Singapore case studies

Noise tolerant design, vibra8on monitoring & control on drilling pla<orms and offshore structures Research in Singapore

Research Case Studies

Research at Newcastle University Interna7onal Singapore (NUIS) is driven by matching industry needs with our academic excellence and funding projects through a mix of grants and consultancy. We also offer a range of post grad’ industry based research degrees, delivering great research projects as well as up-­‐grading staff competence.

To find out more contact the research and Development team:

NUIS-­‐Research@ncl.ac.uk (+65) 6550 1963 www.ncl.ac.uk/research

Prof’ E Mesbahi in collabora7on with a major Singapore shipyard Background While on-­‐board comfort for workers is a vital for opera7onal efficacy and safety in drilling opera7ons, the concept of crew habitability in rela7on to drilling vessels has assumed far greater importance in recent years. This reflects tougher regulatory criteria, and a greater apprecia7on of the fa7gue-­‐inducing effect and long-­‐term health issues associated with protracted exposure to high levels of noise and vibra7on. Hence, shipbuilders are looking to limit noise and vibra7on as much as possible. This is par7cularly important on accommoda7on quarters on the drilling plaDorm. Ideally, poten7al problems should be iden7fied at the earliest stages of design and build.

Methodology Acous7c studies will be undertaken from an early design stage by modelling structure and airborne noise characteris7cs of machinery and equipment on the drilling plaDorm predic7ng noise radiated to accommoda7on quarters.

The results of these studies will help drive a balanced approach to noise reduc7on, guiding the ergonomic and efficient accommoda7on layout, placement of equipment, structure design and moun7ng arrangements during the design stage.

The research will also provide an ac7ve noise and vibra7on control system to reduce the residual noise and vibra7on that could not be eliminated by design; an example being the airborne noise and vibra7on from the engine room. This twin approach provides a holis7c solu7on to mi7gate noise and vibra7on on drilling plaDorms.

The projects was conducted using the EDB IPP PhD program delivering both the research project and a PhD level employee expert in field

Significance This study will develop the state of the art in terms of the technology of noise and vibra7on reduc7on in offshore structures. This will allow the construc7on and opera7on of plaDorms and rigs which have a more comfortable living and working accommoda7on for crew. This will reduce vibra7on and noise induced stress and fa7gue and consequently have far reaching posi7ve benefits on crew safety and performance.

Airborne and Structure borne noise and vibra8on

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Docking Hoop.

Dr S C Chin in collabora7on with a leading Singapore Technology Company

Background Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) are recovered at depth using a docking cradle or hoop, then released to conduct work at or above the sea-­‐bed. This project involved the design of the command and control logic for the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Docking Hoop.

The docking hoop ‘captures’ the AUV which is moving at 3Knots at a constant depth and heading.

The docking hoop itself needs to match this trajectory whilst aligning itself perfectly in 6 axis to engage the AUV. The capture opera7on occurs at depth and in waters where currents act on both the docking hoop and AUV requiring con7nuous automated adjustment of the docking hoop posi7on and orienta7on.

Methodology The project was split into different phases:

• Design of the command and control logic.

• Laboratory based simula7on of the command and control logic prior to integra7on to the Docking Hoop.

• Define and recommend hardware (e.g. processors cards etc) required for the control path.

• Technical support for subsequent tes7ng, trials and tuning (dry and wet) of the AUV Docking Hoop control logic.

Significance The new design of docking hoop enabled the AUV to be retrieved safely and effec7vely, significantly reducing the 7me and cost of the opera7on and also reducing the risk of loosing the AUV. The redesigned hoop is shown:

Research in Singapore

Research Case Studies

Research at Newcastle University Interna7onal Singapore (NUIS) is driven by matching industry needs with our academic excellence and funding projects through a mix of grants and consultancy. We also offer a range of post grad’ industry based research degrees, delivering great research projects as well as up-­‐grading staff competence.

