Prof Annie Bekker from Stellenbosch University’s (SU’s) Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering has been awarded the DSI/NRF-SAIMI SARChI Research Chair in Naval Architecture and Design.
This new SARChI Chair is focused on catalysing research on naval architecture, ship design, and maritime engineering, all to the benefit of South Africa’s ‘blue economy’. This term refers to, broadly, a sustainable ocean economy (the economic activities associated with the ocean, seas, and coastal regions).
Bekker says SU’s Faculty of Engineering has a team of researchers and existing capabilities to springboard research on priority sectors in the blue economy.
SARChI’s funding will enable the University to use its refurbished 90-metre-long towing tank (the largest facility of its kind in Africa) for the testing of boat hull designs. Moreover, SU is equipped with a rotating rig to understand propulsion system dynamics, a sailboat, offshore acoustic sensor arrays, and a full-scale measurement system on the SA Agulhas II — Africa’s only polar supply and research vessel.
Bekker says the Chair will help train engineers for ship design and maritime engineering careers, and create research opportunities that can strategically combine diverse activities under one umbrella. SARChI will allocate the Chair R3 million annually for a period of five years.
Leading the pack
As director of the Sound and Vibration Research Group (SVRG), Bekker is recognised for her expertise in mechanical engineering, specifically in engineering measurement-taking and analysis, as well as signal processing on operational dynamic structures.
Over the last decade, she and members of the SVRG have investigated noise and vibration in the shipping and engineering industries. Their work includes a focus on human, rotor, and structural dynamics in cases where engineering measurements and models can be integrated, through digital twin technology, to provide decision support.
Since 2023, Bekker has also held the Gibela Engineering Research Chair (GERC), a dynamic research group at SU, sponsored by the Gibela Rail Transport Consortium. This consortium is manufacturing 600 new X’Trapolis Mega trains for the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa. GERC performs research to support Gibela in maintaining and monitoring these train sets in operation. The aim is to create digital twin services for the trains in order to provide insight into the South African passenger rail fleet in terms of its state of reliability, cost, and maintenance.
SU’s role in developing naval architecture
The Faculty of Engineering has a long history of conducting research on naval architecture, especially that of high-speed craft, Bekker points out.
In the 1980s, Prof Gunther Hoppe initiated naval architecture research in South Africa, which led to the development and implementation of the HYSUCAT (hydrofoil-supported catamaran) patent on several vessels. Following in his footsteps, Dr Günther Migeotte became an internationally renowned naval architect, extending the HYSUCAT patent to that of the HYSUWAC (hydrofoil-supported watercraft). Today, Migeotte continues to design high-speed marine craft for Icarus Marine, a Cape Town-based company.
Operational measurements and digitalisation
In 2002, Prof Wikus van Niekerk, the dean, established SU’s vibration laboratory. As a former student in this laboratory, Bekker joined SU in 2011 and expanded its capabilities, performing full-scale ship measurements on the SA Agulhas II during operational voyages.
She and more than 35 students and collaborators have benefited from scientific work on this vessel. Their research has established an ‘engineering nervous system’ of sensors in order to create a digital version of the vessel in operation. Today, the ship has more than 200 such engineering and monitoring sensors to measure how the mechanical vibration of the vessel, caused by ice and waves, impacts the bending and twisting of her hull, its propulsion system, and humans on board.
Notably, three students who have performed research on this vessel have continued to pursue careers as young academics at SU. For Dr Brendon Nickerson, Dr Nicole Taylor, and Gerhard Durandt, the SARChI chair is creating research opportunities in maritime engineering, helping them gain a foothold in the academic career space.
Using data from the sensors on the ship, Bekker, her students, and collaborators have developed the ‘Digital SA Agulhas II’, comprising three primary digital twins: DIGIHULL (a hull motion and structural twin), HEALTHPROP (a propulsion machinery and ice interaction twin), and MARINER 4.0 (a twin for monitoring the vessel when it has a human cohort on board). The sensors detect mechanical vibration of the vessel, and thereby enable a real-time animation of the ship dynamics.
SU’s involvement in the digital transformation of the SA Agulhas II has enabled Bekker and a team of researchers to participate in expeditions in search of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s famous shipwreck, the Endurance, in 2019 and 2022. This increased the exposure of SA Agulhas II research and boosted SU’s international network in shipping research.
Currently, Bekker is the only South African member of the International Committee of Ships and Offshore Structures, with the mandate to document new developments in engineering disciplines related to the design of ships and offshore structures. She belongs to a sub-committee with members from 15 countries who have investigated recent developments in ship digital twins. Bekker aims to gain increased representation for South Africa in this forum in order to promote the country’s exposure as a maritime nation. She hopes to leverage her networks and the new information gained through this committee to support the work of the Chair.
Focus on ship and marine systems
Looking forward, the Chair’s work will be focused on understanding and supporting the local ship and boat building industry and developing training infrastructure.
“A team of capable researchers at SU offer existing knowledge to support early research pursuits in the field of ship and maritime systems,” Bekker says.
Existing training at Nelson Mandela University and organisations such as the South African Navy, SABBEX/Boating South Africa, the South African Institute of Marine Engineers and Naval Architects, and the South African International Maritime Institute already connect many of the key stakeholders in the country. These stakeholders underpin South African research and training needs, as well as key strategic areas to develop in the Chair.
Bekker plans to expand the work on the SA Agulhas II in collaboration with Prof Nico de Koker, head of SU’s Department of Civil Engineering. He specialises in structural dynamics and reliability. Historical sailing conditions can be used to tailor understanding of the specific demands of ocean conditions for ships operating around the South African coast and Southern Ocean. There is also potential to evaluate digital twins of the SA Agulhas II in operation. Already, the MARINER 4.0 digital twin that Dr Nicole Taylor developed for vessels with multiple passengers on board is integrating subjective feedback from ship motion sensors and real-time analytics. This twin can be expanded further to include dashboards and tools for other ship systems.
Prof Chris Meyer, from the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, has created a model-building workshop in which SU manufactures its own boat hull designs. He is an expert in numerical hydrodynamics, with a longstanding research collaboration with Migeotte from Icarus Marine in SU’s towing tank. This collaboration is enabling the optimisation of innovative hull shapes and hydrofoil designs to enhance South Africa’s competitive edge in the vessel market.
Profs Jaco Versfeld and Japie Engelbrecht, from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, have successfully supervised the development of a control system for an autonomous fixed-wing sailing vessel.
Versfeld also established a permanent, underwater instrument in False Bay that conducts continuous acoustic recordings. Via this instrument, cetacean and fish sounds can be detected and classified. Versveld’s collaborative projects with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment use passive acoustics in the analysis of underwater soundscapes to monitor the health of marine ecosystems. This work, along with signal processing techniques, can be expanded to monitor ship traffic and propulsion sound signatures.
Photo: Prof Annie Bekker. (The background image is fictional and does not represent any real naval vessel or design.)
[Article by Jorisna Bonthuys]
