MSc/PgDip Sustainable Engineering: Offshore Renewable Energy

Program Overview

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Why this course?

This flexible programme combines study in specialist, advanced engineering technologies underpinned with training in sustainability. The programme has been developed with direct industrial involvement to provide you with a solid understanding of modern, sustainable engineering. As well as gaining an understanding of how sustainable engineering applies to Marine Technology, this programme will also provide you with key transferable skills to aid your employability.

The course is designed for experienced or newly qualified engineers in:

Naval Architecture

Marine Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Civil Engineering

Electrical Engineering or related disciplines

The Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean & Marine Engineering (NAOME), a leading institution in Scotland, offers excellent teaching and research facilities in naval architecture, ocean and marine engineering, which expands your career opportunities in naval architecture, marine, offshore oil and gas industry.

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What you’ll study

Studying at least three generic modules will meet the key requirements to attain Chartered Engineer status.

You must take three specialist modules if you are studying for the Postgraduate Certificate and up to five if you are studying for a Postgraduate Diploma or MSc.

Successful completion of six modules leads to the award of a Postgraduate Certificate.

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Group project

You’ll work with a group of students from different pathways of the Sustainable Engineering programme. You’ll produce sustainable solutions to real-life industry problems. This project will include site visits, field trips and progress reports to industry partners.

Successful completion of eight modules and the group project leads to the award of a Postgraduate Diploma.

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Individual project (MSc only)

MSc students will study a selected topic in depth and submit a thesis.

Successful completion of eight modules, the group project and an individual project leads to the award of an MSc.

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Accreditation

This course is accredited by the Royal Institute of Naval Architects (RINA) and the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) on behalf of the UK Engineering Council.

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Facilities

We have excellent teaching facilities including:

Catalina – our departmental racing yacht

Kelvin Hydrodynamics Lab – the largest ship-model experiment tank in any UK university

Towing/wave tank exclusively for teaching purposes

Marine engine laboratory

Cutting-edge computer facilities

Industry standard software

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Student competitions

NAOME supports and promotes students in various competitions and awards, from cash bursaries for top performing students to the highest of awards from international organisations.

In recent years, students from NAOME have been triumphant in the following high profile competitions:

Science, Engineering & Technology Student of the Year (SET Awards)

Best Maritime Technology Student (SET Awards)

Double winner of BP’s Ultimate Field Trip Competition

Strathclyder of the Year

Program Outline

Course content

A typical selection of classes offered on the programme are outlined below. Please note that these classes may be subject to change.

Instructional classes

Elective classes

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Sustainability

This class aims to provide you with an understanding of the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development. The social, environmental and economic impact of development strategies will be identified and the mitigation of negative impacts discussed.

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Energy Resources & Policy

Against the background of international commitments on atmospheric emissions, diminishing fossil fuel resources and the liberalisation of energy markets, this class examines sustainable options for energy production, supply and consumption.

The aim is to give you an understanding of current trends and to enable a critical evaluation of emerging ideas, technologies and policies.

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Electrical Power Systems

This class aims to provide you with an understanding of the operation of modern electrical power systems along with the techniques to undertake a basic technical analysis of key electrical devices and systems.

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Finite Element Analysis of Floating Structures

This module aims to provide you with a theoretical and practical knowledge of the finite element method and the skills required to analyse marine structures with ANSYS graphical user interface (GUI).

This module covers:

introduction to finite element analysis and ANSYS GUI

truss elements and applications

solid elements and applications

beam elements and applications

plane stress, plane strain and axisymmetry concepts

plane elements and applications

plate & shell elements and applications

assembly process and constructing of the global stiffness matrix

At the end of this module you'll be able to:

understand the basics of finite element analysis

understand how to perform finite element analysis by using a commercial finite element software

understand specifying necessary input parameters for the analysis

understand how to visualize and evaluate the results

There is one exam and one coursework assignment. The exam is during the exam period of the first semester. Exam has a weight of 70% and coursework assignment has a weight of 30%.

