies such as NSERC, Department of Industry, Energy and Technology, and MITACS. Dr. Shiri has also established several international collaborations with the world’s leading experts from the Centre for Offshore Foundations Systems at the University of Western Australia, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland, Offshore Mechanics Lab at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil and the University of Brescia, Italy. Several industry collaborations have been also initiated with Wood PLC, TechnipFMS, AMOG Australia, C-CORE, INTECSEA, Atterix and YashilTech. “I have supervised and trained about thirty post-doctoral fellows, PhD, master’s, and undergraduate students, and I would like to thank Memorial and Suncor Energy for providing excellent research facilities to my team,” said
Hodjat Shiri (Ph.D., PEng.) is an assistant professor in Civil Engineering, he began his academic research work on pipeline and riser-soil interaction in 2006, when he started his PhD program at the Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems at the University of Western Australia. His thesis topic was to investigate the influence of riser-seabed interaction on the fatigue performance of steel catenary risers. His industry experience with pipelines and structures-soil interaction goes back to 1997 when he became involved in offshore and subsea installation projects.
Research Report 2020
GOOD VIBRATIONS: HARVESTING RENEWABLE ENERGY USING MICROSYSTEMS Almost everything on earth vibrates to some degree. Trains, planes and automobiles. Even the air around us. Dr. Lihong Zhang, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Memorial University, would like to convert these vibrations to electrical energy. “Basically, anywhere there are vibrations, these vibrations can be harvested and converted to electricity,” said Dr. Zhang. “From bridges to automobiles to the human body, we can harvest their vibrations into a device and use the resulting electricity for the Internet-of-Things.” “The main principle is vibration conversion to electricity,” said Dr. Zhang. “The conversion from sleep mode to power mode can be done automatically. The harvesting process takes a longer time with the energy stored in a storage capacitor. Once the energy reaches a certain level, it can power low-energy devices or even an electronic circuit.” For the past seven years, Dr. Zhang has been combining electrical systems with moving mechanical systems. The resulting micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) combine electrical and mechanical 16
Standing left to right: Seyedfakhreddin Nabavi, Behzad Parsi, Zhenxin Zhao, Xuan Dong, Gholamreza Shomalnasab. Sitting left to right: Lihong Zhang, Tuotian Liao, Mohammad Torabi.
components on one interface to create a machine so small, which can be measured in millimetres or even micrometers. Think of the tiny chips used in cell phones or printers. These are made up of layers called masks, many of which are thinner than the width of a human hair. The different masks are used in a manufacturing process called lithography, layer by layer, to create the chip. Chip design Using computer aided design (CAD), funding from NSERC and CFI, Dr. Zhang and his team of PhD and M.Eng. students combine knowledge of circuit design and energy harvesting systems to design chips that integrate mechanics and electricity. They may spend several months on design and layout, but once complete, they send their design layout to a foundry which uses an automatic verification tool to confirm there are no errors. The foundry facility then fabricates the chips using advanced lithography machines, which are photo processing devices, employing light and chemical materials to combine each layer until the chip is complete.
RESEARCH STORIES Dr. Lihong Zhang (B.E., M.Sc. (Eng.) (H.U.S.T. Wuhan), PhD (O-V-G Magdeburg), P.Eng.) obtained his PhD in electrical engineering at Otto-von-Guericke University of Magdeburg, Germany in 2003. He then worked in Montreal, Halifax and Seattle before joining Memorial in 2006 where he is currently a full professor. Dr. Zhang’s research is focused on very-large-scale-integration (VLSI) design automation, analog and mixed-signal integrated circuit design, digital circuit and system design, microelectromechanical system micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) design and design automation. He is also interested in microfluidics and biosensors, wireless sensor networks, computer-based instrumentation, microelectronics and computer applications in ocean and biomedical engineering.
biomedical applications; small devices inserted into a human body such as a pacemaker can be powered by vibrations in that body. We can also apply it to cancer research; when trying to find a biomarker, we need a measure in the sample to determine whether a biomarker exists or not. Using MEMS, we can build a tiny device with a special coating, put it in the human sample, and the device can find a biomarker.” Dr. Zhang’s PhD students are so dedicated that they have finished their PhDs in three and half years with multiple high-quality journal publications, whereas it takes most students four to seven years. After they defend their theses, they continue to collaborate and publish papers with Dr. Zhang. “My students strive to be the best,” said Dr. Zhang. “They build the reputation of the research group on an international level. They don’t just copy research already done: they are the first to do certain research and then they get patents.” In 2018, Dr. Zhang’s team applied for a US patent for energy harvesting with a design that can harvest energy from vibrations.”
The fact that Dr. Zhang and his team are efficiently generating electrical energy from vibrations to the chip design is an enormous advance in MEMS, and many of Dr. Zhang’s students have contributed greatly to the research.
“Our device can be used, not only for wind, but also automobiles,” explained Dr. Zhang. “We can even put devices in the human body with certain modifications for biocompatibility.” Dr. Zhang is currently looking for industry partners to commercialize the patent pending in the US.
Success story “It was only in 2015 that we started investigating wind energy harvesting and microsystems,” said Dr. Zhang. “In that year, I took on a PhD student who had no experience with MEMS, but he used fundamental research to find out how to crack the shell and go inside so we could understand the device and the key conversion mechanism from mechanical vibration to electricity. He became more comfortable in area of MEMS research, and we fabricated more than ten chips and published four top MEMS and sensors journal papers.” Dr. Zhang’s team investigated not only the conversion from vibration to electricity, but also more effective actuation to harvest energy and energy storage in a super capacitor for later use. Using the same logic, they discovered the mechanical structure can be used for sensing. “We can change the functionality at any time,” explained Dr. Zhang. “For example, we can use it for
A microsystem chip prototyped by Dr. Zhang’s team.
Research Report 2020
Visual information is limited to electronic database access, and is predominantly text-based with the exception of headshots for known criminals that can be accessed to assist dispatched services. New forms of next generation 911 data will create a paradigm shift in how communicators receive and process data, including transmitted images, videos, audio clips, and text messages, but also create an opportunity for data preprocessing ahead of a human communicator.
SYNERGY BETWEEN ENGINEERING RESEARCH, INDUSTRY AND MEDICINE Public Safety Communicators: how computer vision and image processing can help support them through next-generation 911 Public safety communicators who work in emergency telecommunications are responsible for identifying the type of emergency, and then dispatching either police, fire or ambulance services, while also calming the caller, providing any assistance possible, and staying on the phone until help arrives. As part of their job, communicators often listen to psychologically traumatic events. For example, while the communicator is on the phone, a person on the other end of the line can die or have grievous injury inflicted upon them. Or a call may involve a vulnerable person, like a child or senior subject to traumatic abuse. Although continuous exposure to distressing calls can have great mental impact, communicators are typically not considered traditional first responders, and are thus not provided many supports for occupationally related traumas such as ready access to mental health services. To complicate matters, call centres are chronically understaffed. Dr. Stephen Czarnuch, who is an assistant professor in both the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Discipline of Emergency Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine, has been conducting research to help reduce the trauma currently experienced by communicators, and prepare for upcoming changes to the 911 emergency system that will further increase communicator exposure to potentially traumatic events. 18
“We know that communicators screen with high rates of mental disorders, particularly when compared to diagnostic rates in the general Canadian population,” said Dr. Czarnuch. “What we’re trying to do is tailor the content of a call so we can channel it to the person best equipped to receive it, thus reducing potential exposure to trauma among the communicators. This will be especially important when upcoming mandated changeover to next-generation 911 (NG-911) is introduced in the spring of 2021 adding the ability to send text messages, images and videos directly to 911.” Next-Generation 911 As of spring 2021, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the regulating and supervising body for broadcasting and telecommunications, is mandating the introduction of NG-911, which among other things, will make it easier for hardware to geolocate phones used to make emergency calls and thus reduce dispatch time. Dr. Czarnuch is concerned that with the introduction of NG-911, communicators who currently only receive traditional phone calls, will begin to receive an incredible amount of information at once through videos, still photos, and text messages. “This sudden dump of potentially psychologically traumatic information might make their jobs even more traumatic. The impact of the new modes of information transmission associated with NG-911 on communicators, particularly in terms of their mental health, is unknown,” said Dr. Czarnuch, quoting a report by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials Canada, 2019.
RESEARCH STORIES “The high rates of mental disorders are, in part, because communicators are regularly exposed to potentially psychologically traumatic events each time they receive a call,” explained Dr. Czarnuch, citing a 2019 Carleton study. “New exposure to potentially psychologically traumatic events associated with NG-911 may further increase rates of mental disorders among this population.” Through a collaboration between engineering and medicine, Dr. Czarnuch hopes to ease the transition to NG-911 and help communicators deal with abrupt exposure to new forms of content such as graphic images and video, versus traditional calls during which information is obtained over time. His research team is comprised of seven masters’ students in multiple disciplines, including engineering, psychology, and sociology, who are investigating potential technological engineering solutions involving pre-processing text, image and video data to positively impact communicator mental health. “Our research is based on image processing and computer vision,” explained Dr. Czarnuch. “That means a computer will process the audio, video and still images before a human dispatcher receives them. “If we can pre-process the modes of information so that we can identify the contents of the new NG-911 “calls” before a human sees or hears them, we should be able to direct them to properly trained individuals, thus reducing the negative impacts on the communicators.” This includes work specifically focusing on automatic orientation, rotation, field of view and scale detection, blur assessment and mitigation in images and videos. Additionally, Dr. Czarnuch’s team is working on approaches for automated detection of hazards such as fire and water, and the presence of features of interest such as humans, blood, and vehicles in images, videos, and text messages. They are also investigating using artificial intelligence for things like natural language processing to work with text messages and attempting to detect human errors in interpretation or data entry.
“We can use technology to monitor communicators’ language, eyes and posture, for example, to determine how best to accommodate them at their jobs, before they reach the critical point and run out of capacity,” explained Dr. Czarnuch, adding that hopefully this research will result in proposed changes to improve the working conditions of emergency communicators. The idea originated out of Dr. Czarnuch’s involvement with the Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research and Treatment (CIPSRT) in his previous role as a member of the scientific directorate, and in his current role as a member of the inaugural Academic, Researcher and Clinician Network Advisory Council. With funding from Mitacs Accelerate, APCO Canada, and CIPSRT, Dr. Czarnuch has been researching public safety communicators and NG-911 data for two years. In partnership with the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials; Robert Stewart, Past President APCO Canada, and the Director of Emergency Communications for the City of Brandon/Manitoba Provincial 911, Stephen and his team hope to identify and gain access to real data such as text messages, images and video that represent potential classes of trauma. “Access to real data is our biggest challenge,” he said. “Since the transition to NG911 has not yet happened in Canada, we are exploring alternatives, such as obtaining data from other countries who have implemented comparable NG-911 technologies such as England, and developing synthetic datasets, while we wait for real Canadian data.”
The objectives of Dr. Czarnuch’s project are to:
1
Characterize the mental health and wellness of Canadian communicators by using a mental health survey
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Investigate the role that modern image processing, computer vision, and machine learning play in pre-processing new modes of NG-911 data to classify the potential level of trauma before the data are received by a communicator
Dr. Stephen Czarnuch (B.Eng. & Mgmt., MASc (McMaster), PhD (Toronto), P.Eng.) is a biomedical engineer with cross appointments to both the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Discipline of Emergency Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine.
Research Report 2020
DRIVERLESS VEHICLES AND THE CONNECTED AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE NETWORK The first generation of self-driving or autonomous vehicles are projected to be commercially available in 2025. Companies such as General Motors and Uber are currently investing billions of dollars developing Connected Autonomous Vehicle Network technology, but each time a story of an accident or fatality involving autonomous vehicles appears in the media, consumer trust erodes. To combat the public’s perception and to come up with safe and economical solutions, both industry and academia are heavily invested in researching the Connected Autonomous Vehicle Network. Dr. Mohammad Al Janaideh, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and his students have been working since 2017 to address existing challenges in the Connected Autonomous Vehicle Network and to propose an automation system that can guarantee safety under different high-risk conditions. In collaboration with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, Dr. Al Janaideh and his team are identifying major challenges involving human-in-the-loop interactions and cybersecurity threats. This multidisciplinary research includes control theory, fault detection, robotics, communication and multi-agent systems, as well as human factors. 20
Autonomous vehicles and cybersecurity.
