Contact: Phil Hearn
Mississippi State researchers are working with the U.S. Navy to make sure ships of the future and their crews are better protected against the rapid spread of fire and smoke caused by accident or enemy attack.
"Fire is a very big concern in the Navy, whether it's accidental or the result of a vessel getting hit by a missile--and you can't just run away as if you were running out of a building," said Perry Norton, an associate research professor with the university's Diagnostic Instrumentation and Analysis Laboratory, or DIAL.
Norton and Tomasz Haupt, an associate research professor at the campus Engineering Research Center, are working with a grant of more than $300,000 from the Naval Research Laboratory to develop a computer model to help shipbuilders design safer ships. The model also would provide better training for damage-control officers and enhanced planning for sensor networks that enable ship commanders to quickly detect fires and prevent their destructive spread.
Nearing its third decade, DIAL has established a leadership position in developing simple, reliable, yet inexpensive, sensors of the type required for shipboard use. The ERC is recognized as one of the nation's premier interdisciplinary high-performance computing research facilities.
"I believe the thrust of this project is more about the long-term vision of how the Navy should look 10 or 20 years from now," said Haupt, a native of Poland who holds a doctorate in high-energy physics from the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. He now specializes in grid and Web computing.
Working with NRL subcontractor Geo-Centers of Washington, D.C., the MSU researchers are developing a "Real-Time Fire and Smoke Prediction" program that allows real-time shipboard decision-making and damage control responses not provided by current models. Two other private companies, Hughes Associates Inc. of Baltimore, Md., and Havlovick Engineering Services of Idaho Falls, Idaho, also are participating in the $1 million project.
A portion of the funding will be set aside for the proposed transfer of MSU-developed computer technology to the Northrop Grumman's Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula. Initial plans call for Ingalls to become an early adopter of the technology, using it to maintain the leadership position it has developed in ship design and construction.
"During the Desert Storm conflict (in 1991), three of four U.S. ships hit in the Persian Gulf were unable to continue with their assigned combat missions," said DIAL marketing and development officer Robert Kirkland. "The primary reason was the lack of an effective firefighting and smoke response system, and the lack of a real-time situation awareness capability required for efficient damage control.
"These same circumstances governed the response of the crew on the U.S.S. Cole following the terrorist attack on that vessel (in 2000)," Kirkland added.
Beginning last September, Norton, principal investigator for the MSU project, and Haupt, the computer expert, spent six months developing their concept, generating input files, providing a graphical user interface and compiling a geometry database that would enable them to build a 3-D computer model of a ship.
The U.S.S. Shadwell, a World War II-era vessel moored in Alabama's Mobile Bay and used to test fire-suppression systems, is providing a real-life database for the computer model.
Manipulating shipboard images on a laptop computer as he spoke, Haupt said, "I can actually examine how all details of the ship apply. I can show ventilation subsystems, switch on and off fire mains, shut and open hatches, set fire parameters, and control temperatures. We'll also be able to see the smoke and calculate the intensity of the fire."
For the remainder of the federal fiscal year, Haupt said the research team will automate the process of integrating geometrical data provided by Havlovick into the computer model. Input from shipbuilders such as Ingalls also will be sought.
"We want the simulations to run faster than real time," said Norton, a heat-transfer expert who has worked at MSU for the past 20 years. "Ultimately, you want the system to be a tactical tool to generate a library of different solutions ahead of time.
"There's a passageway aboard the Shadwell that contains photos of fires aboard various naval vessels," Norton added. "There's one every couple of years or so, whether it's from an attack or an accident. Fires are always going to be a concern."