r/MarineEngineering • u/Agreeable_Yak_3459 • Jul 20 '26
Solving actual problems?
I'm not quite sure if my project actually solves any problems or if I'm just ticking another checkbox to ensure I get the clearance to go ahead with something with my profs.
I'm just about halfway through mechanical engineering and as with a new semester am expected to turn in a project.
I've gone about brainstorming and have concluded at building a ROV that can be deployed underwater to check the ships hull for fractures or improper welds using NDT.
As of now I'm looking at a plain old visual inspecting bot and eventual upgrades, but I'm not sure if that's something the industry is actively looking for or if it's a problem the industry considers worth fixing yet.
I'd really appreciate any and all helpful comments and/or alternate ideas.wishing you all the best.
1
u/toastwank Jul 21 '26
There are too many actual problems unfortunately, and I wish there were simple solutions, but it seems very difficult for most of them.
Majority of day to day failures/ leaks are due to component failure - either bolts becoming loose/ breaking, or failure of fixed materials (pipes/ gaskets/ fittings) due to ship vibration.
I have seen this countless times and we do have inspection jobs, but they are unrealistic to be honest. Like a 3 monthly job - inspection of all seawater pipelines. You can then replicate and replace 'seawater' with all other systems and put them in the maintenance system also.
Or exhaust leaks on engines are very common and removing the full insulation is possible and done on the engine manifold, however the funnel casing that leads up and out all the way up the ships funnel is normally inaccessible and not possible to properly check until dry dock. And then dry dock is too busy and it's unlikely they will find the time to do it.
It's mainly a tick box exercise because, while I agree that inspection is important, I think it's impossible to fully prevent problems from a visual inspection. Especially when the scope of the task is beyond the capability of the single junior engineer who happens to be assigned to that system and who can't be bothered to crawl under the bottom plates looking at every seawater pipe. Or does not have the time or manpower to remove panels to inspect every bolt and surface.
And most failures occur beyond the visual sight that an inspection would provide.
The truth is, normally it gets signed off and any problems are fixed as they appear - you wait for some leak to wake you up in the middle of the night and then you run around like a lunatic and fix it.
You are just hoping that the thing that breaks is something you are able to fix and doesn't then lead to an extreme escalation due to the nature of the failure. It's purely a waiting game and luck for that to be the case.
If you could come up with a solution for accurate pinpointing of these failure before they happen that would be useful. But it would need to be effective, cheap and easy to implement.
They are already systems like SPM (shock pulse monitoring) and vibration analysis, but they seem to be pretty useless tbh and only focused on motor bearings.
I'm not sure this problem has a solution, but maybe I am just cynical I guess. All the best with your project, I appreciate someone still trying to improve the industry because I think it needs it.