“How to identify the threat of a cyber attack is one of the most pressing issues,” explained Dr. Al Janaideh. “The Government of Canada would never allow this technology without guarantee of cyber threat detection and prevention.” Humans driving alongside automated vehicles are another major concern. To reduce the risk of traffic accidents between autonomous and human-operated vehicles, Dr. Al Janaideh and his team look at whether autonomous vehicles can minimize the stop and go waves of traffic. They have also developed a dynamic model to help autonomous vehicles identify drunk drivers by detecting delays in response. What is most interesting is they have developed a general algorithm to detect different faults at once, something no other team has yet accomplished. Delays in communication, cyberthreats and noise in mechanical systems of autonomous vehicles can all be detected simultaneously. This is a huge step in the development of a safe and economical autonomous system and has created a ripple of excitement among researchers in other countries. When Dr. Al Janaideh presented a new algorithm he developed with his students to detect faults in Connected Autonomous Vehicle Networks at two top conferences involving control and intelligent robots,
RESEARCH STORIES
Dr. Mohammad Al Janaideh received his MASc. and Ph.D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in controls and mechatronics from Concordia University, Montreal, in 2005 and 2010, respectively. He did two postdocs at University of Toronto and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in the research areas of adaptive control and cyberphysical mechatronic systems. His expertise lies in Instrumentation, Controls and Automation. He has more than 80 publications in the research area of mechatronics and controls.
the American Control Conference (June 2020) and the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (October 2020), it was very well received. “Conference attendees who viewed our videos of real-time automated systems were amazed at how we can anticipate different scenarios,” explained Dr. Al Janaideh. “Unlike most other research projects which deal with only one aspect, we are able to simultaneously investigate different issues that affect the Connected Autonomous Vehicle Network.” “The multidisciplinary collaborations and technology transfer make this research very exciting,” said Dr. Al Janaideh, explaining that his team currently works, through NSERC, in conjunction with the company, Quanser Consulting Inc. to model autonomous vehicle networks as connected autonomous robots in the laboratory.
“DR. MOHAMMAD AL JANAIDEH...AND HIS STUDENTS HAVE BEEN WORKING SINCE 2017 TO ADDRESS EXISTING CHALLENGES IN THE CONNECTED AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE NETWORK AND TO PROPOSE AN AUTOMATION SYSTEM THAT CAN GUARANTEE SAFETY UNDER DIFFERENT HIGH-RISK CONDITIONS.” “Although the ideal situation would be to perform experimental work on real autonomous vehicles like in the Silicon Valley or the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, this is not possible for us here,” he said. “However, by using advanced software libraries specifically developed for vehicle dynamics and modeling, we don’t have to depend solely on experiments in the field; we can justify our results through connected autonomous robotic systems and simulation results.” As the technology and complexity of autonomous vehicles evolve, major research continues in countries like the United States, France and the Netherlands. Dr. Al Janaideh expects to conclude his research on control systems by 2023.
PhD student Abderlrahman Khalil working on fault detection and mitigation within a platoon on autonomous vehicles.
Research Report 2020
A physical scale model of a floating production storage offloading vessel approaches an iceberg in the National Research Council of Canada towing tank.
THREE INSTITUTIONS, ONE GOAL: MAKING THE OFFSHORE A SAFER PLACE Oil & gas operators in the North Atlantic take interactions between icebergs and offshore facilities very seriously. To ensure the safety of offshore workers as well as infrastructure, operators adhere to strict ice management plans. If these plans are not followed, the operators risk iceberg collisions as well as being shut by regulators at great monetary loss. Yujian Huang is a master’s student in engineering at Memorial and a C-CORE research engineer, who hopes to make the offshore a safer place by investigating iceberg interactions with floating structures. To help Mr. Huang conduct his research, three institutions—Memorial University, C-CORE and NRC— have come together at the new Karluk Collaboration Space in the NRC building, next to the engineering building on campus. “When federal government policies changed, we were able to open our doors to Memorial faculty members and students,” said Dr. Jungyong Wang, a senior research officer at the NRC, co-supervisor of Mr. Huang and an expert on ship/offshore structure in ice. “We provide the facility so we can test together and publish together. Mr. Huang’s test program in December 2019 was one of the first research projects in the Karluk Collaboration Space.” “This research supports graduate work through collaboration between Memorial, C-CORE and NRC,” said Dr. Rocky Taylor, associate professor of 22
mechanical engineering and lead academic partner on this project, whose interest in ice interaction research began when he completed engineering work terms at both C-CORE and NRC nearly two decades ago. Dr. Taylor explained that when a floating object like an iceberg gets carried along by current and waves, near field hydrodynamic effects influence the path the iceberg will take as it approaches a floating platform, which introduces additional uncertainties in modelling iceberg impacts. “While these proximity effects are known to exist and have even been observed during full-scale trials, they have yet to be properly quantified in engineering models,” he said. “In this work, we are focused on improving our understanding of coupled fluid-icestructure interaction processes between an iceberg and an offshore platform up to the point of impact. To study this interaction process, Yujian has completed a series of scale-model tests at the NRC to examine how the effects of near field hydrodynamics may influence the impact of ice against a moored floating structure for different wave and current conditions.” “Iceberg track deviation is a bit more complex than a simple cushioning effect,” said Tony King, director of ice engineering at C-CORE and Mr. Huang’s supervisor. “Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), we’re studying how the ship and iceberg deviate as they approach one another. When you have certain
RESEARCH STORIES sea state and waves conditions, what is your operational criteria? For example, when you have a 20,000 tonne iceberg, what is the likelihood of a collision and what force will be transferred? Given the load capacity of the facility, should the operator be required to disconnect?” Mr. Huang’s tests involved a model Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) unit, like the one used by Suncor in the Terra Nova oilfield, moored to a carriage in the open-water tow tank at NRC. The FPSO was then impacted by a cylindrical iceberg model made of steel in various sea conditions. Through a combination of tank testing using models and CFD, the objective is to model in the tank and in the software, what happens when a drifting iceberg approaches a ship; does it deviate and what is the interaction between the iceberg and the ship as the iceberg gets closer? “Sometimes you would think, based on a straight-line extrapolation of the iceberg motion, that the iceberg would impact every time, but hydrodynamic effects can cause them to deflect, miss or reduce the extent of impact,” said Mr. King. “When the ship was on bit of angle relative to the iceberg, that’s where we saw the most deviation.” Dr. Wang admitted surprise when testing showed that sometimes the iceberg and FPSO collided and sometimes they didn’t. “We did three or four runs and
they didn’t hit. For the fifth run, we invited observers, that’s when they hit,” he explained laughing. “That’s when we speculated that the initial location of the iceberg model deployed with respect to the wave phase could be a factor.” Mr. Huang was also surprised. “I anticipated it would deviate, but once we did wave testing with the FPSO orientated at thirty degrees, the iceberg never hit the FPSO; it continuously missed. There was no impact.” That led to another round of tests using the same iceberg model and FPSO, but using three different wave heights and lengths. “There can be a reflection of waves off the vessel which can hit the iceberg and deflect it, and the tests at NRC showed a model iceberg can actually do a U-Turn,” said Mr. King. “The other issue is the ocean current can deflect as it moves past the vessel, also influencing the iceberg trajectory.” “It was hard to repeat tests, especially when adding random factors like waves,” said Mr. Huang. “It varied greatly depending on what stage the wave was in when the interactions occurred.” “Trying to line up what you see in the tank and what you see in the software can be difficult,” said Mr. King. “We tried to duplicate the geometry in the tank, including speed, waves, and current into the CFD model. I am a big supporter of doing modelling, but at end of the day, you’re trying to get model to match reality, not the other way around.” “The biggest challenge was the limited time in the wave tank before COVID-19 restrictions shut everything down,” said Mr. Huang. “We don’t have a lot of data but can simulate the hydrodynamic effect using computer modeling,” said Mr. King, “This project deals with one iceberg size and hull shape,” said Mr. King. “We want to do more research on different size icebergs and hull shapes and waves. What we’re doing now sets the ground work as to what we can do in the tank, with future test matrix.”
Dr. Rocky Taylor (B.Eng., M.Eng., PhD, P.Eng.), associate professor of mechanical engineering, is a graduate of Memorial University and holds doctoral and master’s degrees in ocean and naval architectural engineering, as well as an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering. Dr. Taylor’s research encompasses a variety of significant iceengineering problems, particularly those related to ice-load estimation for the design of offshore structures and the mechanics of compressive ice failure. Much of his work is focused on fracture
In the meantime, once Mr. Huang is close to completion, the team will present the results to industry. “The results of this research can inform new vessel and platform design,” explained Dr. Taylor. “As well, it can help offshore oil and gas operators better understand the realistic loads to expect if an iceberg is bearing down on a floating structure, to help inform their assessment of whether it may be better to stay on station or disconnect.”
processes in ice and the analysis of associated scale effects.
Research Report 2020
Salt spray and sub-zero temperatures cause ice build up on ships and offshore structures. In Memorial University’s ABS Harsh Environment Technology Centre (HETC), researchers study ice accretion in marine environments and investigate ice interaction with ship hulls and offshore platforms to mitigate metal degradation.
ABS HARSH ENVIRONMENT TECHNOLOGY CENTRE (HETC): CO-OPERATIVE R&D HELPS DESIGNERS, BUILDERS AND OWNERS OF SHIPS OPERATING IN ICE OR COLD REGIONS TO BEST PROTECT ALL LIFE AT SEA AS WELL AS THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT. The ABS Harsh Environment Technology Centre (HETC) at Memorial University is an example of an exceptional synergy between academics and industry. Dr. David Molyneux, associate professor in the Department of Ocean and Naval Architecture Engineering and Dan Oldford, principal engineer at ABS HETC, a leading marine classification society, work together to develop technology to improve design and assessment of ships and offshore structures. ABS, headquartered in Spring, Texas, has technology centres around the world each focusing on specific R&D. In 2009, ABS partnered with Memorial to establish a technology centre on the campus in St. John’s to concentrate on ships and offshore structures that operate in harsh environments like the Arctic. “We chose Memorial University to partner with us on Arctic research for three reasons,” said Mr. Oldford. 24
“Memorial engineers are known the world over for their excellent research programs, and the university is a huge supporter of research activities. Location also played a big part in our decision; Newfoundland and Labrador is considered the Gateway to the Arctic.” One of the main things we do at ABS is certify ships to be in compliance with rules and regulations. A subset of that is the certification of ships in water with ice or subject to harsh weather. ABS has been driving technology behind ship - ice interactions for decades.” “One of our largest projects is related to operating non-icebreaking ships in ice-covered waters,” added Dr. Molyneux. The Canadian Navy How fast can an ice-class naval vessel go before the hull cracks? How far can you push design without risking the safety of crew and assets?
RESEARCH STORIES members as well as research staff and two full-time ABS staff all involved in investigating different aspects of ship operation in Polar Waters.” Light ice class ships operate in areas, like the North Atlantic and the Arctic, where ice is not present all the time. “We can take a piece of ice and collide it with a full-size section of a naval ship’s structure to see how much damage occurs,” said Mr. Oldford. “We actually took pieces of the decommissioned naval vessel, HMCS Iroquois, to test in the lab. It was pretty impressive.”
Dr. David Molyneux (B.Sc., Newcastle-Upon-Tyne; M.Sc., University of British Columbia; PhD Memorial) is associate professor in architectural and naval engineering whose expertise lies in Arctic ships and structures, marine hydrodynamics and offshore and marine safety. Dr. Molyneux came to Memorial in 2015 after a career in research and consulting in both public and private sectors. He worked at NRC in St. John’s from 1985 until 2008 carrying out research into a range of topics related to marine safety, hydrodynamics and performance of ships and offshore structures in ice. In 2008 he moved to Oceanic to manage the development and acquisition of computer codes for predicting the performance of ships and offshore structures in harsh environments.
It is these questions and others which are of interest to the Canadian Navy, Memorial and ABS. Through collaboration with Canadian industry and government departments, Memorial researchers like Drs. Bruce Quinton and Claude Daley employ a combination of experiments and numerical modelling to test shipscale models in the Structures Laboratory. Historically, naval ships were not operated in waters where significant amounts of ice were present. As the role of the Navy expands into northern waters, they need to know the operating limits for their ships that encounter ice. This includes determining a safe speed in ice and understanding how ice pieces interact with the ship structure in order to minimize damage. Adventure Tourism Or what happens if a cruise ship gets stranded in the northwest passage? “We are building prediction models for those scenarios,” explained Dr. Molyneux. “Since 2016, we’ve had nine co-op students, eight masters, six PhDs, three post-doctoral researchers, eleven faculty
Important link between physical and numerical analysis “Engineering is about predicting and we predict better with computer code,” said Dr. Molyneux, explaining that there is not always enough time to conduct experiments on ship-size models. “We take the finite element computer models of a ship’s structure and aim to use AI for navigation in ice to select the optimum course for navigation. We then take the results of the research and make it useful, writing software and applying it to make recommendations for International Maritime Organization guidelines.” Vibrations and noise in ice breaking ships A second major area of research in the HETC involves the interaction between a ship’s hull and ice, or the propeller and ice. The vibrations caused by ice interacting with a ship’s hull not only affect the fatigue life of the ship structure and machinery, but also the morale and health of the personnel on board.
