Department of Mechanical Engineering UCL – M.Sc.

Marine Engineering

M.Sc. MARINE ENGINEERING

The course covers a wide range of engineering subjects relevant to the development and procurement of
marine systems. The course material is presented in two forms: elements of engineering aimed at
increasing the student's knowledge, and material specifically designed to increase the student's ability to
apply this knowledge in a systematic and effective manner. Lectures and seminars consist of about 200
hours of formal tuition. The remainder consists of tutorials and time for students to undertake course
work and individual work.
The student's performance during the course is assessed via a combination of methods: formal
examination papers related to the lecture material together with course work exercises based on the taught
material; the Ship Design Exercise is based on a report on the work done and the oral presentations given
on the work (this work is done in a group, but each student is individually assessed); and the individual
project is based upon a report on the work done.
The course consists of 6 taught modules, a group project module (Ship Design Exercise), and the final
part of the courses is an individual project. The modules consist of lectures, seminars, tutorials and
example classes. The course is a full 12 months. It usually starts in late September with two terms of
lectures with the exams for the taught modules just before Easter. The next two to three months are
devoted to the ship design project with the final three months or so given over to indiv idual project work.
Within the course there are two streams, Mechanical (M) and Ele ctrical (E) the choice of stream dictates
which modules are studied during the first two terms. Individual projects are usually, but not always,
chosen in the sub-specialisation.

Course M E
MME1: Electrical Machines & Power Electronics X
MME2 : Electrical Power Systems & Electrical Propulsion X
MM01 : Applied Thermodynamics & Turbomachinery X X
MM02 : Power Transmission & Auxiliary Machinery Systems X X
MM03 : Materials & Fatigue/Fracture Analysis X
MM04 : Vibrations, Acoustics & Control X X
MM05 : Advanced Computer Applications in Engineering X X
MM06 : Heat Transfer & Heat Systems X

These pages are intended to provide an indication of the course content, the actual content may differ.
 Department of Mechanical Engineering UCL – M.Sc. Marine Engineering

MME1: Electrical Machines & Power Electronics (E)

Types of Electrical Machines: The types of electrical machines and their uses including the
transformer, synchronous generator, induction motor, dc machines, permanent magnet machines and
small machines. Single and multiphase machines are covered.
Design of Electrical Machines: Design and construction of electrical machines; the general
characteristics of the materials from which they are constructed; the magnetic, electrical and heat
circuit interdependence and circuit analogies. Permanent magnets and designing of electric al
machines using permanent magnet materials.
Equivalent Circuits: Equivalent circuits of each electrical machine type and the derivation of these
circuits. Use of the equivalent circuit for performance analysis of the machine, particularly steady-
state performance.
Dynamics of Electrical Machines: The dynamic performance of electrical machines, induction motor
start, parallel operation of synchronous machines, dc machine transient behaviour, inrush currents.
Mathematical techniques to analyse the dynamic performance of electrical machines.
Types of Power Electronic Devices: The ideal switch; groupings of power electronic device types;
constriction and characteristics of different power electronic devices including the power diode, the
power transistor; the IGBT; the thyristor; the MOSFET; the MCT. The use of power electronic
devices in simple circuits and some examples of applications.
Circuits: The construction and operation of dc rectifiers and dc inverters including single -phase and
multi-phase types. Three-pulse and six-pulse types. The inverter operation including overlap and
firing angle delay. Dc–ac applications including the use of pulse-width-modulation. The use of
converters in ac-ac applications including the cycloconverter, the pwm inverter, the load-
commutated-inverter. New drive types including the matrix converters and multi-level inverters.
Applications: Use of converters and inverters in practice with electrical machines and their general
performance criteria. How to select and specify a drive for a specific application. Protection of
circuits.
Last updated Aug 04

These pages are intended to provide an indication of the course content, the actual content may differ.
 Department of Mechanical Engineering UCL – M.Sc. Marine Engineering

MME2 : Electrical Power Systems & Electrical Propulsion (E)

