Professor Martin Downie
Technology in the Marine Environment

  • Email: martin.downie@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 6716
  • Fax: +44 (0) 191 222 5491
  • Personal Website: http://www.marine.ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: School of Marine Science and Technology,
    Armstrong Building,
    University of Newcastle'
    Newcastle upon Tyne,
    NE1 7RU

Introduction

Over the years Martin Downie has developed a wide range of interests in the area of Technology in the Marine Environment. His core interests include:

• Offshore Engineering - Fluid loading of fixed and floating offshore platforms,
• Ship Hydrodynamics - with special interset in viscous damping,
• Bluff body flows - numerical modelling of separated flows, vortex shedding etc, and
• Renewable energy - hydrodynamics of wet renewable energy devices.

In recent years he has developed interests in areas of overlap between 'marine technology' and 'marine science', such as:

• biofouling of marine artefacts,
• modelling artificial reefs,
•

Background

Martin Downie has a wide range of interests that reflect his varied academic background. His first degree is in Civil Engineering and his postgraduate research concerned numerical modelling of turbulent jets (MRes) and of separated flows (PhD). He carried out four years postdoctoral research in an aeronautical department on modelling the motion of floating bodies in waves, subsequently joining the Department of Navel Architecture and Shipbuilding as a Lecturer in Offshore Resource Engineering in 1984. Since then his interests have broadened as the department developed into the Department of Marine Technology and latterly the School of Marine Science and Technology.

Roles and Responsibilities

Postgraduate Taught Courses Programme Director

Qualifications

BSc (Civ. Eng.), MPhil, PhD, CEng, MRINA

Research Interests

I joined Newcastle as a hydrodynamicist with research interests focussed on numerical modelling and experimentation concerned with the fluid loading and response of fixed and floating vessels and installations in the context of offshore engineering.

A primary interest of mine involved the numerical modelling of flow separation and vortex shedding from bluff bodies, allowing the estimation of:
• the wave loading on slender bodies such as structural components of offshore jacket platforms, risers, moorings etc.,
• the motion of bodies floating in waves including a purely theoretical description of viscous damping, and of
• the contribution of trailing vortices to the manoeuvring coefficents of a slender ship.

Experimental work I have carried out over the years include:
• experiments in facilities in France (Ecole Centrale, Nantes), Holland (De Voorst Flume), Denmark (DHI) and Norway (MARINTEK), mostly funded by the EU Large Scale Facilities scheme. The research areas covered in these experiments are concerned with the viscous damping and motions of ships and offshore structures; the study of perforated plates as motion control devices; the response of truss spars to current and wave loading; the response of FPSOs to extreme environments with an emphasis on green seas.
• experiments carried out in the UK mostly in the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory at Newcastle. These experiments have involved a variety of facilities such as: a combined wind/wave/current tank; a towing tank; a planar oscillating U-tube water tunnel; and a high speed flow cell for simulating boundary layers on ship hulls.

Other Expertise

Over the years I have been involved in research in a number of areas beyond my core interests and have become increasingly active in areas where marine science and marine technology overlap. Such research includes:
• the application of ship and offshore technology, both numerical and experimental, to 'wet' renewable energy devices and their design;
• carbon capture and storage in subsea strata and oil enhanced recovery;
• biofouling experiments on cyprid barnacle attachment when subjected to ship boundary layer flows;
• the characterisation of artificial reef topology and its implications for lobster ranching;
• environmental impact of marine pollution including oil spills and antifouling materials;
• environmentally small craft; and
• aero/hydrodynamics of sailing boats.

Current Work

My current research is largely supported by EU and research council (NERC/EPSRC) funding and includes:
• MARSTRUCT - subtask on green water loading of FPSOs;
• POP&C - subtask on environmental impact of oil spills from tankers;
• AMBIO - subtask testing nanostructered surfaces for their antifouling capabilities;
• SWIRLJET - subtask assessing the potential of swirling jets as marine propulsors;
• UKCCS - subtask on transport, by ship and/or pipeline, and existing on and offshore infrastructure for carbon capture and storage;
• UK Sport sponsored research into performance monitoring and analysis supporting UK Olympic Sailing Squad training;
• Evopod - industry supported testing of tidal current power device in towing tank and wind/wave/current facility.

Research Roles

Director of the Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory

Undergraduate Teaching

I teach part or all of the following undergraduate modules:

MST104 Introduction to Marine Environmental Engineering
MAR103 Naval Architecture I
MAR201 Marine Dynamics
MAR209 Offshore Mechanics
MAR210 Resistance and Propulsion I
MAR211 Small Craft Science
MAR324 Offshore Engineering Analysis
MAR325 Offshore Studies
MAR398 BEng/MEng project supervision
MAR499 Group Project and Report

Postgraduate Teaching

I am the Postgraduate Taught Courses Director and teach part or all of the following modules:

MAR811 Dynamics of Offshore Installations
MAR839 Advanced Hydrodynamics
MAR854 Offshore Engineering Applications
MAR805 Design of Experiments
MAR806 Data Analysis and Interpretation
MAR898 MSc/MRes project supervision