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Underwater Radiated Noise

“Our industry needs prediction methods that are functional and comprehensive, yet accessible to engineers and naval architects without the support of specialists.”

It should come as no surprise that owners and operators are under growing pressure to ensure that their ships are quiet. The principal contemporary driver for this is the impact of ship-produced Underwater Radiated Noise (URN) on marine mammals. Governmental oversight and regulation of URN are not far off, and all stakeholders — especially the designers of these ships — should evaluate URN in the design process like they would stability or hydrodynamics.

In this article we address why speed limits are insufficient and the shortcomings in current assessments of noise, such as cavitation inception speed and turns per knot.



Above, right:These noise layers display modeled predictions of wide-ranging contributions from “chronic” anthropogenic sources of underwater noise, specifically large commercial vessels. Source: NOAA

Read more about our take on URN in the June 2018 issue of BC Shipping News.