The single line diagram: The construction of a single line diagram and the components of a single line
diagram. Case studies of electrical line diagrams related to actual practical applications. The per
unit system and its application to electrical systems. System types including 3-wire and 4-wire
systems.
Load Flow Analysis: The impedance diagram and admittance diagram derived. The impedance matrix
and admittance matrix. The concept of bus voltages. Calculation of power flow in an electric
circuit. The concept of transmission voltage drops and effect of changing the load impedance.
Examination of induction motor start on a simple electrical system.
System Faults: Types of fault including short circuit and open circuit. The effects of a fault on a system
including over-voltages and over-frequency. Three-phase short circuit analysis of the synchronous
generator. Synchronous generator stability under fault conditions. Symmetrical faults using
Fortesque’s theorem to derive positive, negative and zero phase sequence faults. Effect of earthing
methods on fault currents.
Transmission: Types of transmission systems. Theory and practise of electrical transmission systems,
overhead transmission systems, earthing methods, subterranean transmission and subsea
transmission. Natural frequencies of transmission networks. Explanation of national-grid systems,
local distribution systems and dc links. Integration of national networks into other networks and into
power generation systems.
Power Quality: Power quality issues and how power quality is measured. Effects of harmonics on
power systems. Harmonics and harmonic calculations. Total harmonic distortion, explanation of
impedance charts. Harmonic penetration into a network.
Marine Systems: Electrical propulsion system design; propulsion system matching.
Last updated Aug 04

These pages are intended to provide an indication of the course content, the actual content may differ.
 Department of Mechanical Engineering UCL – M.Sc. Marine Engineering

MM01: Applied Thermodynamics & Turbomachinery (M&E)

This course focuses upon the design features, operation and operating characteristics of internal
combustion engines, gas turbines and steam power plant. Lectures and discussions are supported by
examples of the application of the various power plants within industry.
Boilers: Steam cycle revision. Boiler types. Water tube boiler development. Examples of modern
boilers: the marine radiant boiler, the large utility boiler. Considerations in boiler design. Fuel and
combustion: fuel type and supply, air supply, combustion. Environmental considerations: NOx,
SOx, particulates, staged combustion, flue gas desulphurization, particulate traps.
Steam turbines: Revision of fundamentals - nozzles, Euler turbine equation, velocity dia grams. Axial
flow turbo machinery stages - velocity diagrams, efficiencies, degree of reaction. Comparison
between stages. Impulse stage losses and Mollier diagram. Real turbines - construction and staging,
modern trends in design, turbine control, glands, warming through.
Steam Systems and Cycles: Feed system - operation, condenser and deaerator, feedwater treatment.
Practical and theoretical considerations for Rankine cycle plant - boiler temperature and pressure
limitations, reheat in theory and practice, feedheating in theory and practice, real steam systems.
Gas Turbine Engines: Air standard cycle analysis. Cycle with heat exchange. Cycle with intercooling.
Cycle with intercooling and heat exchange. Compressors - centrifugal versus axial machines,
compressor characteristics, stall and surge, interstage bleed, variable stator blades and multispool
designs, blade calculations. Turbines - degree of reaction, blade cooling, variable stator blades,
blade calculations. Compressor/turbine matching for free power turbine engine. Combustion system
design. Fuels and fuel system requirements. Environmental considerations - pollutants from gas
turbine engine, NOx reduction techniques. Practical considerations: - filtration, cleaning, inspection,
maintenance/replacement, control, cooling and lubrication. Case studies.
Internal Combustion Engines: Basic engine cycles. Deviations from ideal cycles and mathematical
modelling of engine performance. Thermal loading of components. Two-stroke engines - gas
exchange processes, definitions, performance. Mechanical supercharging. Exhaust gas turbo
charging - component matching for 2 & 4-stroke engines, pulse and constant pressure turbo charging
and turbocharger design. Case studies of turbocharged diesel engines and future developments.
Fuels and Combustion: a range of topics are covered through coursework and seminars. These include:
current fuels, fuel treatment systems, bio-fuels, pre-mixed and diffusion combustion, ‘knock’ in
diesel and gasoline engines, combustion chamber design –diesel engines and gasoline engines,
pollutants from diesel and gasoline engines, diesel and gasoline engine fuel system design.
Last updated Aug 04

These pages are intended to provide an indication of the course content, the actual content may differ.
 Department of Mechanical Engineering UCL – M.Sc. Marine Engineering

MM02: Power Transmission & Auxiliary Machinery Systems (M & E)