The collaborative research on noise and vibration undertaken by ABS and Memorial in the HETC has three main parts:
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Evaluation and verification, during icepropeller interactions, or torsional vibrations in a shaft line, which is the rotating shaft that runs the length of a vessel for power transmission
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Evaluation and prediction of noise within the ship during ice-hull interactions during icebreaking operations
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Evaluation and prediction of underwater radiated noise which can have detrimental effects on the marine environment
Research Report 2020
Dan Oldford, originally from Labrador is a Memorial University graduate with a bachelor in Ocean and Naval Architecture and a Masters in ice mechanics. In 2003 he started with ABS as a surveyor in Halifax, Toronto, and St. John’s where he saw first hand the problems faced by ships and their operators in low temperature environments. This was especially prominent when boarding non-winterized foreign vessels visiting Canadian ports in the winter. In 2012, he joined the ABS Harsh Environment Technology Center where he is currently the principal engineer.
where to best add insulation or if there’s a better place to put the bunks in a new design. The third issue involves radiated noise in the water. How can researchers write new and improved rules for the next generation of ships? Vessels can be very loud to people above the water, but sound propagates significantly better underwater. Many times, underwater sounds from ships can interfere with communications of marine wildlife such as whales by just simply being too loud. Whales count on acoustic communication to talk to each other for hunting and mating. Quieter ships will help ensure these marine creatures are protected. Obviously, ship operators and owners want to minimise risk, so they work hand in hand with researchers looking at implementation and design. Sharing research results ABS encourages publication of research results in journal and conference papers.
Safety “For all companies operating in harsh environments, safety is always first and foremost,” said Mr. Oldford. “The rules sometimes derived from ABS HETC research, serve as construction standards for new vessel designs. The rules have requirements, for example, to ensure a shaft line on a Polar Class ship is adequately strengthened to withstand loads caused when a propeller strikes ice.” “As a propeller is milling ice, it will cause a torsional vibration in a ship’s propulsion shaft,” he explained. “On the other end of the shaft there is some sort of prime mover, often a large diesel engine which also adds its own torsional vibrations into the shaft line. The middle of the shaft line must withstand the torsion from both ends. If the torsion exceeds the shaft line’s capacity, there is a risk of twisting off a shaft which can lead to uncontrolled flooding of a ship’s machinery space.” “Our rules,” said Mr. Oldford, “ensure safe vessel design, but at the same time, enable designers to optimize designs to be efficient.” The second most important issue is that the noise prevents the crew from getting adequate sleep. So, researchers at HETC look at how to improve new design. Memorial’s Dr. Lorenzo Moro is an expert on noise and vibration. His team can look at things like 26
“ABS is competitive,” said Mr. Oldford, “but we don’t compete on safety. We encourage researchers to publish their findings; its the expertise of having people with knowledge that clients want.” ABS plans to extend their agreement with Memorial to sponsor the HETC for another five years investigating things like marine icing, which is assessing the mechanics for how water goes from the ocean surface to becoming layers of ice on the ship’s deck and structures. In the meantime, ABS continues to sponsor engineering work-term students, hire Memorial graduates and give regular scholarships to MUN undergraduate students. “It’s a win-win situation,” said Dr. Molyneux. “When a group of engineers can work directly with a company to solve problems, it speeds up the entire process; from hypothesis to trials to application of a working model, it makes the collaboration between a company like ABS and Memorial one to be envied.”
OFI researchers re-think the way we design, develop, and manage infrastructures, with an overarching aim to ensure that coastal communities of the future are sustainable, safe and inclusive.
FUTURE OCEAN AND COASTAL INFRASTRUCTURES (FOCI): MEMORIAL CREATES A CONSORTIUM TO IMPROVE COASTAL COMMUNITIES IN ATLANTIC CANADA AND BEYOND Seafarers including seafood harvesters, aquaculture workers and those commuting to and from remote sea locations, work in one of the most dangerous environments in the world. If a vessel capsizes in the North Atlantic, for example, a crew’s chances of survival may be slim. Dr. Lorenzo Moro, assistant professor in the Department of Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering and co-director of the SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Research, wants to change that by researching vessel design to make marine vehicles safer and prevent capsizing. “My research is part of a consortium called, The Future Ocean and Coastal Infrastructures (FOCI), which aims to re-think the design of infrastructures for coastal communities, to ensure safety, sustainability and inclusiveness,” explained Dr. Moro, who is co-leading the FOCI consortium, which received $4M from the Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI). Together with co-lead, Dr. Paul Foley, associate professor at the Environmental Policy Institute in the School of Science and the Environment at Grenfell Campus, Dr. Moro hopes to improve the design of essential infrastructures for Atlantic Canadian ocean industries and coastal communities in the face of climate and ocean change. Dr. Moro is also leading one of the nine work packages and four integrated work packages established by FOCI.
These work packages bring together: 65 researchers and collaborators from 34 engineering, natural science, social science and artistic disciplines 13 institutions and 72 local, regional, national and international partners and collaborators from Indigenous communities, industry, government and civil society 70 regional and international partners, including community partners, industry, universities, research organizations 81 trainees and community researchers, including students, post-doctoral fellows, and research assistants
“Our work package aims to identify hazards faces by mariners, improve the stability of marine vehicles, as well as reduce their environmental footprint. We’re looking at vessel noise, above and below the surface, and its repercussions on human and sea life,” he explained. In this particular FOCI work package, Dr. Moro is working in collaboration with researchers from Memorial University (Drs. Cullen, Molyneux, Peng, Qiu, Shan, Walker), from Dalhousie University (Drs. Chircop Research Report 2020
RESEARCH STORIES and Goerlandt), from NRC (Dr. Islam) and from industry to inform industry stakeholders and policymakers on ways to improve key health and safety issues on marine vessels, while reducing their environmental footprint. Not only do they use simulation to improve the design of small fishing vessels to avoid capsizing, they are also looking at the hydrodynamics of propeller design to mitigate noise without increasing CO2 emissions. “One of our challenges is that if we reduce underwater noise, it is likely we increase CO2 emissions from the vessels,” explained Dr. Moro. “We are working with Drs. Wei Qiu and Heather Peng to mitigate underwater noise from vessels without increasing emissions. In partnership with Ocean Choice International (OCI), the Nunavut Fisheries Association, NL-Fish Harvesting Safety Association, Oceanex, and American Bureau of Shipping, Ocean Sonics, Seafarers’ International Union of Canada, Transport Canada, the University of Trieste, and The World Maritime University, we are investigating the noise level experienced by workers in shipping,” said Dr. Moro, explaining that in engineering, rate noise is measured separately from underwater noise pollution. Humans have different hearing systems than sea life, but the sources of noise are the same, for example, generators, engines and propellers. Dr. Moro’s research, which started in April 2020 and will run until August 2023, goes hand in hand with eight other work packages which bring together researchers who don’t normally work together due to different backgrounds and focuses. The multidisciplinary approach, while exciting, is also the most challenging aspect of this project.
The final three work packages focus on ensuring infrastructure designs support inclusion, social justice and equity by addressing things like barriers injured and ill workers face when returning to work. They also guarantee different groups and genders, such as youth and seniors, and rural and urban dwellers are all included in discussion. FOCI’s Four Integrated Work Packages Four additional work packages will communicate the results of the research to industry, government and community stakeholders with the aim of helping all groups respond to change. “The integrated work packages will employ innovative ways to facilitate dialogue across FOCI’s researchers and communities. One of the integrated work packages employs a different approach than is normally used in academia,” said Dr. Moro. “It will use fine art to engage coastal communities and communicate the results of all our research through visual arts, film and theatre.” Although Dr. Moro’s and the other work packages focus on coastal communities in Atlantic Canada, the results of the research may be applicable worldwide. “The west north Atlantic is a Gateway to the Arctic and a lot of countries are interested in the outcomes of our research,” said Dr. Moro, explaining they have partners from Australia, Italy, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
“When researchers at Memorial were invited to take part in this OFI initiative, they jumped at the opportunity,” said Dr. Moro. “In fact, eight of the nine work packages and the four integrated work packages are led or co-led by Memorial researchers.” Three of the FOCI work packages, including Dr. Moro’s, focus on designing safer maritime and coastal infrastructures for Atlantic Canada with the aim of improving search and rescue and mitigating weather-driven hazards and climate change. Three others deal with sustainability of social communities; in particular Indigenous communities, as well as how to tackle climate change and extreme weather. Dr. Foley’s research falls into this category; his team have partnered with Lobster Node Inc. to research infrastructure in Canada’s lobster fisheries, which are economically valuable to hundreds of coastal communities. 28
Dr. Lorenzo Moro is co-director of SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Research and assistant professor in the Department of Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering.
LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS: EMPOWERING SUSTAINABILITY OF RURAL COMMUNITIES BY RECOVERING VALUE FROM BIOMASS RESIDUES IN FISHERIES, FORESTRY, AND AGRICULTURE What happens to all those fish heads and skin, bones and guts in processing plants and aquaculture facilities? Most end up in the ocean or a landfill at great cost to the environment and processors, as well as a loss of value to the harvesters and processors. Or what about the waste in saw and paper mills or effluent in mines? Disposal of these products can be costly for companies as well as the environment. Dr. Kelly Hawboldt, professor of process engineering, has been working for over fifteen years to develop innovative processes to extract value-added products that are environmentally sustainable and economically feasible. That means helping convert fish, forestry and mining waste to usable materials and increase profits for small communities. “Rural and remote communities are often left out of what we call the bioeconomy; even though most of the feedstock is coming from those areas, the conversion happens in larger centres,” said Dr. Hawboldt. “We are
Biomass lifecycle: from source to solution.
trying to include these rural and remote communities by turning the biomass residues produced in the region to bio products such as fuel, resins, adhesives or epoxies that can be sold commercially,” What Dr. Hawboldt and her team of graduate students and post-doctoral researchers hope to do is collaborate with processors in rural and/or remote communities to squeeze all possible value out of existing species. Working within policy and infrastructure limitations, they take existing biomass residues and help build technologies and products to benefit rural and remote communities in Canada. “As fisheries and forestry industries come under increasing economic and environmental pressures, we need to extract more from less and minimize our footprint on the environment,” explained Dr. Hawboldt. “We have biomass feedstock that is underutilized meaning a loss of potential profit and negative environmental impacts.”
Research Report 2020
RESEARCH STORIES Instead of processors taking fish waste from aquaculture salmon processing and transporting it to a landfill, for example, Dr. Hawboldt and her team can work with processors to do something simple like extract oils for low-cost applications such as biofuel or further process to produce nutritional oils like omega 3s used in supplements. Leftover protein from extracting the oil can then be used in other applications like animal feeds.
Dr. Kelly Hawboldt (B.Sc. (Saskatchewan), M.Sc., PhD (Calgary), P.Eng.) is a professor of process engineering whose research includes green processing of natural resources, biofuels and natural gas processing.
“We are dealing with a dwindling resource,” she said. “Instead of fishing down to lower species, why don’t we try to extract all we can from what we’re already harvesting? Develop a process where we can extract all the by-products? Do as much as we can until there’s a profit, then move forward.” Things that must be considered by both the research team and the remote forestry, fishing and mining operators are treatment, storage and disposal costs; the usability of residues/waste, and most importantly available infrastructure, distance to market, and regional needs. For example, Dr. Hawboldt’s PhD student, Sarah Ahmadkelayeh, is working on recovery of high value compounds from shrimp by-product. She is developing “green” processes for extraction of astaxanthin, a high value antioxidant (up to $1000/g) used in different medical and nutritional applications, and lipids from shrimp processing by-product from processing plants on the Great Northern Peninsula. This work is in collaboration with Dr. Sukhinder Cheema, a professor in biochemistry at Memorial. Dr. Cheema takes the astaxanthin obtained from the different recovery processes and tests the quality in biochemistry studies. She can then inform Dr. Hawboldt on how to tweak the extraction process to maximize the quality while Dr. Hawboldt tries to simultaneously maximize the yield. The end product will be a supplement. In the approach of no waste left behind, Dr. Hawboldt is also studying the “leftover” solid to see if the protein and chitin can be used in animal and materials applications. Dr. Hawboldt also works with the forestry and fishery industry to produce bio-oil and biochar. This takes a low value residue like saw chips or bark and thermally treats it to give a liquid like oil and also a solid biochar or biocarbon. The biochar is being tested by soil scientists at Grenfell campus as a soil amendment to enhance soil quality; PhD student Zahra Ghanbarpour is developing a process using the biochar to capture carbon dioxide and master’s student David Hopkins is using waste crab-based biochar to remove metals from mining wastes (both co-supervised with Dr. Stephanie Macquarrie). The oil has multiple uses as well from a low-end heating fuel to extraction of 30
chemicals that can be alternatives to petroleum-based chemicals (like polymers) to additions to building material composites (blending with asphalt). “Bio-oil can be used as low-grade heating oil, and as it has no sulphur, it has the same heating value and particulate matter,” explained Dr. Hawboltd, “but with lower CO2 values. Plus it comes from a renewable resource and is almost green-house gas neutral.” Bio-oil is very complex in terms of the number of compounds (literally 1000s), but if we separate groups of compounds (fractions) based on their boiling points, we can use the fractions in different applications. For instance the “heavier” compounds, or compounds with higher boiling points, can be used as “green” alternatives in laminates and resins. The acids, or compounds with lower boiling points, in the bio-oil can be used as antifungals and antibacterials in coatings so bacteria doesn’t grow on surfaces like ship hulls. Dr. Hawboldt works closely with Dr. Peter Fransham of Abritech Inc., an industry partner that manufactures thermal pyrolysis units. One challenging aspect of the research, explained Dr. Hawboldt, is that people often want to make a widget within a year, but it often takes longer. “It’s a challenge to get people to see outside their own view. If you’re making wood products, you don’t necessarily see how residue can go back into enhancing wood products. And in the fisheries, processors want to get rid of waste; we try to convince people of the benefits of going further. You need science and research before you take over a plant and start producing something. We
RESEARCH STORIES are interested in quality products that are beneficial to the environment and will help remote communities become profitable. Our goal is to develop both small plants and large-scale processing facilities. For Dr. Hawboldt, there is no limit to how far she can go in her research. “It’s a continuum as opposed to an end point, and I’m but one cog,” she said. “When we succeed in doing something, I always say, ‘that’s great, but what else can we do? How far can we go?’ This work does not exist without grad students; that’s why I never say my work, it’s always our work.” Dr. Hawboldt works with professors from different backgrounds to enhance the training the students get. “My students work in different labs with different co-supervisors,” she said, “which shows them the advantages of doing multi-disciplinary work.”