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Renewable Marine Energy Systems (10 credits)

This module aims to provide you with:

principles and methodologies to analyse and evaluate the marine renewable energy sources potential

principles and methodologies to analyse and compare the main offshore wind, wave, and tidal systems available

This module covers:

introduction to marine renewable energy systems: context, trends, basic concepts

offshore wind energy resource characterisation and analysis

wave energy resource characterisation and analysis

tidal energy resource characterisation and analysis

marine Renewable Energy Systems economics: an introduction

offshore wind turbines: main technologies and modelling approaches

wave energy converters: main technologies and modelling approaches

At the end of this module you'll be able to:

analyse the potential of the main marine renewable energy sources (offshore wind, wave, and tidal)

classify and compare, from a techno-economic point of view, the main offshore wind, wave, and tidal energy systems

propose a preliminary design of a marine renewable energy system for a given geographical area

discuss on the main challenges of the experimental testing of marine renewable energy systems

demonstrate an awareness of the wider, multidisciplinary context for marine renewable energy devices

Assessment and feedback are in the form of:

quick quizzes for formative feedback

a class test, mid-way through the module, weighting 40% of the final module mark

an exam, at the end of the module, weighting 60% of the final module mark

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Physical Testing of Offshore Renewable Energy Devices

This module aims to provide you with an understanding of the underlying physics associated with scale model testing of wind wave and tidal current devices and the ability to execute and analyse hydrodynamic tests to assess the performance of marine energy generating systems.

This module covers:

lab testing: device testing in wave tanks, towing tanks

similarity, extrapolation to full scale, and scaling challenges for lab testing of marine renewable devices

experiment design guidelines and standards

instrumentation: measurement of fluid velocity, water surface elevation, pressure, force, displacement, velocity, and acceleration

non-intrusive measurement techniques including PIV, LDA, motion capture, and ultrasonic probes

measures of performance: linearity, repeatability, hysteresis, calibration

data acquisition and analysis: data sampling, filtering, processing, statistical analysis

sources of uncertainty, bias and precision, accumulation of uncertainty

basic linear wave theory

basic mechanical oscillator theory

At the end of this module you'll be able to:

be aware of key instrumentation technologies, both traditional and modern, which may be used in them, and application of best-practice guidelines/standards

understand different scaling laws which may apply from lab-scale or intermediate-scale field-trials to full scale

be familiar with basic approaches to data analysis and be able to estimate the levels of uncertainty of their measurements

be aware of techniques which can help them choose an efficient set of tests in the context of a highly time- and cost-limited campaign

Assessment and feedback are in the form of the online quizzes, laboratory exercises and coursework (three lab reports) which will test your understanding of the learning outcomes and your ability to apply your learning to problems. You'll also give a presentation on one of the labs.

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Design Management

This class provides a structured introduction to the design management process, issues and tools.

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Financial Engineering

The class aims to introduce elements of financial engineering that are applied to reduce risk of business insolvency and enhance the financial robustness of business enterprises.

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Risk Management

You'll explore the entire process of structuring a risk problem, modelling it, supporting and communicating recommendations, both theoretically and in practice. Risk management is linked with decision analysis in so far as we explore decision-making under uncertainty and it has links with quantitative business analysis as we explore the use of statistics in understanding risk. However, the topic has some unique attributes such as risk communication and the role that experts play in risk assessment.

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Project Management

This class aims to provide you with skills relating to the use of engineering practices in project management with particular respect to the effective and efficient use of resources.

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Learning & teaching

There are two teaching semesters of 11 weeks each.

Each year about 15 experts from the industry give talks and seminars on wide-ranging topics. Industrial visits are made to a variety of companies.

You’re required to attend an induction prior to the start of the course.

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Assessment

There are two types of method for module assessment. One is course work assessment only, the other is examination assessment. For examined modules the final assessment mark consists of 30-40% course work and 60-70% examination.

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Chat to a student ambassador

If you want to know more about what it’s like to be an Engineering student at the University of Strathclyde, a selection of our current students are here to help!

Our Unibuddy ambassadors can answer all the questions you might have about courses and studying at Strathclyde, along with offering insight into their experiences of life in Glasgow and Scotland.

Chat now!

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Careers

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Job titles include:

Graduate Design Engineer

Project Engineer

Renewable Energy Consultant

Thermal Performance Engineer

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Employers include:

Arup

Eaton

Esteyco Energua

Granite Services International

Moorfield International

Mott Macdonald

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Glasgow is Scotland's biggest & most cosmopolitan city

Our campus is based right in the very heart of Glasgow. We're in the city centre, next to the Merchant City, both of which are great locations for sightseeing, shopping and socialising alongside your studies.

Life in Glasgow

Glasgow is very famous for shipbuilding. I wanted to study my course somewhere with a long history of naval architecture as well as modern technology. Strathclyde is the perfect place for me.

Sung-il Ahn

Sustainable Engineering: Offshore Renewable Energy (MSc) Find out why Sung-il loves Strathclyde