Gearboxes: Tooth bending stress and contact stress calculations, size estimation, epicyclic designs.
Fluid couplings, torque converters and Franco-Tosi couplings. Self-synchronising clutches.
Shafting: Design for static and fatigue loading. Alignment of lineshafting. Selection of rigid and
flexible couplings. Use of flexible couplings to limit torsional vibration.
Clutches: Friction materials and mating surfaces. Plate/disk clutches. Centrifugal clutches. Cone
clutches. Use of shaft brakes.
Balancing: Introduction to vibrations in rotating machinery, elementary diagnostics, and balancing.
Rotary compressors: Classification, Roots-type, vane-type, screw-type compressors.
Centrifugal compressors: Dimensional analysis, Euler equation, velocity diagrams, characteristics.
Pipes and ducts, pumps and fans: Study of flow through non-circular pipes and ducts. Practical
considerations, losses due to fittings. Pipe networks. Balancing ducting systems. Introduction to
pumps and fans.
Electrical machines: The synchronous machine as a generator; construction, characteristics and control.
The DC motor; construction, characteristics and control. The induction motor; construction,
characteristics and control. Single -phase induction motors. Variable -speed drive systems.
Compressed air, hydraulic and fire fighting systems: Theory of air compression referring to two and
three-stage compressors. Air distribution systems and safety features. Theory of fire and
firefighting; fire detection systems; fire fighting techniques. Hydraulic system theory; oil
characteristics; pumps accumulators; distribution systems and safety features.
Reliability, Availability and Maintenance (RAM): Definitions, calculation and interpretation of
failure, failure rate, MTTF, MTTR and availability. Systems reliability, redundancy and
replacement strategies. Design for safety and reliability. Project risk management. Equipment
support framework for RAM.
Last updated Aug 04

These pages are intended to provide an indication of the course content, the actual content may differ.
 Department of Mechanical Engineering UCL – M.Sc. Marine Engineering

MM03: Materials & Fatigue/Fracture Analysis (M)

Fatigue/Fracture Analysis
The objective of the Fatigue, Fracture & Defect Assessment part of the module is to provide the
theoretical and practical background necessary to carry out fatigue life predictions and fracture mechanics
based defect assessment of common engineering components and structures. These are approached from
an appreciation of Non Destructive Testing (NDT) methods and evaluation of their reliability. Topics
covered are:
• Introduction (Failure Criteria & Stress Analysis);
• Fatigue Crack Initiation;
• Fracture Mechanics (1) - Derivation of G and K;
• Fracture Mechanics (2) - LEFM (FCG) & EPFM;
• Fracture Mechanics (3) - Evaluation of Fracture Parameters;
• Inspection Methods;
• Inspection Reliability;
• Defect Assessment; Fatigue & Fracture Mechanics of Welded Components;
• Fatigue & Fracture Mechanics of Notched Components.
Materials
This part of the module aims to enhance and elaborate upon the broad understanding of materials issues
that students are expected to have attained during bachelors degrees. The course components can be
broken down as follows - theory of materials; structure-property relationships are discussed as are alloys
(including non-metallic). Steel is used to reinforce these basic topics and link to real-world engineering.
All major heat treatments, aspects of alloying additions (including high alloy steels) and the use of
temperature-time-transformation diagrams are covered. This leads on to four detailed areas of study
where some of the previous tenets are applied:
1. Corrosion and protection: basic principles, types of corrosion, methods of protection including
cathodic protection (e.g. impressed current) and coverage of current marine based problems.
2. The metallurgy of welding: basic principles, influence of welding process (e.g. heat input) on
microstructure, including use of TTT diagrams to assist prediction of structure and properties,
welding defects and their avoidance/mitigation. Emphasis upon steel, but coverage of other alloys.
3. Cement and concrete - an introduction to the materials science, including simplified chemistry.
Mechanical properties and testing and the concept of concrete as a composite material with
discussion of toughness mechanisms.
4. Two areas selected from the general category of novel metallic and non-metallic materials including
a) fuel cell materials,
b) materials in biomimetics,
c) foams, structural composites and wood,
d) smart materials and nanotechnology,
e) diamond (including CVD diamond), and
f) high temperature materials.
Last updated Aug 04

These pages are intended to provide an indication of the course content, the actual content may differ.
 Department of Mechanical Engineering UCL – M.Sc. Marine Engineering

MM04: Vibrations, Acoustics & Control (M & E)

Vibration: Multiple degree of freedom systems: mode shapes and natural frequencies. Orthogonality
of mode shapes, principal co-ordinates. Longitudinal waves on a rod and flexural waves on a beam:
mode shapes, natural frequencies, boundary conditions. Vibration instrumentation and
measurement.
Acoustics: Introduction to acoustics. Propagation of sound waves. Propagation of plane and spherical
sound waves in solids and fluids. Interaction between vibrating structures and sound. Radiation
from an arbitrary vibrating body. Radiation efficiency. Structure-borne noise. Propagation through
partitions. Sound in an enclosure.
Digital control: Review of control system theory, Laplace transform, transfer function, stability.
Components of a digital control system. Sampling and quantization of analogue signals; sampling
theorem. Z-transform; stability of digital systems on the z-plane; unit circle. Time and frequency
response of digital systems. Design, realization, and implementation of a discrete PID Controller.
Last updated Aug 04