“WE ARE INTERESTED IN QUALITY PRODUCTS THAT ARE BENEFICIAL TO THE ENVIRONMENT AND WILL HELP REMOTE COMMUNITIES BECOME PROFITABLE.”
SEPARATION TECHNOLOGY: HOW POROUS BIOPOLYMER-BASED ADSORBENTS CAN SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT Imagine throwing away gold. In the mining industry, valuable minerals, such as gold, silver and platinum, can be washed away in waste water. Dr. Yan Zhang, associate professor in the Department of Process Engineering, wants to prevent this from happening. Since 2002, her team has been researching cost-effective technologies to recover precious metal ions from mining effluent. The recovery of these precious metals prior to their release into the environment is important for two reasons: environmental protection and recycling of valuable resources. Metal accumulation in the environment can be detrimental to humans as well as animals, soils, plants and trees. If they are allowed to build up in the soil and water, they will inevitably find their way into the food chain. If recovered however, these precious minerals can be used in aerospace, electronics and material synthesis resulting in extra profit for mining companies.
Dr. Yan Zhang (B. Eng, M.Eng (Tianjin), PhD (NUS), P. Eng) is associate professor in the Department of Process Engineering. Her research involves the application of experimental and computational methods to the analysis of complicated chemical reaction and separation processes. Her research interests include the development of novel biopolymer-based functional materials, modeling simulation and optimization of integrated separation and reaction process, and preparative liquid chromatography for isolation and purification of therapeutic proteins.
Research Report 2020
FACULTY SPOTLIGHT Dr. Zhang and her research team have been investigating adsorbents such as alginate, cellulose, chitin or chitosan in the hopes of developing a commercially-viable product that can be used by industry to recover the metals. Column Adsorption Adsorption is a chemical process by which a solid holds molecules of a gas, liquid or solute as a thin film. The process used by Dr. Zhang involves packing prepared adsorbents in an adsorption column, which then separates the solutes from fluids allowing them to be extracted. In this way, Dr. Zhang and her team are able to retain precious metals such as gold, platinum, silver from mining waste. “The process also helps remove the coexisting toxic heavy metals, such as mercury and lead from mining effluents reducing their environmental impact,” explained Dr. Zhang. Dr. Zhang’s research confirms that the porous biopolymer-based adsorbents not only show high binding capacity and selectivity but also render fast adsorption kinetics. By combining experimental investigation, material characterization and theoretical molecular simulation, her team is able to identify the adsorption mechanisms under different environmental conditions such as temperature and solution pH.
Discussion on the carbon quantum dots sample synthesized by hydrothermal method. From left to right: Xiangyu Yan, Lantian Chang, Masoumeh Rostami, and Dr. Yan Zhang.
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“Based on the good understanding of the binding mechanism between metal ions and the adsorbent, we can fine-tune the functional groups or surface property as well as the structure of the biopolymerbased adsorbents for a targeted metal ion to be adsorbed or recycled,” she said. Even though Dr. Zhang’s research has resulted in new products (adsorbents) and transformative expertise in fields of adsorption of metal ions, ten years since she started, her team is still working to improve the stability of the porous structure and to better control particle size and shape of the biopolymer-based adsorbents. “This research contributes significantly to converting the low-cost and abundant biomass materials to value-added products such as adsorbents, through green and sustainable methods,” said Dr. Zhang whose research has been funded by NSERC, the Department of Industry, Energy and Technology and Memorial University.
Memorial University’s Harsh Environment Research Facility (HERF) will soon be a reality. For decades Memorial University’s Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science has been at the forefront of harsh environment engineering, with particular emphasis on issues relating to ice and icing for ships and structures in cold ocean environments. With construction expected to start this fall, design work is underway for a new facility that will take Memorial’s research to a whole new scale. “Memorial’s HERF will be unique in the world,” said Dr. Yuri Muzychka, department head and professor of mechanical engineering. “Not only will we have a wind tunnel with a wave tank underneath to simulate wind and wave interactions; we’ll also have the ability to disperse freezing water droplets in the air to create realistic arctic conditions.”
FACILITY SPOTLIGHT
HARSH ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH FACILITY (HERF)
“Another central feature of HERF is that it will vastly increase the physical scale, realism and range of conditions we can model experimentally involving interactions Wor impacts with ice in the ocean,” said Dr. Rocky Taylor, associate professor of mechanical engineering and an expert in ice mechanics. “Ice in the marine environment is a significant hazard for ships, offshore structures and subsea infrastructure. There are presently no other facilities globally that can accommodate the range of conditions that will be possible in HERF.” The results of this research will help reduce safety hazards to people, equipment and structures caused by icing by advancing models of these processes and helping innovate new ways of avoiding icing or mitigating its effects. For example, using the HERF icing wind tunnel, researchers will help develop cost-effective and reliable de-icing capabilities, such as thermo-electrical systems and modifying surfaces so that ice droplets will not adhere as easily. “Other facilities have wind tunnels and wave tanks, and a few have wave tanks with wind overtop to provide elements of realism, but the wind tunnel in the Harsh Environment Research Facility can do waves with salt water spray and sub-zero temperatures to simulate a range of icing conditions,” explained Dr. Muzychka, who is an expert on marine icing. “Besides marine vessels and structures, we will also be equipped to do research on icing of overhead power lines and aircraft or wind turbines operating in icing conditions, thus helping mitigate problems of severe freezing weather which can lead to power outages and risk the safety of the public at large.” Within HERF, Husky Energy is sponsoring the ice mechanics facility, which includes a large cold room equipped with a high-capacity testing frame and sliding load apparatus that will allow Memorial’s Drs. Rocky Taylor and Bruce Quinton to conduct large-scale tests on offshore structures and ship hulls interacting with ice under dry or wet conditions down to -20oC. The ice mechanics facility will allow for continuous crushing and sliding, wet or dry, ice loads at cold temperatures for a very large range of load levels and interaction areas. In addition, the facility will have a new biaxial load frame apparatus that has a unique capacity for cold temperature characterization of properties, such as the fracture locus, of marine and offshore material. 33
FACILITY SPOTLIGHT Icing refers to ice accumulation on surfaces and can lead to potentially dangerous build-up of ice on vessels and structures operating in the North Atlantic and other cold, harsh environments. This can interfere with the safe operation of equipment, create hazards for personnel or potentially result in instability issues for floating ships and offshore platforms. The new HERF facility will allow researchers to better understand impinging salt water droplets, droplet adhesion, shedding, runback, and ice growth on surfaces during marine icing conditions. In this facility, environmental variables can be altered and studied, including air speed, droplet diameter, droplet salinity, liquid water content in sprays, air temperature, waves on the free surface of the water basin, and icing time. New experimental correlations and numerical models can then be developed to predict both ice accretion and forces on surfaces in harsh weather conditions. The fact that the new facility will enable testing at very large-scales is extremely important for ice, since as a material, ice is prone to scale effects. These scale effects mean that average pressures acting on ships and structures tend to decrease for increasing interaction areas. These effects are strongly influenced by probabilistic aspects of fracture processes, which serve to localize the contact into high pressure zones, as well as contribute to random averaging during ice crushing. As a result of these scale effects and the complex nature of ice compressive failure, it is not possible to replicate these processes or predict ice loads using small-scale experiments or numerical models. This has important implications for design and necessitates the use of full-scale data for ice load estimation. “There is presently not a lot of such data available and obtaining new full-scale data can be difficult and costly,” explained Dr. Taylor. “The capabilities of HERF for studying ice loading for full-scale sea ice thicknesses and using large test structures will open exciting new avenues for researchers as they work at addressing critical data gaps. This includes modeling dynamic ice-structure interactions, sliding loads on ships structures and many other applications of interest to industry and the international research community. Researchers at the HERF will also work closely with the NRC which launched the Karluk Collaboration Space in June 2019 to foster collaboration in ocean science and engineering. “MUN’s new Harsh Environment Research Facility will complement the NRC’s Ocean, Coastal and River Engineering Research (OCRE) facilities designed for harsh environment research, and the tremendous research capacity of our two organizations,” said 34
Dr. David Murrin, director general of the NRC’s OCRE Centre. “I look forward to continuing our collaboration with MUN researchers to improve the lives of Canadians through increased safety of offshore operations.” Memorial engineering researchers are also collaborating with researchers at York and Concordia Universities who are developing new superhydrophobic surfaces and ice repellent coatings that can repel water, prevent icing, or reduce ice adhesion. Memorial’s researchers will then test these coatings for their resistance to ice formation and use this information to measure potential mechanical wear and weathering on large scale marine structures. “Our goal is to provide new technology to predict and mitigate ice build-up and improve the reliability, performance and longevity of both onshore and offshore structures including vessels, steel and concrete platforms and wind turbines operating in sea ice and/or marine icing conditions,” said Dr. Muzychka. “The ice mechanics facility will be equipped with a sliding load apparatus to allow for field-scale ice impact and continuous crushing experiments in order to measure ice pressures and structural response. To improve ice management, we will be able to simulate fluid-structure-ice interaction for floating structures in pack ice.” “No other facility in Canada currently possesses the capabilities of the HERF,” said Dr. Muzychka, adding that the facility will significantly enhance Canada’s competitiveness in Artic and cold ocean research, especially regarding atmospheric and marine icing phenomena and for a wide variety of ice engineering applications. This research will reduce offshore risk by helping enhance the safety and economy of marine and offshore structures and mitigating potential financial loss due to icing-related damage that can lead to equipment breakdown or power outages. The research will also benefit the development of mineral reserves, as well as renewable and nonrenewable energy resources, while improving the safety of Arctic shipping, tourism and transportation. The HERF has received $17 million in funding from the federal government (CFI, ACOA), the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador (IET), industry (Husky Energy) and Memorial University whose co-applicants include Drs. Yuri Muzychka, Greg Naterer, Bruce Quinton and Rocky Taylor, as well as Drs. Xili Duan, Kevin Pope, Brian Veitch, and Wei Qiu.
Research week 2020 provided opportunities for engineering faculty and students to not only collaborate with counterparts from other faculties on campus, but also to share research with members of industry and the public at large. Take a look below to learn about the Faculty’s four main activities. Annual Research Day 2020 How do members of the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science (FEAS) come together in the middle of a pandemic to highlight and celebrate their groundbreaking research? Virtually, of course. On November 23, the Engineering Research Office and the Office of Graduate Studies made 2020’s Annual Research Day one to remember. Instead of designing posters to showcase their research, students prepared three-minute narrated video presentations to compete for bragging rights as well as monetary prizes. The aim is to give students practice in presenting complex information in terms that the university, industry partners and the general public can understand. “Annual Research Day is beneficial for research progress and strengthening professional skills,” said Dr. Faisal Khan, Associate Dean Graduate Studies. “The feedback received by students can lead to further innovation by proposing new ideas and refining existing ones, and concise presentation of ideas is an essential skill for career development.” “The Annual Research Day is an excellent opportunity to celebrate the research achievements of our graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and share them with the broader community outside the faculty,” said Dr. Octavia A. Dobre, Associate Dean of Research.
