The Job of a Naval Architect

Job description

A naval architect is a professional engineer who is responsible for the design, construction and repair of ships, boats, other marine vessels and offshore structures, both civil and military.

Modern engineering on this scale is a team activity conducted by professional engineers in their respective fields and disciplines. However, it is the naval architect who integrates their activities and takes ultimate responsibility for the overall project. They must also ensure that a safe, economic and seaworthy design is produced.

Naval architects must have an understanding of many branches of engineering and must be at the forefront of high technology areas such as computer aided design.

Typical work activities

Depending on the type of qualifications held and personal interests, naval architects may become specialists in one field or develop broad experience in several. Eventually they may find themselves in senior executive positions using their knowledge and experience of general management as well as their professional skills in engineering and project leadership.

Naval architects have a wide range of employment opportunities, both in the UK and worldwide. They are involved in a wide variety of work so it is difficult to categorise it comprehensively. However, the main areas are as follows:

• Design. Naval architects must have an understanding of the many aspects of ship design - function, appearance and, especially important at sea, safety. Activities include using complex mathematical and physical models to ensure that the ship's design is satisfactory technically and that it meets the safety rules and standards.
• Construction. A naval architect specialising in construction usually holds a management post, taking responsibility for the management of the whole shipyard or for sections of it such as planning, production or the complex operation of fitting out.
• Consultancy. Typical activities include providing clients with engineering solutions, technical and commercial guidance, support and project management for concept design studies, new vessel constructions, refits and conversions.
• Research and development. Naval architects are involved in undertaking maritime research in universities and industry.
• Regulation, surveying and overseeing. Naval architects employed by classification societies as ship surveyors are engaged worldwide in evaluating the safety of ships and marine structures using the societies' rules and those of intergovernmental organisations such as the International Maritime Organisation. Typical activities include the approving of aspects of design such as strength, stability, and lifesaving.
• Marketing and sales. Activities include giving professional advice and technical support to customers of the maritime industry.
• Operations. Many shipping companies have technical departments in which naval architects are responsible for the many phases of ship and equipment procurement and for solving problems affecting the economics of maritime operations.
• Education and training. There are also opportunities for naval architects with good qualifications to work in universities and colleges as professors and lecturers.

Naval Architecture Cadre in Indian Navy

The Indian Navy offers job opportunities to outstanding Engineers for recruitment in Technical Branches (Naval Architecture Cadre) in its Engineering Branches.

Eligibility conditions: Unmarried male & female Indian citizens, aged between 19l/2 to 25 years.

Educational qualifications: BE/ B.Tech. degree from, a recognized university (or equivalent) with minimum 60% marks in aggregate. Calculation for aggregate percentage should be based on total marks obtained in all the semesters (including I 85 II semester) divided by total number of semesters in any of the following disciplines: (a) Navy Architecture (b) Mechanical © Civil (d) Metallurgy (e) Aeronautical.

Physical Standards: Minimum height - 157 cms for men and 152 cms for women with correlated weight. Eye Sight: 6/60, 6/60 correctable to 6/6, 6/12 with glasses. Colour/night blindness is a disqualification.

Selection Procedure: (a) Short-listed candidates are likely to be detailed for Service Selection Board (SSB) interviews at Bangalore, Bhopal or Coimbatore followed by a medical examination,

(b) The duration of SSB interview is 5 days. During their stay at the SSB, candidates are assessed in Psychological Tests, Individual Tasks, Group Tasks, Group Discussions and Interview. On the first day of the interview, candidates undergo an Intelligence Test and only
those who qualify this screening test, participate in subsequent tests.

Training: Successful candidates are enrolled as officers in the rank of Sub Lieutenant and undergo Naval Orientation Course at the Naval Academy, Goa, followed by professional training in other Naval Training Establishments/Ships. Full pay and allowances are admissible to officers whilst under training. They would be in probation for a period of two years, during which they are liable to be discharged. Only unmarried candidates are eligible for training.

Pay & Perks: On entry, total emoluments of about Rs. 13,000/- pm in the rank of Sub Lieutenant. Officers are entitled to 60 days annual leave and 20 days casual leave besides Leave Travel Concession, free medical services for self and family including dependent parents, Group Insurance of Rs. 7 lakhs, canteen facilities and other concession.

Short Service Commission is granted for a term of 10 years, extendable to 14 years, subject to service requirement and performance /willingness of the candidate. On completion of tenure of SSC, officers are released with gratuity as admissible under the rules.

How to Apply: Application Forms in accordance with the prescribed format and complete in all respect should reach Post Box No. 4, RK Puram (Main) New Delhi 110066 on or before the date as notified. Last Date: November.

