PhD Studentship in Marine Technology: Development of an Artificial Intelligence Model to Assess Nonlinear Multibody Structural Response of Container Stacks

Award Summary

100% fees covered for all students. A minimum tax-free annual living allowance of £19,237 (2024/25 UKRI rate) is also available for Home students only.

Overview

The maritime container sector is the backbone of the world trade and covers the worldwide carriage of some 80 percent of all goods. This has been realised by the changes to ship design and construction including the changes associated with container securing systems. However, these changes have made the container stacks vulnerable to nonlinearities, which the majority of the recent container loss incidents are ascribed to. 

Current stack assessment models must be fast and stable enough to compute the results of hundreds of container stacks with various loading configurations and securing arrangements within a reasonable time. However, they disregard transient and some nonlinear effects. Consequently, the safe transport of containerised cargoes is essentially suffering from the comprise between accuracy and practicability. Artificial Intelligence can be used to mitigate this compromise. 

The project compromises three steps:

1. Implementation of a numerical transient nonlinear model to predict the stack behaviour in a multi-stack environment;
2. Development of an artificial intelligence model;
3. Machine Learning of the AI-model. 

The ultimate objective is to generate an AI-solver for practical applications in container securing and stowage contexts such as onboard container ships. 

The project will be co-supervised with Lloyd’s Register and involves Autonomy, Clean Maritime, and Digitalisation. It is of the utmost importance from practical and safe maritime transportation standpoints.

Number of awards: 1

Start date: 16^th September 2024

Award duration: Fees for the full three years of the PhD and living allowance for up to four years.

Sponsor

A funded PhD studentship is available supported by the Doctoral Programme for Zero Emission Marine Technology. The studentship is supported by the Willis Endowment Fund, MarRIUK and Lloyd’s Register.

Supervisors: Dr Ben Wetenhall

Eligibility criteria

Applicants should have a minimum of an Upper Second Class Honours degree in an Engineering subject, Physics or Applied Mathematics with a good understanding of dynamics and/or structures. 

Applicants whose first language is not English require an IELTS score of 6.5 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in all sub-skills. 

International applicants may require an ATAS (Academic Technology Approval Scheme) clearance certificate prior to obtaining their visa and to study on this programme.

How to apply

You must apply through the University’s Apply to Newcastle Portal

Once registered select ‘Create a Postgraduate Application’.

Use ‘Course Search’ to identify your programme of study:

• Search for the ‘Course Title’ using the programme code: 8070F
• Research Area: Marine Technology (Engineering)
• Select PhD Marine Technology (full time) as the programme of study

You will then need to provide the following information in the ‘Further Details’ section:

• A ‘Personal Statement’ (this is a mandatory field) - upload a document or write a statement directly in to the application form
• The studentship code ENG137 in the ‘Studentship/Partnership Reference’ field
• When prompted regarding your research proposal - select ‘Write Proposal’. You should then type in the title of the research project from this advert. You do not need to upload a research proposal.

Contact details

For informal enquiries please contact Dr. Ben Wetenhall ben.wetenhall@newcastle.ac.uk or Dr. Simon Benson simon.benson@newcastle.ac.uk

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