To find out more contact the research and Development team:

NUIS-­‐Research@ncl.ac.uk (+65) 6550 1963 www.ncl.ac.uk/research

Crea8ng A Healthy Singapore Cuisine© To Prevent And Reduce Disabili8es And Death From Cardiovascular Disease Research in Singapore

Research Case Studies

Research at Newcastle University Interna7onal Singapore (NUIS) is driven by matching industry needs with our academic excellence and funding projects through a mix of grants and consultancy. We also offer a range of post grad’ industry based research degrees, delivering great research projects as well as up-­‐grading staff competence.

To find out more contact the research and Development team:

NUIS-­‐Research@ncl.ac.uk (+65) 6550 1963 www.ncl.ac.uk/research

Dr M Y Chan in collabora7on with SHF Background Paradoxically, the health of Singaporeans has not improved despite increased affluence. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains as the top killers. Obesity rates and prevalence of diabetes are rising. Changing the current dietary intakes of Singaporeans which are currently high in saturated fat and salt and low in dietary fibre to a diet based on the Mediterranean Diet principles should significantly reduce the disabili7es and deaths from CVD. To date, there are no published studies examining the efficacy for adap7ng the Mediterranean diet for Asian communi7es and the rela7on between such a tailored diet and on CVD risk factors in the Asian context. Addi7onally, the authors are not aware of any exis7ng wholesome healthy ea7ng plan adapted from Mediterranean diet based on a Singapore context.

Methodology Having conducted a comprehensive literature review to iden7fy salient aspects of the Mediterranean diet, we now propose to design the Healthy Singapore Cuisine.

Subsequently, we will develop a dietary index to quan7fy adherence to this dietary plan and assess the rela7onship between adherence to this plan and the various biological risk factors for CVD (i.e. blood lipids, blood pressure, glycemic markers and markers of inflamma7on) in a popula7on-­‐based cross-­‐sec7onal study. In addi7on, focus groups will be conducted to explore what people think about this new dietary plan, to gather their perceived barriers and to assess the acceptability of the dietary plan (e.g. cost, convenience, taste and ease of prepara7on).

Significance The development of this Healthy Singapore Cuisine could help form part of the branding strategy for Singapore Heart Founda7on (SHF) in developing an ea7ng plan which is ahrac7ve, affordable and accessible to consumers. This plan helps to translate evidenced -­‐based dietary recommenda7ons into prac7cal and ahrac7ve recommenda7ons for healthy ea7ng to help reduce the burden of CVD in Singapore.

At the same 7me, this health-­‐ promo7ng ini7a7ve would also help to raise the profile of Singapore Heart Founda7on as a charitable organiza7on. Preliminary findings from the focus groups will also help to design a larger-­‐scale interven7on trial.

Process intensifica8on in pharmaceu8cal and Chemical manufacturing Dr K Boodhoo in collabora7on with a global pharmaceu7cal and a Singapore Ins7tute Research in Singapore

Background

Process Intensifica7on (PI) is any chemical engineering strategy (either or both equipment and methods) that could lead to a substan7ally smaller (equipment size/produc7on capacity ra7o, or inventory), cleaner (reduced wastes or by-­‐products), and more energy efficient technology which ul7mately resulted in cheaper, safer, environment-­‐friendlier and sustainable technologies. To date, in the open literature, there is no sa7sfactory methodology that systema7cally evaluates pharmaceu7cal processes in this aspect as they normally involve more complex chemistry and processing needs. Separa7on steps have been reported to be the major contributor of the overall processing energy and costs of a synthesis, i.e. ca. 40-­‐90% of the process mass intensity and omen consume more than 50% of the energy requirements in dis7lla7on and drying steps alone. We will evaluate a number of common chemical transforma7ons omen used in pharmaceu7cal syntheses, assessing the possibility of intensifying the reac7on step in conjunc7on with its separa7on step, and also looking at overall process green and sustainability performance.

Background

In this three-­‐year project, we will iden7fy and evaluate a number of commonly used industrial scale pharmaceu7cal reac7ons, e.g. amina7on, amida7on, esterifica7on, Friedel–Crams (acyla7on), Organometallics (e.g. organolithium, Grignard), halogena7ons (fluorina7on), hydrogena7on, Pd-­‐mediated coupling, alkyla7on of amine, ozonolysis, oxida7on, etc. for the possibility of intensifica7on, especially in separa7on and reac7on that could poten7ally lead to a more environmental inclined and sustainable processing. The feasibility of solvent recycle, material recovery and other possibility of PI men7oned earlier will also be considered for the whole process in order to bring out the overall benefits.