“THESE RESEARCHERS REPRESENT THE NEW GENERATION OF INNOVATORS WHO WILL CONTRIBUTE TO SOLVING PROBLEMS AND IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE FOR SO MANY PEOPLE.”
RESEARCH WEEK 2020
RESEARCH WEEK 2020
“These researchers represent the new generation of innovators who will contribute to solving problems and improve the quality of life for so many people.” Drs. Heather Peng, Noori Saady and George Mann had the difficult task of judging the student presentations to determine which ones demonstrated the most effective communication to the public. 35
RESEARCH WEEK 2020 The Winners PEDRAM GHASEMIGOUDARZI
First place went to Pedram Ghasemigoudarzi for his presentation, Detecting Inland Surface Water within Dense Biomass (using the GNSS-R technique).
“Surface water bodies are essential for most industrial and agricultural operations,” explained Mr. Ghasemigoudarzi, who proposed a machine-learning method to detect water in forested areas in the Congo and Amazon Basins using data from a constellation of satellites (GNSS-Reflectometry), that can see through clouds and certain tree and plant growth. His work has been published in IEEE GRSL, a prestigious remote sensing journal. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9187588 “Surface water is dynamic and its extent changes due to human activities and climate. Thus, knowledge of high temporal water extent data is important for various disciplines,” he said, adding that the FEAS research day provided a great opportunity for all students to present their work online despite the challenges of 2020. “Personally, being selected as the first-place winner among all the wonderful presentations is inspiring. It will remain as one of the delightful and memorable moments throughout my graduate studies; I feel very honoured.” ALI EBRAHIMI
Second place went to Ali Ebrahimi for his research video on Super-plane Removal in Complex 3D Indoor Environments, which investigates removing certain extraneous items from 3D data, to simplify recognition of certain objects. For example, if a computer vision system is designed to locate people, then the imaging software will be better able to locate them if things like walls and windows are removed.
“Iterative Region-based RANSAC (IR-RANSAC) is a 3D super-plane removal technique for challenging and cluttered indoor environments,” explained Mr. Ebrahimi. “IRRANSAC reduces search space and brings three main benefits to computer vision systems: It can considerably compress 3D datasets, depending on the number and size of the surrounding planes in each point cloud. Furthermore, as a preprocessing step, it can improve the results and speed up 3D computer vision methods such as object recognition and tracking algorithms.” “Without a doubt, winning this contest has boosted my confidence and encouraged me to pursue my research further. It was a form of validation for myself and my capabilities.” MOHAMED ELSAYED MOHAMED SELIM
Mohamed Elsayed Mohamed Selim placed third with his presentation, entitled Low-Complexity Neural Network Structures for Self-Interference Cancellation in Full-Duplex Radio (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9195843), which investigates receiving and transmitting data over the same frequency resources to improve video streaming and enable extended reality (XR) applications. What Mr. Selim proposes are two low-complexity neural network structures to compensate for self-interference in full-duplex transceivers and enable beyond fifth-generation (B5G) wireless networks.
“This was my first time participating in the FEAS Research day. Really, it was amazing,” said Mr. Selim. “I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Octavia A. Dobre, for her technical and personal support during the development of this work; my co-author Dr. Ahmad El-Banna for his efforts to complete the paper; and our partner, Huawei, for their financial support.” 36
RESEARCH WEEK 2020 HONORABLE MENTIONS
“ Mr. Ghasemigoudarzi... proposed a machine-learning method to detect water in forested areas in the Congo and Amazon Basins using data from a constellation of satellites (GNSSReflectometry), that can see through clouds and certain tree and plant growth.”
“Mr. Ebrahimi’s research video on Super-plane Removal in Complex 3D Indoor Environments...investigates removing certain extraneous items from 3D data, to simplify recognition of certain objects.”
“Mr. Selim’s presentation... investigates receiving and transmitting data over the same frequency resources to improve video streaming and enable extended reality (XR) applications.”
Honorable Mentions went to Daniel Eastvedt for Detection of Faults in Subsea Oil Pipelines by Machine Learning Process Monitoring and Benjamin R Dowden for Sea Ice Classification via Deep Neural Network Semantic Segmentation.
To view the videos, click on the following link: https://www.mun.ca/engineering/research/ researchday/ Research networking: The Four-minute Elevator Pitch To foster collaboration and find out what other researchers across campus are working on, a virtual networking event on the afternoon of November 23, saw faculty members present four-minute elevator pitches to share their current or emerging research with colleagues from other disciplines. This four-hour virtual networking session, which ended with a targeted discussion on preparing crossdisciplinary funding applications, featured professor Veronica Strang of the Institute of Advanced Study / Durham UK as well as Dr. Geoff Spinks of the Global Challenges Program in Australia who shared how radical interdisciplinary research is implemented at their schools. The event was co-hosted and organized by the faculties of Business Administration, Education, Engineering and Applied Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, Medicine and Science, and the schools of Human Kinetics and Recreation, Social Work, Pharmacy and Nursing. CFI Funding and Memorial: Processes, Experiences and Insights On November 25 Strategic Institutional Research Initiatives (SIRI) and the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science co-hosted a one-hour webinar providing an overview of Memorial’s internal application processes, as well as experiences and insights from Memorial’s CFI-awarded researchers. Panel members Drs. Francesca Kerton, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science; Yuri Muzychka, Department of Mechanical Engineering, FEAS; and Lisa Rankin, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, discussed their own personal experiences and insights gained from securing CFI funds. Pamela White, manager, institutional research programs (CFI and CRC) with over 20 years experience as Memorial University’s CFI Liaison, and Dr. Adedoyin Odukoya, engineering grants facilitator, who manages pre-awards for the tri-council agencies, provided an overview of CFI Funding and Memorial processes. Research Report 2020
LUNCH & LEARN LECTURE SERIES 2020: RESEARCH OUTSIDE THE BOX
LUNCH & LEARN #1: JOURNEY TO BIG DATA: GETTING THE BASICS RIGHT On November 24, Dr. Syed Imtiaz, Department Head of Process Engineering, asked Lunch & Learn participants: What is Big Data? In every walk of life people are generating data. Six billion humans have smartphones; 400 million tweets are sent every day; a typical car has 100 sensors, while a mid-size chemical plant uses over a thousand sensors every second to collect data. This adds up to a heck of a lot of data, and interest in using the data to harvest useful information is growing. This so-called big data ranges from a few dozen terabytes to petabytes, quantities so large that it is now being sent to big data graveyards as there is more than can possibly be analyzed. Volume is one aspect of big data, the other characteristics of big data are velocity—the ability to process the data in a timely fashion; variety—ability to utilize different types of data including structured, non-structured, text, multimedia; veracity—ability to use uncertain and imprecise information. As organizations attempt to attain all these capabilities, they should ask the following questions: How do we start our journey in big data? How can we analyze petabytes of data in an acceptable time frame to make informed decisions? How can big data help the average citizen? Dr. Imtiaz knows a lot about big data. With a background in advanced control solutions in a wide range of commercial industries, he understands that in order to harvest information from big data, the first thing is to get the basics right. “We now have many tools including cloud-based automated tools to crunch and model big data,” explained Dr. Imtiaz. “But in our zeal for using data, we are using automated software as a panacea; I would caution anyone against analyzing big data without proper understanding of the data and the need for data cleaning and proper sampling.” If used judiciously, big data can be employed in predicting things like flu outbreaks. In 2009, Google took 50 million of most common searches for flu and compared them with the historical winter flu spread data collected from 2003 to 2008 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the health protection agency in the United States, to create a prediction model. Using powerful data processing capability, they screened 150 million models to develop a mathematical model that had good correlation with data from CDC and used that model to accurately predict the flu outbreak of 2009 in the United States down to the state level. More importantly, Google did the prediction in near real time while CDC’s data took weeks to compile. “That is an example of the usefulness of big data,” said Dr. Imtiaz in his virtual Lunch & Learn on November 24, 2020. “However, if the data used is biased, then any analysis is worthless.”
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Dr. Imtiaz used an example taken from the 1936 US presidential election when Literary Digest, a respected magazine, based on a poll size of 2.4 million samples, predicted Alfred Landon would beat Franklin D. Roosevelt to become the next
LUNCH & LEARN LECTURE SERIES 2020
“IF USED JUDICIOUSLY, BIG DATA CAN BE USED IN PREDICTING THINGS LIKE FLU OUTBREAKS.”
Dr. Imtiaz is Department Head of Process Engineering. He has a master’s degree in environmental engineering and a PhD in process control. His interests lie in process monitoring, artificial intelligence, process control, modelling and simulation.
president of the United States. While George Gallup predicted a clear victory for Roosevelt based on only 3000 samples.
accuracy, statistics can get altered, correlation structure can be destroyed, and conclusions can be poor.”
What went wrong? Literary Digest sent ten million postcards that resembled mock ballots to people in all fifty states. Although they received back 2.4 million postcards, Literary Digest had introduced a clear bias; the ten million postcards they sent out went to telephone owners and those who subscribed to magazines and held memberships in clubs, not a fair representation of a population just coming out of a recession. Thus, by failing to poll lower income voters, the result of the survey in no way reflected the result. The fact that George Gallup surveying only 3,000 people was able to predict the correct outcome of the election illustrates the importance of an accurate sample group.
Dr. Imtiaz stresses the need for data visualization and data quality analysis to ensure the accuracy and information content of data. He discussed several tools and techniques developed at Memorial for data quality analysis. In order to analyze alarms in control rooms, for example Dr. Imtiaz and his co-investigators at the Centre for Risk Integrity and Safety Engineering (C-RISE) have developed an alarm analysis software called AlarmSoft which has been tested for petroleum refining processes.
“Today, like then, bias introduced into sampling cannot be ignored,” said Dr. Imtiaz. “No matter how big a sample studied, if it does not represent a target population or process condition, the results may be skewed. In the same way, we should bear in mind the time varying nature of the data.” There are many success stories of big data in process industries as well. Oil and gas companies are able to monitor electrical submersible pumps at the bottom of the ocean, for example. The collected data can warn of a potential pump failure, thus allowing companies to perform maintenance and avoid costly repairs and shut downs. “Even though our data storage has increased with more cloud-based solutions and data transfer over the Internet, we still need to compress data, and we need to pay attention to the level of compression,” explained Dr. Imtiaz. “Sometimes the data loses
Dr. Imtiaz warns against use of brute force simulation instead of developing an understanding and utilizing theoretical approaches, concludes it is too early to declare the demise of statistical analysis. “If used properly, data analytics can bring a lot of value to any organization,” Dr. Imtiaz noted. “Top performing companies are twice as likely to use analytics for decision making in day-to-day activities.” Dr. Imtiaz provided some guidelines for aspiring organizations to start using big data. Any project for big data should set a goal and start with questions, rather than data. Organizations should use the most advanced analytics. Instead of collecting more data, organizations should look into utilizing existing data and capabilities while gradually adding new ones. Research Report 2020
LUNCH & LEARN LECTURE SERIES 2020
LUNCH & LEARN #2: CAN ROBOTS HELP COMBAT COVID-19? Dr. Ting Zou, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, posed that question in a virtual Lunch & Learn session on November 26. TRINA, the Tele-Robotic Intelligent Nursing Assistant designed at Duke University during the Ebola outbreak from 2014-16, helped reduce person-to-person contact and avoid contamination in a hospital setting. But TRINA has limitations. With difficulty in precise control, slow feedback, and lack of intelligence, TRINA is limited to advanced human-machine interaction tasks like swabbing and auscultating. New unmanned vehicle robots are currently being used in Canadian hospitals for surface disinfection, thus reducing contamination by the corona virus in high-touch areas and on protective equipment. Advances are made in robotics all the time BigDog, developed in Boston, employs advanced
telecommunication technology, 5 bandwidths and 8k video. Social robots like Paro, designed by Japan’s Takanori Shibata, can provide social interaction with people in quarantine, and unmanned aerial vehicles can also be used to transport and deliver swabs and blood samples to hospitals. The PR2 is one of the most advanced research robots ever built. Its powerful hardware and software systems let it do things like clean up tables, fold towels, and fetch you drinks from the fridge. “The difficulty lies in the haptic control,” explained Dr. Zou. “The input and output mapping will never match one-to-one.” The challenge now is to develop a remotely-controlled tele-nursing robot with advanced intelligence level and enough manual dexterity to be able to scan a patient and employ soft-touch diagnostics. This would allow a doctor or technician to safely isolate in another room, thus protecting health care providers from direct exposure to COVID-19 and speeding up the collection and testing process as one staff member can operate multiple robots simultaneously. Within the widely used robot operating system, the proposed robot and control technique can be readily applied on the market. Another challenge is the difficulty in scanning a human body by current robotic technology. Scientists have been using AI algorithms to train robots to perform routine tasks, but it is difficult for a robot to scan the irregular shape of a human body. With limited range of motion, a robot is not gentle enough to take a patient’s temperature or conduct a swab test. This is where Dr. Zou comes in. Her team including graduate students Haodong Wu and Jiaoyang Lu, are researching how to implement fine manipulation in robotic hands. The challenge lies in making the robot’s movements accurate and gentle. The robot must also be easy to assemble and not cost prohibitive.