NAVAL ARCHITECTURE COURSES IN INDIA

The course deals with the design, construction, maintenance and repair of all types of marine vehicles and can play a major role in the economic development of a country

There is no harm in being a bit futuristic. After all, the world survives on dreams. If space is considered to be the final frontier, then there is another frontier that is yet to be explored to its full. It is much within our grasp and it has immense potential. Well, the inference is about water – the oceans, the seas, the rivers and the lakes.

A senior professor from the Department of Marine Engineering and Naval Architecture in Andhra University noted that a lot remains to be explored about the water bodies in the world and with the rising crunch on the land resources; the seas and the oceans could be the next destination. “Floating cities would become a reality one day,” he said.

Be it floating cities or floating international airports or for that matter bulk transportation of goods by marine vessels, across continents, water bodies serve to be a useful medium, and the engineering and science needed to understand its dynamics is in demand. The demand opens up new vistas in the discipline of Naval architecture.

Naval architecture is an engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, maintenance and repair of all types of marine vehicles.

It practically deals with any body that has to work on water, just like civil engineering that has to deal with anything on land.

Naval architects say that the discipline is part of the core industries and it can play a major role in the overall economic development of a country.

Course

The course is a four-year B.E. or B.Tech degree programme that covers the aspects of ship design, ship construction, ship theory, ship maintenance, ship hydrodynamics, ship hydrostatics and ship structure. All the four years are interspersed with practical and hands-on training. The basic idea is to make the students employable from day one after passing out.

Institutes

Naval architecture is classified as a specialised course and only a few institutes in India offer the course. Here are the details:

Andhra University College of Engineering – 4-year BE course- qualifying examination- EAMCET.

IIT – Kharagpur – 4-year BE course – qualifying examination- IIT-JEE

IIT- Chennai- 4-year BE course – qualifying examination- IIT–JEE

Kochi University of Science and Technology - 4-year B.Tech course- qualifying examination- Cusat-CAT

Institute of Ship Building, Goa: Four-year Diploma in Ship Building Engineering (organises its own examination) Naval College of Engineering, Lonavla, Pune, also admit 50 male students having minimum 70 per cent marks in physics, chemistry and mathematics put together and 50 per cent marks in English in the Plus Two or equivalent examination. Adequate professional training will be given in different branches, including naval architecture. Those who successfully complete the four-year course will be awarded a B.Tech degree from the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Since all the courses imparted by the above mentioned colleges focus on the merchant ship design and construction, qualified Naval architects can join the Indian Navy to undergo specialised two-year training in Naval ship design at the Naval College of Engineering. Indian Navy recruits a good number of naval architects every year to serve its requirements.

In the post-graduation level, IIT-Kharagpur offers a PG course called Marine Technology and IIT-Chennai offers a PG course called Ocean Technology. There are facilities for research at both the IITs.

Career options

Since Naval architect is an engineer who is responsible for the design, construction or repair of ships, boats and all types of marine vessels and offshore structures like merchant ships, oil tankers, gas tankers, bulk carriers, container ships, passenger ships and ferries, cruise ships, frigates, destroyers, aircraft carriers, amphibious ships, submarines, underwater vehicles, icebreakers, offshore drilling platforms, semi-submersibles, high speed crafts, hovercrafts, multi-hull ships, fishing boats, tugs, platform supply vessels, pilot vessels, rescue crafts, yachts, power boats and other recreational crafts, the opportunity is immense. There is a huge demand for naval architects in the countries where ship building industry is in a large format like US, Korea, Singapore, UK and Netherlands. Naval architects can not only fit in the ship building industry but also in Naval dockyards and ship design and research centres. They are in demand both in the private and government sectors.

Naval architects can also join ships for onboard duty after undergoing the one-and-a-half-year practical training on a ship and after receiving the MOT certification from DG Shipping.

Naval architects are considered to be professionals who not only understand the design, construction and running of ships but also the commercial aspects involved in building a ship. This puts them in a niche segment over others.

NAVAL ARCHITECT AS ENTREPRENEUR

These days a lot of Naval Architects are leaving well paying jobs to start their own entrepreneurial ventures. In this article, I will be exploring the minimal requirements required by a Naval Architect to start his own entrepreneurial venture.

Different Avenues for a Naval Architect as an Entrepreneur
i). Start their own Shipyard/ Ship Repair Yard
ii). Start your Design firm
iii). Start a Naval Architectural Consultancy

Starting one’s own shipyard / repair yard will be beyond the means of a majority of wannabe entrepreneurs because of the large amount of capital involved. I will not discuss this topic, any further.