Background

This project will provide a generic, systema7c and prac7cal methodology for evalua7ng a pharmaceu7cal process to gain the advantages from Process intensifica7on for overall green and sustainability benefits. It will also increase training and awareness in the applica7on of Process Intensifica7on techniques for new and exis7ng processes. The project also demonstrates the benefits that can be achieved by undertaking Process Intensifica7on methods on an exis7ng pharmaceu7cal process.

Research Case Studies

Research at Newcastle University Interna7onal Singapore (NUIS) is driven by matching industry needs with our academic excellence and funding projects through a mix of grants and consultancy. We also offer a range of post grad’ industry based research degrees, delivering great research projects as well as up-­‐grading staff competence.

To find out more contact the research and Development team:

NUIS-­‐Research@ncl.ac.uk (+65) 6550 1963 www.ncl.ac.uk/research

Signal Processing and Informa8on Analy8cs Research in Singapore

Research Case Studies

Research at Newcastle University Interna7onal Singapore (NUIS) is driven by matching industry needs with our academic excellence and funding projects through a mix of grants and consultancy. We also offer a range of post grad’ industry based research degrees, delivering great research projects as well as up-­‐grading staff competence.

To find out more contact the research and Development team:

NUIS-­‐Research@ncl.ac.uk (+65) 6550 1963 www.ncl.ac.uk/research

Dr Wai Lok Woo

Background Signal Processing and Informa7on Analy7cs (SPIA) is an emerging field of research focusing on the mathema7cal founda7ons and prac7cal applica7ons of signal processing algorithms that learn, reason and act. It bridges the boundary between theory and applica7on, developing novel theore7cally-­‐inspired methodologies targe7ng both longstanding and emergent signal processing applica7ons. The core of IASP lies in its use of intelligent, nonlinear and non-­‐Gaussian signal processing methodologies combined with convex and non-­‐convex op7misa7on. SPIA encompasses new theore7cal frameworks for sta7s7cal signal processing coupled with informa7on theore7c learning, and novel developments in these areas specialised to the processing of a variety of signal modali7es including audio, speech, bio-­‐signals, images, mul7spectral, and video among others.

Sta7s7cs is organised informa7on but intelligence is more than that. We believe that it is just not enough to solve a problem by giving the most “frequent” answer. At Newcastle, our goal is to develop new theories and demonstrable algorithms for informa7on analy7cs that truly integrates signal processing and computa7onal intelligence. These algorithms have been able to discover knowledge for themselves and learning to learn new informa7on whenever unseen data is captured. While many researchers discount the need for human interven7on in data analysis, our work goes further and provides the freedom to enable collabora7ve syncre7sa7on between human intui7on and machine intelligence.

A number of challenges currently tackled by SPIA include:

• electric smart grid • informa7on technology for personalised healthcare • contents-­‐based image search engine • signal separa7on (e.g. single-­‐ and mul7-­‐channel recordings, audio source separa7on, bio-­‐signal separa7on including EEG, ECG and MEG)

Con$nued:

Smart signal processing to separate a mixture of jazz music and speech.

Research in Singapore

Research Case Studies

tracking

1. Mixed signal Event detec7on Signal absence probability

Decision device

2. Separated Jazz Music

tracking

Wiener filter

Hierarchical Bayesian machine

Mul7dimensional space transform

Ac$ve Noise Cancella$on

data level

signal level

Research at Newcastle University Interna7onal Singapore (NUIS) is driven by matching industry needs with our academic excellence and funding projects through a mix of grants and consultancy. We also offer a range of post grad’ industry based research degrees, delivering great research projects as well as up-­‐grading staff competence.

To find out more contact the research and Development team:

informa$on level

3. Separated female speech

NUIS-­‐Research@ncl.ac.uk (+65) 6550 1963 www.ncl.ac.uk/research

Control of mechanical vibra8on and Psyco-­‐acous8c parameters in hard disk drives.