Dr. Ting Zou, assistant professor in mechanical engineering, obtained her PhD at McGill in 2013 after completing degrees in both electrical engineering and automation. Her expertise lies in mechatronics and intelligent systems, microelectromechanical systems and robotics. Her current research involves design of bio-inspired robots, nonlinear motion control and state estimation of robotic systems for applications of surface surveying, autonomous navigation and inspection of mechanical structures.
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Under the support of NSERC Alliance grant, Dr. Zou and her students are working with Eastern Health and Proax Technologies Ltd., at the proof-of-concept stage of developing a tele-bot that can do more advanced clinical tasks like swabbing and auscultating (listening to internal body sounds using a stethoscope). Whether their research will result in a marketable product before the end of the pandemic remains to be seen.
IN MEMORIAM
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JOHN SHIROKOFF Dr. John Shirokoff (B.Sc., PhD (Queen’s), P.Eng.) was an associate professor in process engineering until his unexpected accidental death in early 2020. Born in Jonquière, Quebec and raised in Kingston, O.N., he received his doctorate at Queen’s University. As a materials expert who later specialized in corrosion, the early part of Dr. Shirokoff’s career was in Saudi Arabia at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals where he focused his research on heavy hydrocarbons. “One of his greatest contributions was to the study of heavy crude,” said Dr. Faisal Khan, professor and Canada Research Chair in offshore safety and risk engineering, as well as associate dean of Graduate Studies. “He made important advancements in the oil and gas industry. By characterizing heavy crude, he helped provide options to modify properties to increase flow and make them more useful for their operations and for their products.” For that work, Dr. Shirokoff received the Prince Mohammad bin Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud Prize for Scientific Excellence. When Dr. Shirokoff arrived at Memorial in 2001 to join mechanical engineering, his main interests were characterizing materials and studying their molecular properties. “He looked at how corrosion affects the structure of a material and makes it susceptible to fail,” said Dr. Khan, who co-supervised five PhD students with Dr. Shirokoff. “He studied iron, aluminum and steel and how they behaved under different conditions; he investigated how rusting in an industrial environment can disable material functionality.” Later in 2006 Dr. Shirokoff became one of the first faculty members in the Department of Process Engineering and helped many students obtain their PhDs. Dr. Ladan Khaksar, one of many who received her PhD under Dr. Shirokoff (January 2018) studied the effects of elemental sulfur on the corrosion of sour oil and gas pipelines. Dr. Khaksar’s four years of research under Dr. Shirokoff went so well that together they received two provincial awards and had four publications in top ranked journals illustrating 42
“HE MADE IMPORTANT ADVANCEMENTS IN THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY. BY CHARACTERIZING HEAVY CRUDE, HE HELPED PROVIDE OPTIONS TO MODIFY PROPERTIES TO INCREASE FLOW AND MAKE THEM MORE USEFUL FOR THEIR OPERATIONS AND FOR THEIR PRODUCTS.”
their innovative way to safely produce elemental sulfur in a regular lab (not a H2S certified lab) for further corrosion investigation. “John was approachable and made himself available to students,” said Dr. Yahui Zhang, assistant professor in process engineering. “He was a good professor and a very responsible researcher. He enjoyed staying in the lab to help students with their experiments. When he saw a student struggling, he would offer to supervise them. Some professors might think a student was too weak and wouldn’t have enough time to dedicate to them, but John always did.” At the time of his death, Dr. Shirokoff’s was conducting research with major industrial partners, Bombardier and Suncor. Both these projects date back to 2013 when Dr. Shirokoff, representing process engineering, and Dr. Amy Hsiao in mechanical, were the driving force behind both a Bombardier and Department of Industry, Energy and Technology collaboration with an aim to advance corrosion testing and develop the H2S SMART Lab for the study of corrosion on production and process pipelines.
IN MEMORIAM Suncor Inc. collaboration The H2S SMART Lab, designed to characterize and test metallic systems used in oil and gas production equipment was sponsored by Suncor. Researchers are developing comprehensive and advanced simulations as well as experimental analysis to monitor aging and degradation of assets in real time, explained Dr. Sam Nakhla, who worked alongside Dr. Shirokoff. This allows them to predict the remaining life of a wellbore, helping industry partners better monitor wellbore assets in severe environments. The H2S SMART Lab safety protocol was approved by Service NL in March 2020, just a few months after Dr. Shirokoff passed away. Bombardier and Department of Industry, Energy and Technology Collaboration During the wildfires in Australia, Dr. Shirokoff was collaborating with Bombardier and Department of Industry, Energy and Technology to improve the properties of metals so that water bombers would be able to use ocean water to fight the fires. “The Government of Newfoundland owns and operates four Bombardier 415 aircraft, and have to conduct maintenance, inspection and structural health monitoring tests on these aircraft as they are placed into service and age with time,” explained Dr. Nakhla. “Therefore, the asset integrity study of Bombardier 415 lightweight materials skins and innovative coatings conducted in this work aimed at supporting, and adding to, the regulatory safety standards defined in the purchase, operation and maintenance of these aircraft.” Dr. Shirokoff helped develop corrosion testing capabilities for the purpose of addressing the materials issues encountered by amphibious aircrafts operating in coastal-to-northern harsh environments, such as those experienced in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL).
The aircraft corrosion also developed experimental models of materials performance to aid in the assessment of risk, lifetime expectancies, environmental adaptability, and selection of materials used in these operations. “Both the Suncor and Bombardier projects represent essential contributions to provincial assets and resources,” explained Dr. Nakhla. By creating these collaborations, Dr. Shirokoff succeeded not only in developing a state-of-the-art research facility, but he also enriched the province’s task force in aviation and oil and gas by training more than fifteen undergraduate and graduate students in masters and doctoral programs. “He worked day and night,” said Dr. Khan, adding that he should be recognized in some way. “I worked with him so many late nights that I called him the building guard. If Dr. Shirokoff was not there, who would look after the building? I thought. He was a great companion for me. He was my buddy. He was well versed in culture and politics, very informed and very engaging. I miss him a lot.”
John Shirokoff (1956-2020) received his B.Sc. and PhD in metallurgical engineering from Queen’s University (Kingston, ON). He was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Illinois (UrbanaChampaign, IL, USA) and a research engineer at the Research Institute of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (Dhahran, Saudi Arabia) prior to joining Memorial University. His research interests included materials science, corrosion and asphaltene characterization.
Harsh environments can be defined as marine, humid, or UV-intense conditions that lead to potential corrosion and degradation of the materials-in-use. Solid surfaces and interfaces of lightweight materials such as aluminum alloys used in amphibious aircraft applications are subjected to environmental and anticipated service conditions, such as cyclic loading, cracks, scrapes, and surface wear. The study also investigated corrosion protection of aluminum alloys over large areas and resulted in developing laboratory protocols based upon the characterization of materials corrosion, fatigue and wear mechanisms and the effective use of novel coatings to optimize lifetime materials integrity. Research Report 2020
AWARDS
FACULTY
ASHUTOSH DHAR AG Stermac Award for Outstanding Service to the Canadian Geotechnical Society BING CHEN Fellow, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering Fellow, Engineering Institute of Canada BIPUL HAWLADER AG Stermac Award for Outstanding Service to the Canadian Geotechnical Society BRIAN VEITCH William H. Webb Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Education in Naval Architecture GREG NATERER K.Y. Lo Medal, Engineering Institute of Canada (for “significant engineering contributions at the international level”) HELEN ZHANG President’s Award for Outstanding Research, Memorial University OCTAVIA A. DOBRE Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (for “contributions to the theory and practice of signal intelligence and emerging wireless technologies”) Outstanding Mentorship Award, IEEE Women in Communications Engineering LIHONG ZHANG Dean’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Supervision SALIM A. AHMED Teaching Award, Professional Engineers and Geoscientists Newfoundland and Labrador SOHRAB ZENDEHBOUDI Dean’s Award for Research Excellence NEIL BOSE Fellow, Canadian Academy of Engineering
STUDENTS
ABDOLLAH HAJIZADEH Energy Oral Presentation Excellence Award, Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering Graduate Students’ Union Award for Academic Excellence AHMED ABDULLAH AL-HABOB Best Paper Award, IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC) MIRZA JABBAR BAIG Best Presentation Award, IEEE Annual Information Technology, Electronics and Mobile Communication Conference (IEMCON) ZIJUN GONG Best Paper Award, Annual Newfoundland Electrical and Computer Engineering Conference
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A miscellaneous selection of awards
BING CHEN Member, NSERC RTI Review Committee: Civil, Industrial and Systems Engineering Editor-in-Chief, Environmental Systems Research, Springer Associate Editor, Canadian Water Resources Journal, Taylor & Francis Associate Editor, Journal of Environmental Informatics Letters, International Society for Environmental Information Sciences BIPUL HAWLADER Associate Editor, Canadian Geotechnical Journal HELEN ZHANG Member, NSERC Discovery Grants Evaluation Group: Civil, Industrial, and Systems Engineering Associate Editor, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering
ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING
ANDREW VARDY Publications Chair, IEEE OES Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Symposium
RESEARCH SERVICE
CIVIL ENGINEERING
ASSEM HASSAN Member, NSERC RTI Review Committee: Civil, Industrial and Systems Engineering
CECILIA MOLONEY Member, Board of Directors Canada Foundation for Innovation: Governance and Nominating Committee CHENG LI Member, NSERC Discovery Grants Evaluation Group: Computer Sciences Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Communications Associate Editor, IEEE Internet-of-Things Journal Associate Editor, IEEE Network Magazine Associate Editor, IEEE Systems Journal GLYN GEORGE Vice Chair and Public Representative, Council of the College of Registered Nurses of Newfoundland and Labrador LIHONG ZHANG Member, NSERC RTI Review Committee: Electrical and Computer Engineering MOHSIN JAMIL Associate Editor, IEEE Access OCTAVIA A. DOBRE Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society Chair, NSERC Discovery Grant Evaluation Group: Electrical and Computer Engineering Member, Advisory Board of the IEEE Communications Letters Member, Steering Committee of the IEEE Networking Letters Associate Editor, IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials Associate Editor, IEEE Systems Journal Associate Editor, IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine Technical Program Committee Chair, IEEE Latin-American Conference on Communications
A miscellaneous selection of research service.
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RESEARCH SERVICE SARAH POWER Member, NSERC Scholarships and Fellowships Selection Committee: Chemical, Biomedical, and Materials Science Engineering Technical Program Committee Co-Chair, IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics Associate Editor, Biomedical Engineering Online STEVE CZARNUCH Reviewer, CIHR COVID-19 Mental Health & Substance Use Service Needs and Delivery
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
GEORGE MANN Member, NSERC Evaluation Group: Mechanical Engineering GREG NATERER Chair, NSERC-Engineering and Applied Science Liaison Committee Editor-in-Chief, AIAA Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer TING ZOU Technical Program Committee Chair, IEEE OES Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Guest Editor, Special Issue on Underwater Robots in Ocean and Coastal Applications, Applied Sciences, MPRI Journal XILI DUAN Member, NSERC Scholarships and Fellowships: Mechanical Engineering Chair, CSME Technical Committee on Advanced Energy System WEIMIN HUANG Co-Chair, NSERC Discovery Grants Evaluation Group: Electrical and Computer Engineering
OCEAN AND NAVAL ARCHITECTURE ENGINEERING
BRIAN VEITCH Engineering Committee, American Bureau of Shipping Harsh Environment Technology Centre
BRUCE QUINTON Associate Editor, Ships and Offshore Structures Journal, Taylor & Francis
PROCESS ENGINEERING
FAISAL KHAN Member, Grant Review, UAE Research Grant Agency Member, Expert Review Panel, Genome Canada Member, NSERC Panel of Ethics Review
KELLY HAWBOLDT Chair, NSERC RTI Review Committee: Chemical and Materials Engineering Member, OFI Scientific Advisory Committee Member, Ocean Supercluster Project Review Committee Member, Environmental Studies Research Funds East Coast Advisory Committee Member, PEGNL Registration Committee LESLEY JAMES Member, NSERC Discovery Grants Evaluation Group: Materials and Chemical Engineering SALIM AHMED Associate Editor, Control Engineering Practice Member, Editorial Review Board, Process Safety Progress Online, Wiley 46
A miscellaneous selection of research service.