MM05: Advanced Computer Applications in Engineering (M & E)

This is an advanced course on the theory and practice of computer applications in mechanical engineering
and is aimed at giving students an understanding of the use of computational techniques in solving
mechanical engineering problems. The course has three components –
Numerical Methods in Computing: The computer is a computational tool, single and array processors,
concepts of computability, high level languages for engineering problems. Numerical methods for
interpolation, integration, ordinary differential equations, solution of linear simultaneous equations,
least squares problems, matrix decomposition and factorisation, solution of eigen value problems.
Finite Element Analysis and Applications: Introduction to the use of finite element analysis.
Variational formulation for beam elements. Matrix methods of structural analysis. Element
formulations for plane stress and plane strain problems. Isoparametric elements. Programming of
the finite element method. Overview of FEA packages and their applications. Modelling, errors and
accuracy. Substructuring. Axisymmetric problems. Plates and shells.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD): The theoretical basis of CFD including governing equations
for inviscid and viscous flows and equations for modelling of turbulence, combustion processes and
chemical reactions. CFD solution methods covering discretisation and integration schemes, use of
potential flow discretisations including elemental sources/sinks, line vortices and methods based on
images.
The course will illustrate its theoretical content by two exercises requiring use of computers for
engineering problems and two essays covering an in-depth review of assigned topics.
Last updated Aug 04

These pages are intended to provide an indication of the course content, the actual content may differ.
 Department of Mechanical Engineering UCL – M.Sc. Marine Engineering

MM06: Heat Transfer & Heat Systems (M)

Conduction: Fourier’s Law - plate, cylinder and sphere geometries. Electrical analogy. Insulation.
Heat generation.
Convective Heat Transfer: Forced and natural convection. Prandtl number and Nu correlations.
Radiation Heat Transfer: Black and grey bodies thermal radiation. Exchange between infinite and
finite surfaces. Determination of view factors.
Heat Exchangers: Plate heat exchangers, cross-flow heat exchangers. Heat exchanger design: shell and
tube and double pipe, Log Mean Temperature Difference, correction factor, overall heat transfer
coefficient, Effectiveness-NTU method, pressure drop in pipe, Moody diagram, Reynolds and
Chilton-Colburn analogies, Shell-Tube (S-T) design algorithms, S-T passes and baffle spacing,
numerical examples.
Process Heat Transfer: Two phase flow and heat transfer. Flow regimes in gas-liquid flow (vertical
and horizontal). Analytical models, homogeneous and separated models. Lockhart-Martinelli
equations and related correlations. Phenomenological models: stratified flow, slip ratio, Taitel &
Dukler model. Bubbly flow: superficial and drift velocities. Bubble formation. Slug flow and
annular flow. Interfacial shear stress. Flooding. Examples.
Boiling: Pool boiling: wall temperature and heat flux increases. Correlations for boiling heat transfer.
Nucleate boiling: Stable film boiling, boiling with radiation, critical heat flux at burnout. Flow
boiling: nucleate boiling and forced convection, saturated convective boiling.
Condensation: Film condensation. Laminar file – Nusselt solution, effect of vapour superheat and
turbulence. Homogeneous condensation. Condensation on a single tube and on a bundle of tubes.
Condensation inside a tube. Dropwise condensation. Direct contact condensation: spray and pool
condensers.
Refrigeration Engineering: Practical vapour compression cycle . Refrigerant properties (pure and
zeotropic mixtures). Selection of refrigerant. Condenser and evaporator: mathematical
characterization, effectiveness and basic rating, component behaviour. Compressor classification:
types and operation. Performance characteristics of reciprocating compressors. System balancing
and off-design analysis.
Air Conditioning: Physiological requirements. Basic psychrometry with emphasis on the psychrometric
chart. Arrangement and operation of different air conditioning systems. Design for low energy
consumption. Estimation of heat gains. Fire and smoke clearance.
Last updated Aug 04

SHIP DESIGN PROJECT

Each Marine Engineering Student is allocated a ship design and will work with other Marine engineers
and Naval Architects to produce a concept design of a specific vessel. The Marine Engineers role is
mainly to specify the propulsive machinery and all auxiliary equipment. Groups are typically 2 to 4
students.
Last updated Aug 04

INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH PROJECT

The individual project allows the student to demonstrate the capability to formulate a plan to solve a
particular problem and then to execute that plan. Projects are often design, build and test or can be
analytical in nature. There are the opportunities for placement with industry.
Last updated Aug 04

These pages are intended to provide an indication of the course content, the actual content may differ.