Research in Singapore

Research Case Studies

Research at Newcastle University Interna7onal Singapore (NUIS) is driven by matching industry needs with our academic excellence and funding projects through a mix of grants and consultancy. We also offer a range of post grad’ industry based research degrees, delivering great research projects as well as up-­‐grading staff competence.

To find out more contact the research and Development team:

NUIS-­‐Research@ncl.ac.uk (+65) 6550 1963 www.ncl.ac.uk/research

Dr Chin collabora7on with major global hard drive manufacturer Background In the hard drive industry, hard disk drive acous7cs are becoming important. With the introduc7on of hard drives into new emerging markets in which the consumer is more keenly aware of and sensi7ve to radiated acous7c noise issues caused by vibra7on, engineers are facing great challenges to meet customer demands. Drive manufacturers are under severe cost constraints, many 7mes unable to incorporate all the noise control devices necessary to make drives quieter.

Research It is well understood that the m e c h a n i c a l n o i s e s c o m e f r o m vibra7ons; however, hearing is not a purely mechanical phenomenon of wave propaga7on but is also a sensory and perceptual event or we called psychoacous7c. In other words, when a person hears a sound, it arrives at the ear as a mechanical sound wave traveling through the air, whereas inside the ear it is transformed into neural ac7on poten7als. These nerve pulses then travel to the brain where they are sensed.

In HDD field, there are three psychoacous7c parameters namely:1) Loudness 2) Sharpness, and 3) Pure Tone. These parameters need to be measured with high sensi7vity microphones in an environment with lowest background noise while the mechanical vibra7on will be measured by ahaching an accelerometer on the HDD casing under most of environment. To accomplish this, a detailed technical understanding and control of psychoacous7cs and mechanical vibra7on are essen7al to successfully developing psychoacous7c control strategies on hard disk drive.

Hydrodynamics in offshore structures Dr A Mesbahi in collabora7on with JSL (SembCorp)

Background

A lot of work and research has been done over the years to solve local phenomena such as green water, sloshing, slamming, violent flows, vortex induced vibra7on and so on by means of CFD. This trend has started to change in the last decade or so towards the use of CFD for a complete hydrodynamic analysis. This complete CFD approach for hydrodynamic analysis of marine structures is s7ll a long way from reaching a mature status. The general approach to solve the hydrodynamics problem is to use a mul7-­‐stage method in which tradi7onal methods (linear) would be used to calculate the frequency domain responses and the occurrence of local phenomena (such as green water), and then 7me-­‐ domain CFD tools will be used to predict non-­‐linear responses associated with these events. This methodology is not so straight forward in the sense that different codes or somware will have certain constraints such as single hull/mul7-­‐hull or zero speed/high speed. For the CFD analysis of the local phenomena, most of the codes developed

are “in-­‐house” codes, which makes it difficult to access and integrate with other somware. A new methodology that is focused on the offshore industry, specifying the appropriate procedure and somware development for a complete hydrodynamics study of marine structures is highly advisable for the successful analysis of current and new structures that are facing new environments (such as deeper waters or arc7c condi7ons).

Methodology

So far the air gap phenomenon (for instance) has been inves7gated by rather simplis7c CFD methods. Therefore, the development of a fully integrated non-­‐linear CFD method to evaluate green water loads on FPSO or air gap on semi-­‐ submersible will be a great improvement to the way in which these complex hydrodynamic phenomena are currently analysed. The development of the CFD method will also contribute to the consistency of the methodology developed.

Benchmark data for the valida7on of the codes will be sought via publica7ons, model tests and real data.

Significance

By beher understanding the limita7ons of current CFD techniques in their applica7on to offshore structures, improved designs, structure performance and modelling can be provided. This will give significant advantage in the design phase of offshore structured manufactured by JSL.

Research in Singapore

Research Case Studies

Research at Newcastle University Interna7onal Singapore (NUIS) is driven by matching industry needs with our academic excellence and funding projects through a mix of grants and consultancy. We also offer a range of post grad’ industry based research degrees, delivering great research projects as well as up-­‐grading staff competence.

To find out more contact the research and Development team:

NUIS-­‐Research@ncl.ac.uk (+65) 6550 1963 www.ncl.ac.uk/research