FACULTY BY THE NUMBERS
OTHER $300K
MIXED FUNDING $1M
INDUSTRY FUNDING $1.3M
$9.4M IN TOTAL FUNDING
GOVERNMENT FUNDING $6.7M
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18
NEW APPLICATIONS
209 ACTIVE GRANTS
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SUPPORT AWARDS
20
NEW ENTREPRENEURIAL COLLABORATIVE FUNDS 47
FACULTY BY THE NUMBERS
89%
NSERC DISCOVERY GRANT COMPETITION SUCCESS RATE
Top 2% EIGHT RESEARCHERS FROM FEAS RECOGNISED ON THE WORLD’S TOP 2% SCIENTISTS LIST
67%
PUBLICATIONS IN TOP 25% JOURNAL PERCENTILES
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FACULTY BY THE NUMBERS
650 80.2% MALE
19.8% FEMALE
NEW GRADUATE STUDENTS
89
38
FACULTY MEMBERS
POST DOCTORAL FELLOWS
13
16 RESEARCH STAFF
LABORATORY TECHNOLOGISTS
Research Report 2020
PUBLICATIONS
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE RESEARCH THEMES ENERGY
OCEAN TECHNOLOGY
ENERGY A Random Method for Calculation of Hoisting Drag. Qiu, H.; Yang, J.; Rideout, G.; Butt, S. Volume 11: Petroleum Technology 2020. https://doi.org/10.1115/omae2020-19149. Apparent Entropy Production Difference for Error Characterization in Numerical Heat Transfer. Ogban, P. U.; Naterer, G. F. Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer 2020, 34 (3), 659–668. https://doi.org/10.2514/1.t5894.
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE
Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of a Facile Superhydrophobic and Superoleophilic Mesh-Based Membrane for Selective Oil-Water Separation. Rasouli, S.; Rezaei, N.; Hamedi, H.; Zendehboudi, S.; Duan, X. Chemical Engineering Science 2020, 116354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ces.2020.116354.
Combining Uncertainty Reasoning and Deterministic Modeling for Risk Analysis of Fire-Induced Domino Effects. Ding, L.; Ji, J.; Khan, F. Safety Science 2020, 129, 104802. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.104802. Control Algorithm for Equal Current Sharing between Parallel-Connected Boost Converters in a DC Microgrid. Shebani, M. M.; Iqbal, M. T.; Quaicoe, J. E. Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering 2020, 2020, 1–11. https://doi. org/10.1155/2020/6876317. Corrosion Behaviour of Zn-Ni Alloy and Zn-Ni-Nano-TiO2 Composite Coatings Electrodeposited from Ammonium Citrate Baths. Anwar, S.; Khan, F.; Zhang, Y. Process Safety and Environmental Protection 2020, 141, 366–379. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2020.05.048.
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S. Abbas Rasouli seen holding the substrate before and after functionalization.
PUBLICATIONS Digital Twin for the Oil and Gas Industry: Overview, Research Trends, Opportunities, and Challenges. Wanasinghe, T. R.; Wroblewski, L.; Petersen, B. K.; Gosine, R. G.; James, L. A.; De Silva, O.; Mann, G. K. I.; Warrian, P. J. IEEE Access 2020, 8, 104175–104197. https://doi.org/10.1109/ access.2020.2998723. Early Detection and Estimation of Kick in Managed Pressure Drilling. Habib, M. M.; Imtiaz, S.; Khan, F.; Ahmed, S.; Baker, J. SPE Drilling & Completion 2020, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.2118/203819-pa. Greedy-Gradient Max Cut-Based Fault Diagnosis for Direct Online Induction Motors. Zaman, S. M. K.; Liang, X.; Zhang, L. IEEE Access 2020, 8, 177851–177862. https://doi.org/10.1109/ ACCESS.2020.3027322. Investigation of Photovoltaic Grid System under Non-Uniform Irradiance Conditions. Madhukumar, M.; Suresh, T.; Jamil, M. Electronics 2020, 9 (9), 1512. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics9091512. Machine Learning Approach to Model Rock Strength: Prediction and Variable Selection with Aid of Log Data. Miah, M. I.; Ahmed, S.; Zendehboudi, S.; Butt, S. Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering 2020, 53 (10), 4691–4715. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-020-02184-2. Multi-Objective Optimization of an Experimental Integrated Thermochemical Cycle of Hydrogen Production with an Artificial Neural Network. Farsi, A.; Dincer, I.; Naterer, G. F. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2020, 45 (46), 24355–24369. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijhydene.2020.06.262. Multistage Cooling and Freezing of a Saline Spherical Water Droplet. Dehghani-Sanij, A. R.; MacLachlan, S.; Naterer, G. F.; Muzychka, Y. S.; Haynes, R. D.; Enjilela, V. International Journal of Thermal Sciences 2020, 147, 106095. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijthermalsci.2019.106095.
Nanomaterial-Based Drilling Fluids for Exploitation of Unconventional Reservoirs: A Review. Ali, M.; Jarni, H. H.; Aftab, A.; Ismail, A. R.; Saady, N. M. C.; Sahito, M. F.; Keshavarz, A.; Iglauer, S.; Sarmadivaleh, M. Energies 2020, 13 (13), 3417. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13133417. Nanoparticle Enhanced Paraffin and Tailing Ceramic Composite Phase Change Material for Thermal Energy Storage. Li, R.; Zhou, Y.; Duan, X. Sustainable Energy & Fuels 2020, 4 (9), 4547–4557. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0se00753f. Oxidative-Extractive Desulfurization of Model Fuels Using a Pyridinium Ionic Liquid. Mohumed, H.; Rahman, S.; Imtiaz, S. A.; Zhang, Y. ACS Omega 2020, 5 (14), 8023–8031. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.0c00096. Physicochemical and Fuel Characteristics of Torrefied Agricultural Residues for Sustainable Fuel Production. Sarker, T. R.; Azargohar, R.; Dalai, A. K.; Venkatesh, M. Energy & Fuels 2020, 34 (11), 14169–14181. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs. energyfuels.0c02121. Recovery of Iron from Hazardous Tailings Using Fluidized Roasting Coupling Technology. Tang, Z.; Gao, P.; Li, Y.; Han, Y.; Li, W.; Butt, S.; Zhang, Y. Powder Technology 2020, 361, 591–599. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. powtec.2019.11.074. Studies on the Fluidization Performance of a Novel Fluidized Bed Reactor for Iron Ore Suspension Roasting. Tang, Z.; Gao, P.; Sun, Y.; Han, Y.; Li, E.; Chen, J.; Zhang, Y. Powder Technology 2020, 360, 649–657. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. powtec.2019.09.092.
Research Report 2020
PUBLICATIONS Systematic Sensitivity Analysis to Investigate Performance of Carbonated Water Injection Based on Computational Dynamic Modeling. Esene, C.; Zendehboudi, S.; Shiri, H.; Aborig, A. Fuel 2020, 274, 117318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2020.117318. Technical and Economical Screening of Chemical EOR Methods for the Offshore. Muriel, H.; Ma, S.; Sofla, S. J. D.; James, L. A. Offshore Technology Conference 2020. https://doi.org/10.4043/30740-ms. Vibration Analysis of the Fully Coupled Nonlinear Finite Element Model of Composite Drill Strings. Mohammadzadeh, M.; Shahgholi, M.; Arbabtafti, M.; Yang, J. Archive of Applied Mechanics 2020, 90 (6), 1373–1398. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00419-020-01673-8.
Ocean Technology A Dynamic Bayesian Network Model for Ship-Ice Collision Risk in the Arctic Waters. Khan, B.; Khan, F.; Veitch, B. Safety Science 2020, 130, 104858. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.104858. A Framework for Integrating Life-Safety and Environmental Consequences into Conventional Arctic Shipping Risk Models. Browne, T.; Taylor, R.; Veitch, B.; Kujala, P.; Khan, F.; Smith, D. Applied Sciences 2020, 10 (8), 2937. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10082937. A Hybrid Path Planning Strategy of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles. Jian, X.; Zou, T.; Vardy, A.; Bose, N. 2020 IEEE/OES Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Symposium (AUV)(50043) 2020. https://doi.org/10.1109/ auv50043.2020.9267929. A Theoretical Model for Ship–Wave Impact Generated Sea Spray. Mintu, S.; Molyneux, D.; Colbourne, B. Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering 2020, 143 (4). https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4049122.
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PhD student Quynh Pham working on Coreflooding (micromodel) experiment to determine the recovery of oil using surfactants.
An Assessment on the Overtrawlability of Small Pipe Sizes Using a Hybrid Shell-Beam Model: An Alternative to the DNV-RP-F111 Model. Davaripour, F.; Pike, K.; Quinton, B. W. T.; Persaud, R. Applied Ocean Research 2020, 105, 102413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apor.2020.102413. Experimental Studies and Time-Domain Simulation of a Hinged-Type Wave Energy Converter in Regular Waves. Peng, H.; Qiu, W.; Meng, W.; Chen, M.; Lundrigan, B.; Gardiner, T. Marine Systems & Ocean Technology 2020, 15 (1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40868-020-00073-5. Human Error in Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Deployment: A System Dynamics Approach. Loh, T. Y.; Brito, M. P.; Bose, N.; Xu, J.; Tenekedjiev, K. Risk Analysis 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13467. Integration of Resilience and FRAM for Safety Management. Smith, D.; Veitch, B.; Khan, F.; Taylor, R. ASCE-ASME Journal of Risk and Uncertainty in Engineering Systems, Part A: Civil Engineering 2020, 6 (2), 04020008. https://doi.org/10.1061/ajrua6.0001044.
PUBLICATIONS Modeling Complex Socio-Technical Systems Using the FRAM: A Literature Review. Salehi, V.; Veitch, B.; Smith, D. Human Factors and Ergonomics in Manufacturing & Service Industries 2020, 31 (1), 118–142. https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20874.
Wave Induced Motions of Partially Submerged Bodies near a Fixed Structure. Sayeed, T.; Colbourne, B.; Molyneux, D. Ocean Engineering 2020, 196, 106769. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. oceaneng.2019.106769.
Oil Plume Mapping: Adaptive Tracking and Adaptive Sampling from an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. Hwang, J.; Bose, N.; Nguyen, H. D.; Williams, G. IEEE Access 2020, 8, 198021–198034. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3032161.
Information and Communication Technology
Preliminary Definition of Detection and Reaction Boundaries for Autonomous Marine Traffic. Mayo, J. D.; Murrant, K.; O’Young, S. 2020 IEEE/OES Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Symposium (AUV)(50043) 2020. https://doi.org/10.1109/ auv50043.2020.9267925. Pressure Distribution Data from Large Double-Pendulum Ice Impact Tests. Gagnon, R.; Andrade, S. L.; Quinton, B.; Daley, C.; Colbourne, B. Cold Regions Science and Technology 2020, 175, 103033. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. coldregions.2020.103033. Sea Ice Classification via Deep Neural Network Semantic Segmentation. Dowden, B.; De Silva, O.; Huang, W.; Oldford, D. IEEE Sensors Journal 2020, 1–1. https://doi.org/10.1109/jsen.2020.3031475.
A 13.56-MHz Full-Bridge Class-D ZVS Inverter with Dynamic Dead-Time Control for Wireless Power Transfer Systems. Tebianian, H.; Salami, Y.; Jeyasurya, B.; Quaicoe, J. E. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics 2020, 67 (2), 1487–1497. https://doi.org/10.1109/ tie.2018.2890505. A Machine Learning-Based Approach for Auto-Detection and Localization of Targets in Underwater Acoustic Array Networks. Gong, Z.; Li, C.; Jiang, F. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 2020, 69 (12), 15857–15866. https://doi. org/10.1109/tvt.2020.3036350. A Reverse Auction-Based Incentive Mechanism for Mobile Crowdsensing. Ji, G.; Yao, Z.; Zhang, B.; Li, C. IEEE Internet of Things Journal 2020, 7 (9), 8238–8248. https://doi.org/10.1109/ jiot.2020.2989123.
Sea ice classification via deep neural network semantic segmentation.
Research Report 2020
PUBLICATIONS
MEng student Jonathan Soper operating a virtual vessel in the Safety at Sea group’s bridge simulator. The focus of his research is to gauge the efficacy of a decision support system for the safe operation of vessels in ice.
An Automated Topology Synthesis Framework for Analog Integrated Circuits. Zhao, Z.; Zhang, L. IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems 2020, 39 (12), 4325–4337. https://doi.org/10.1109/TCAD.2020.2977605. Delay Minimization for Massive MIMO Assisted Mobile Edge Computing. Zeng, M.; Hao, W.; Dobre, O. A.; Poor, H. V. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology 2020, 69 (6), 6788–6792. https://doi. org/10.1109/tvt.2020.2979434.
Perspective Independent Ground Plane Estimation by 2D and 3D Data Analysis. Zhang, C.; Czarnuch, S. IEEE Access 2020, 8, 82024–82034. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.2991346.
