The marine electronic highway in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore—an assessment of costs and key benefits

The Straits of Malacca and Singapore are an important trade route linking the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean. They are also rich in resources and support a range of activities that benefit the economies of the littoral states (Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore). This important shipping route is a very congested waterway and the authorities are keen to improve navigation facilities to promote ship safety and reduce the risk of groundings, collisions and accidents. This will also help to protect the marine environment from the effects of pollution and hence reduce its damaging impact on activities related to the Straits, e.g. fisheries and tourism. The Marine Electronic Highway (MEH) is an attempt to bring together maritime safety technologies and environmental management systems. The paper examines the costs of providing such a highway and considers some of the benefits which could accrue from its implementation. The analysis, conducted in the form of a cost-benefit study, clearly shows the economic viability of the scheme.     

The Nigerian shipping industry and indigenous shipping companies

The shipping industry in Nigeria since the early 1990s has been experiencing a continuous disastrous downturn. Nigerian shipping companies' participation in international shipping has continued to be very limited. Their presence and impact is hardly felt in the world's shipping industry. Both the national carriers (that is shipping companies with national carrier status) and other indigenous private shipping companies have vessel as well as management problems. These problems have led to the poor performance of the Nigerian shipping industry for over a decade now. The carriers in the industry are not attaining for the country the gains that are supposed to emanate from shipping. This paper points out the importance of shipping to a nation, identifies the problems the country's shipping companies are facing and proffers solutions that include merging of the companies to have strong financial standing and a competitive edge.     

Gain and noise figure analysis of Er<Superscript>3+</Superscript>-doped YAG transparent ceramic microchip amplifier

The rate equations and the power evolution equations based on excited state absorption (ESA) and cooperative upconversion (CUC) of high concentration erbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) transparent ceramic waveguide amplifier are set up to analyze the effects of the pump power, active ion concentration and waveguide length on the amplifier gain and noise figure (NF). The numerical analysis predicts that with a pump power of 100mW, an active ion concentration of 1.0×10²⁶ ion/m³ and a waveguide length of 3 cm, a small-signal gain of 30 dB and an NF of 5 dB can be achieved in the micro-chip amplifier.     

Fast passenger ferries and their future

This papers examines the different choices of High Speed Craft (HSC) hull design available and briefly looks at the advantages and disadvantages of each hull form. The trends in various design aspects of HSC such as speed, capacity and size are studied. An investigation on the HSC development is conducted and the future of HSC in the UK is studied. A study onboard an HSC with the aim of trying to determine what passengers think of HSC and why they travel by them is also conducted. Finally, an analysis of the possible market for HSC is carried out.     

A Study in Port Planning: The Example of Mina Zayed

The correct number of berths that a port should provide is solved by a model which minimizes the total port usage cost in terms of the costs of berth provision and the costs accruing to ships from time spent in the port. This model is then applied to Mina Zayed in the Arabian Gulf as an aid to future planning, and from different sets of cargo forecasts an optimal stategy is derived using a game-theoretic approach.     

Study of the helicopter blade running elevation measurement system

Helicopter blade running elevation measurement is an important measure target in helicopter blade dynamic balance experimentation. The elevation influences the helicopter＇ s security and other performance capabilities. In testing, however, it has been difficult to measure the elevation when the rotor reaches high speeds. To get a simple, fast and highly accurate measurement system, photo electricity technology was applied to measuring the blade running elevation. Discussed is the measurement principle of blade running elevation, tire design of the measurement system and analysis of the measurement precision.     

Longhaul feeder services in an era of changing technology: an Asia-Pacific perspective

Traditional liner carriers, operating in the highly competitive commercial environment of the last few years, have attempted to lower the marginal cost of each box carried. Technological improvements in both construction and propulsion systems have led to a steady growth in carrying capacity. Ships of 600+ TEUs are now in service and, as a result of this trend, have displaced 'smaller' ships from the major east-west trades. The more competitive environment of these trades has in turn led to a redeployment of ships in the 2500+ TEU range to the north-south trades. The result has been a rapid increase in north-south capacity, including feeder services and falling freight rates. Despite the current excess supply in shipping and historically low freight rates, significant developments in technology have created opportunities for new fast containerships. The paper analyses the key economic factors in the differentiation of the new fast ship technology from the traditionally designed containerships and demonstrates the potential financial viability to owners of these new 'greyhounds'.     

Course-keeping control of underactuated hovercraft

The course-keeping control of underactuated hovercraft with two aft propellers was considered. The control of the heading error and cross-track error was accomplished by the yaw torque merely in this case. The hovercraft dynamic model is nonlinear and underactuated. At first the Controllability of course-keeping control for hovercraft was proved, then a course-keeping control law was derived that keeps hovercraft heading constant as well as minimizes the lateral movement of hovercraft. The proposed law guarantees heading error and sway error all converge to zero exponentially. Simulation tests were carried out to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control law. For further research, the disturbance influence would be considered in the dynamic equations.