OERC & ICE

David Molyneux has been the director of the Ocean Engineering Research Center (OERC) since 2016 when he made the jump from the private sector to academia. “One of the reasons for my move from industry to the academia late in life was that freedom to investigate things in a bit more detail than you have [time to do] in the commercial world.” OERC was set up when Memorial University started granting engineering degrees in the late 1960s, and the idea was to make university research and resources available to industry, said Molyneux. Under his guise are university facilities and tools that enable researchers to develop technology and technique to operate in the harsh environs directly around Newfoundland & Labrador.

One asset is a tow tank with a wavemaker, used for hydrodynamic studies into ships and offshore structures. “We've even put synthetic ice into it so that we can look at the changing hydrodynamics with ice on the water surface or iceberg-like shapes in close proximity to an offshore structure,” said Molyneux. The other assets are more related to ship structures.

“We have some large structural testing equipment where we can test almost full-scale ship panels with ice, so that we can impact ice into these steel panels,” said Molyneux. “There's a related piece: instead of looking at crashing loads, we look at sliding loads where a piece of glacial ice comes into contact with the side of a ship and is pushed into the side, because that actually changes the maximum load.”

The last asset, but certainly not least, is the bridge simulator. [See related interview with Captain Chris Hearn].

Harsh Environment Research Center

Investment in research and development is constant, and opening in 2025 will be a lab site, one of three with research tied to the Harsh Environment Technology Center.

“The lab part of it [will open in 2025], and there will be three labs within the facility,” said Molyneux. “One [lab] is to study freezing spray impacts on ships and offshore structures where, if you get the right atmospheric and ocean conditions, the water from the wave impact will freeze onto the structure. This is a concern for safe operation in that climate.”

In addition, OERC are permanently locating its sliding load equipment for measuring ice impacts on ships in that facility. The third part will be for mechanical testing of material properties of ice. “Ice from a materials point of view is fascinating because it has a wide range of properties depending on temperature, salinity and loading rate,” said Molyneux.

OERC is a strong force in helping to bring together the local community as well as inspire collaboration from organizations outside the province and country, particularly those studying maritime and offshore energy operations in an ice-infested environment.

“Going back to the formation of OERC in the 1960s, some of the very early projects were on iceberg towing, as this was about the time that the early exploration for oil production off the coast of Newfoundland was taking place, and people were concerned about Iceberg Alley and all the icebergs that were coming down the Labrador current,” said Molyneux. “It was a very simple question: can you move these things out of the way of something moored?”

That started research, and then other companies and local organizations developed that further. C-CORE, for example, is a university offshoot with an extensive ice research history, particularly supporting the oil and gas industry. The National Research Council has its own ocean engineering laboratories here too, it has a large ice tank, Molyneux points out, “But these facilities are only as good as the people who can use them.”

The experience working on, in and around ice has made the Newfoundland & Labrador cluster of particular interest given the interest in maritime companies traversing the Northwest passage, for instance, generating the need for intelligence on the environment and its impact on ships at sea.

“Within the university many of my colleagues are working on projects regarding ship structures in ice. How resilient is a ship structure, particularly one that wasn't specifically built for ice?,” said Molyneux. “There was another conversation going on here regarding change in the Arctic climate and how it is more accessible to shipping. There's pressure to understand how a ship that wasn't initially reinforced for ice, how much capacity that structure has if it should accidentally run into a piece of ice.”

In 2018 OERC signed a collaboration agreement with National Research Council (NRC) which allows students and professors to work with NRC and use its facilities for research projects.

But in assessing the tools of OERC, Molyneux said that ultimately, “as a gateway to the Arctic, we have a full scale laboratory right on our doorstep.”

Safety of Life @ Sea

Ultimately, much of the work being conducted by Molyneux at OERC, and really across Newfoundland & Labrador, boils down to a single point: Safety of Life at Sea.

“There's always been a certain level of risk with going to sea to earn a living, whether it's fishing or transportation or oil and gas exploration and production,” said Molyneux. “In order to make that environment as safe as possible, there's been a long history of research into ship safety and offshore structures. Our focus lately has been on Arctic and related environments because the Arctic's a very sensitive environment; it's a remote environment; and it's an environment with a unique set of hazards.”

With an increase of shipping activity and interest in the Arctic, it’s paramount to ensure that people and organizations are well-armed with knowledge to ensure that whatever goes in can come out safely. “Technology and engineering knowledge have a role to play in that,” said Molyneux. “In the naval architecture world, classification societies have been the go-to organization for certifying our ships and making sure that they meet the best standards. As ships move into new environments and new areas, the classification societies in particular have to be ready for them, to be able to answer their client's questions of, "Can I go there safely and come back?"

It's been a really good fit for us with ABS and like-minded organizations where we are looking at ships going into new areas for shipping.”

While safety of life is paramount, efficiency of operation is not small matter either, as the ability to carry freight – whether it’s cargo or passengers – is also a driving force.

“We are used to icebreakers being strongly and heavily built, but with climate change, do they need so much reinforcement, because all this is cost extra weight that could be cargo?,” asks Molyneux. “It’s a long-term horizon that we're working on, and the things we are doing now we hope we'll see implementation in the next generation of the IMO Polar Code or the International Association of Classification Societies Rules for shipbuilding.”