LDE-Aware Analog Layout Migration with OPC-Inclusive Routing. Torabi, M.; Zhang, L. ACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems 2020, 25 (6), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1145/3398190.
ROS Based Real-Time Motion Control for Robotic Visual Arts Exhibit Using Decawave Local Positioning System. Gomaa, M. A. K.; De Silva, O.; Mann, G. K. I.; Gosine, R. G.; Hengeveld, R. 2020 American Control Conference (ACC) 2020.
Receding-Horizon Vision Guidance with Smooth Trajectory Blending in the Field of View of Mobile Robots. Wu, X.; Angeles, J.; Zou, T.; Sun, C.; Sun, Q.; Wang, L. Applied Sciences 2020, 10 (2), 676. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10020676.
Meta-Analysis of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Imagery for Agro-Environmental Monitoring Using Machine Learning and Statistical Models. Eskandari, R.; Mahdianpari, M.; Mohammadimanesh, F.; Salehi, B.; Brisco, B.; Homayouni, S. Remote Sensing 2020, 12 (21), 3511. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12213511. Observability-Constrained VINS for MAVs Using Interacting Multiple Model Algorithm. IEEE Gomaa, M. A. K.; De Silva, O.; Mann, G. K. I.; Gosine, R. G. Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems 2020, 1–1. https://doi.org/10.1109/ taes.2020.3043534. 54
PhD Student Guihua Dong using enhanced photocatalytic oxidation to treat oily wastewater (on-site decanting) during marine oil spill response.
PUBLICATIONS The Internet of Things in the Oil and Gas Industry: A Systematic Review. Wanasinghe, T. R.; Gosine, R. G.; James, L. A.; Mann, G. K. I.; de Silva, O.; Warrian, P. J. IEEE Internet of Things Journal 2020, 1–1. https://doi.org/10.1109/jiot.2020.2995617. Unmanned Aerial Systems for the Oil and Gas Industry: Overview, Applications, and Challenges. Wanasinghe, T. R.; Gosine, R. G.; De Silva, O.; Mann, G. K. I.; James, L. A.; Warrian, P. IEEE Access 2020, 8, 166980–166997. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3020593. Validation and Evaluation of a Ship EchoBased Array Phase Manifold Calibration Method for HF Surface Wave Radar DOA Estimation and Current Measurement. Zhao, C.; Chen, Z.; Li, J.; Ding, F.; Huang, W.; Fan, L. Remote Sensing 2020, 12 (17), 2761. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12172761. VLC-Based Networking: Feasibility and Challenges. Ndjiongue, A. R.; Ngatched, T. M. N.; Dobre, O. A.; Armada, A. G. IEEE Network 2020, 34 (4), 158–165. https://doi.org/10.1109/mnet.001.1900428.
Elaheh Vaziri (MEng) and Zahra Ahmadian Tabasi (PDF) testing hydrophilicity/oleophobicity of the surface modified mesh to be used for oil and water separation.
Environment and Sustainable Infrastructure A Comparative Study of the Methods to Assess Occupational Noise Exposures of Fish Harvesters. Burella, G.; Moro, L. Safety and Health at Work 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2020.10.005. A Machine Learning Method for Inland Water Detection Using CYGNSS Data. Ghasemigoudarzi, P.; Huang, W.; De Silva, O.; Yan, Q.; Power, D. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters 2020, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1109/ lgrs.2020.3020223.
A machine learning method for inland water detection using CYGNSS data.
Research Report 2020
PUBLICATIONS A Systematic Approach to Estimate Global Warming Potential from Pavement Vehicle Interaction Using Canadian Long-Term Pavement Performance Data. Alam, M. R.; Hossain, K.; Bazan, C. Journal of Cleaner Production 2020, 273, 123106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2020.123106. Adsorptive Removal of Cr(VI) by Sargassum Horneri–Based Activated Carbon Coated with Chitosan. Zeng, G.; Hong, C.; Zhang, Y.; You, H.; Shi, W.; Du, M.; Ai, N.; Chen, B. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution 2020, 231 (2). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-020-4440-2. An Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Pullout Behavior of Ductile Iron Water Pipes Buried in Sand. Murugathasan, P.; Dhar, A. S.; Hawlader, B. C. Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering 2020, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2019-0366. Discrepancies in the Mechanical Properties of Gold Nanowires: The Importance of Potential Type and Equilibration Method. Morrissey, L. S.; Handrigan, S. M.; Nakhla, S. Computational Materials Science 2020, 171, 109234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. commatsci.2019.109234.
MEng student Xinyu Jian seen testing a simplified actuation mechanism. Inspired by the traditional internal combustion engine, his work tries to incorporate the crankpiston mechanism into a robot fish.
Effect of Aeration, Iron and Arsenic Concentrations, and Groundwater Matrix on Arsenic Removal Using Laboratory Sand Filtration. Coles, C. A.; Rohail, D. Environmental Geochemistry and Health 2020, 42 (11), 4051–4064. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10653-020-00671-7. Effect of Cold Temperatures on Performance of Concrete under Impact Loading. Ismail, M. K.; Hassan, A. A. A. Journal of Cold Regions Engineering 2020, 34 (3), 04020019. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cr.19435495.0000226. Extraction of Lipids and Astaxanthin from Crustacean By-Products: A Review on Supercritical CO2 Extraction. Ahmadkelayeh, S.; Hawboldt, K. Trends in Food Science & Technology 2020, 103, 94–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. tifs.2020.07.016.
PhD student Zahra Ghanbarpour working on optimisation of adsorption of CO2 by biochar produced from biomass residue toward carbon sequestration.
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Hydraulic and Turbulent Flow Characteristics beneath a Simulated Partial Ice-Cover. Nyantekyi-Kwakye, B.; Essel, E. E.; Dow, K.; Clark, S. P.; Tachie, M. F. Journal of Hydraulic Research 2020, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221686.2020.1780493.
PUBLICATIONS Hydrologic Model Evaluation and Assessment of Projected Climate Change Impacts Using Bias-Corrected Stream Flows. Daraio, J. A. Water 2020, 12 (8), 2312. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12082312. Idealized Tension Stiffening Model for Finite Element Analysis of Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) Reinforced Concrete Members. Alam, M. S.; Hussein, A. Structures 2020, 24, 351–356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.istruc.2020.01.033. Material Properties for Fracture Mechanics Based Strength Assessment of Cast Iron Water Mains. Debnath, S.; Ali, I. M.; Dhar, A. S.; Thodi, P. N. Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering 2020. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2019-0229. Microbial Eco-Physiological Strategies for Salinity-Mediated Crude Oil Biodegradation. Cao, Y.; Zhang, B.; Zhu, Z.; Song, X.; Cai, Q.; Chen, B.; Dong, G.; Ye, X. Science of The Total Environment 2020, 727, 138723. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. scitotenv.2020.138723.
Mechanistic Study of Selective Adsorption and Reduction of Au (III) to Gold Nanoparticles by Ion-Imprinted Porous Alginate Microspheres. Gao, X.; Liu, J.; Li, M.; Guo, C.; Long, H.; Zhang, Y.; Xin, L. Chemical Engineering Journal 2020, 385, 123897. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2019.123897. Reducing the Dimension of Water Quality Parameters in Source Water: An Assessment through Multivariate Analysis on the Data from 441 Supply Systems. Chowdhury, S.; Husain, T. Journal of Environmental Management 2020, 274, 111202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jenvman.2020.111202. Thermodynamic Model of Fast Pyrolysis Bio-Oil Advanced Distillation Curves. Krutof, A.; Hawboldt, K. A. Fuel 2020, 261, 116446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2019.116446. Towards Sulfide Removal and Sulfate Reducing Bacteria Inhibition: Function of Biosurfactants Produced by Indigenous Isolated Nitrate Reducing Bacteria. Fan, F.; Zhang, B.; Liu, J.; Cai, Q.; Lin, W.; Chen, B. Chemosphere 2020, 238, 124655. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. chemosphere.2019.124655.
Other/Emerging Areas of Importance CKF-Based Visual Inertial Odometry for LongTerm Trajectory Operations. Nguyen, T.; Mann, G. K. I.; Vardy, A.; Gosine, R. G. Journal of Robotics 2020, 2020, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/7362952. Drag Reduction by Linear Flexible Polymers and Its Degradation in Turbulent Flow: A Phenomenological Explanation from Chemical Thermodynamics and Kinetics. Zhang, X.; Duan, X.; Muzychka, Y. Physics of Fluids 2020, 32 (1), 013101. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5132284.
PhD student Amin Etminan studying two-phase flows in micro channels using particle image velocimetry.
EEG-Based Detection of Mental Workload Level and Stress: The Effect of Variation in Each State on Classification of the Other. Bagheri, M.; Power, S. D. Journal of Neural Engineering 2020, 17 (5), 056015. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-2552/abbc27. Research Report 2020
PUBLICATIONS Femtosecond Laser Microfabricated Microfilters for Particle–Liquid Separation in a Microfluidic Chip. Zhang, D.; Men, L.; Chen, Q. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics 2019, 25 (1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTQE.2018.2871609. MicroUSV: A Low-Cost Platform for Indoor Marine Swarm Robotics Research. Gregory, C.; Vardy, A. HardwareX 2020, 7, e00105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2020.e00105. On Hysteresis Modeling of a Piezoelectric Precise Positioning System under Variable Temperature. Al Janaideh, M.; Al Saaideh, M.; Rakotondrabe, M. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 2020, 145, 106880. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ymssp.2020.106880.
PhD student Sylvester Aboagye examines the coherent optical receiver configuration towards developing novel solutions for very high-speed, long-haul communications.
EEG-Based Classification of Visual and Auditory Monitoring Tasks. Bagheri, M.; Power, S. D. 2020 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC) 2020. https://doi. org/10.1109/smc42975.2020.9283336.
Water droplet freezing on cold surfaces with distinct wetabilities.
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Spatiotemporal Gait Measurement with a Side-View Depth Sensor Using Human Joint Proposals. Hynes, A.; Czarnuch, S.; Kirkland, M.; Ploughman, M. IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics 2020, 1–1. https://doi.org/10.1109/ jbhi.2020.3024925. Water Droplet Freezing on Cold Surfaces with Distinct Wetabilities. Bodaghkhani, A.; Duan, X. Heat and Mass Transfer 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-020-02984-w.
Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. Imperial Oil Ltd. IMV Projects Atlantic INTECSEA Canada Kværner Lloyd’s Register Educational Trust M. A. Procense Manitoba Hydro Marine Institute Memorial Centre For Entrepreneurship Mitacs Nalcor Energy National Research Council – Institute for Aerospace Research National Research Council of Canada Natural Resources Canada Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Newfoundland and Labrador Forestry Association Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Applied Health Research Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro Ningbo Nongsheng Foods Co. Ltd. NorCan Pozzolan AS Northern Radar Inc. Novamera Inc. Nunavut Fisheries Association Ocean Frontier Institute Oceanic Consulting Corporation Orcinus Technologies Inc. Petro-Canada Exploration Inc. Petroleum Research Newfoundland and Labrador Power HV Inc. Praxes Medical Group Provincial Aerospace Ltd. qualiTEAS Inc. Saudi Electric Company Sexton Lumber Co. Ltd. Standards Council of Canada Stantec Inc. SubC Controls Ltd. Sun Microsystems of Canada Inc. Suncor Energy Inc. TechnipFMC Terra Nova Partners Transport Canada United Nations Development Programme VARD Marine Inc. Verafin Virtual Marine Technology Inc. Wood Group Canada Inc.
PARTNERS
ABRI-Tech Actua Canada Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Ambassade de France American Bureau of Shipping Andes VR Association of Public Safety Communications Officials Canada Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency Atlantic XL BAE Systems Technology Solutions Boeing Bombardier Inc. C-CORE Canada First Research Excellence Fund Canada Foundation for Innovation Canada Research Chairs Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Canadian Institutes of Health Research Canadian Microelectronics Canadian Space Agency CanaGas Inc. Canship Ugland Ltd. Capital Ready Mix Cathexis Innovations Inc. Chevron Canada Ltd. City of St. John’s Concrete Products Ltd. Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador D-TA Systems Inc. Defence Research and Development Canada Department of National Defence Dominis Engineering Eastern Health Ecole Polytechnique Emera Environment Canada Equinor Exxon Mobil Canada Ltd. ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company Fisheries and Oceans Canada FortisBC Energy Inc. Genome Alberta Genome Canada Government of Newfoundland and Labrador GRI Simulations Hibernia Management & Development Company Ltd. Huawei Technologies Canada Co., Ltd. Hurd Solutions Inc. Husky Energy
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FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY OF NEWFOUNDLAND ST. JOHN’S, NL, A1B 3XS Assessing the operational capabilities of non-ice-class vessels in ice: A section of the recently decommissioned HMCS IROQUOIS is impacted by simulated glacial ice.