Start your own Design Firm

A Naval Architect, by profession is a designer. Design is his bread and butter and hence setting up a design firm will not be all that difficult for a wannabe entrepreneur. Let us see one by one, the minimal requirements for setting up a firm. I will not go into the business plans and cash flows required to set up a design firm as there are lot of books / articles in the net covering the same.

i). Knowledge Base: A thorough knowledge in the inside-out of Naval Architecture touching all aspects of Naval Architecture. These include (but might not cover everything) Lines Plan, Hydrostatics, Stability, Initial Weight & Volume design, weight estimation , volume estimation, Resistance, Propulsion, Ship Structure , Sea keeping and Maneuvering. This knowledge base can be you yourself, and if you feel that you want to augment your intellectual base, then you can hire naval architects to work for you. If you are a One Man Army, then your costs for maintaining the Knowledge base will be restricted to the books and journals you subscribe to, to keep yourself updated. If you are employing Naval Architects, then you have to factor in their costs too. However if you are stating out as an Entrepreneur, then I am confident that your knowledge base will be sufficient to set you up, in the initial stages. Later on, once your business picks up, you can augment your manpower.

ii). Office for Hiring: You should have an office space to set up your Naval Architectural Firm. The Office is to have 1-2 rooms, covering a floor area of approximately 1000-1200 sqft. The costs will depend on the area where you have chosen to hire your office.

iii). Softwares; In the initial days ,all the Naval Architectural calculations were done manually or at the most, by using Slide Rules and Logarithmic tables. However, with the advent of computers, things have changed. Nowadays sophisticated softwares are there to cater to each and every aspect of Naval Architectural calculations. These softwares start with the concept design and evolve on to full design at the workshop level stage. However these proprietary softwares are very costly as they are not mass produced to cater to millions of users. A single license can cost up to a million dollars. This will make it out of reach for most of the budding Naval Architects. However, if one does have the resources, then go for it. Some of the proprietary softwares used in the Ship Design field are TRIBON, AUTOKON & SHIPCONSTRUCTOR.
However these days, with the advent of Open Source Software and freeware, one can get almost all the functionalities of proprietary softwares in these OSS and free softwares, though may be not, all in one.
For drafting of lines plan, one can go for AUTOCAD. A single license, costs anywhere between 1000-1500 US$. However, these days there are excellent freeware drafting softwares, which one can use. I recommend FREESHIP, an excellent software with all the drafting and graphic functionalities of a Proprietary software.
For Hydrostatic calculations and detailed stability calculations, one can go for MS EXCEL or Open Office spreadsheet. With the help of these spreadsheets one can do the calculations for Hydrostatics, Stability, Resistance (Based on various empirical formulae) and even propulsion calculations.
I will talk about other free open source softwares in another article. Let me summarize the gist of my argument here.
The softwares to set up a Ship Design Consultancy Firm are now freely available as Open Source Software. If at all, some calculations have to be carried out, which are not catered for, by these softwares, one can always go for Spreadsheet applications using Open Office or other similar Open Source products.

iv). Other Overheads: Includes office furniture, stationary, etc.

Starting your own Consultancy Firm

A Naval Architect is a jack of all trades. His field encompasses a host of other fields like Mechanical Engineering, Architecture, Interior Designing, Chemical Engineering, Corrosion, Welding Technology, Software writing skills, Project Management, Hydrodynamics, Ocean & Offshore Structures, to name only a few.
He can offer consultancy in a wide range of subjects.

i). Initial Concept design which includes Sizing, Hydrostatics & Stability, Resistance & Propulsion, Initial estimates of weight.

ii). Propeller-Engine Matching

iii). Boat/Ferry design

iv). Propeller Design

v). Structural Calculations/ Buckling Calcualtions

vi). Computational Fluid Dynamics

vii). Finite Element Analysis

viii). Offshore structures
ix). Submarine cables and piping design

x). Resistance calculations

xi). Maneuvering calculations

xii). Seakeeping Calculations

xiii). Welding & Corrosion related consultancy

xiv). Many others which cannot be detailed down

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A NAVAL ARCHITECT

Naval Architect as a profession

Naval Architecture is an art and a science apart from being an Engineering discipline. Naval Architecture encompasses a whole gamut of engineering disciplines and covers Mechanical Engineering, Marine Engineering, Structural Engineering, Hydrodynamics, to name only a few.
The building of a ship especially a Warship is the most complex engineering feat ever to be undertaken by man. And the man behind the machine, the Naval Architect, is the man responsible for the final and successful launch of the ship. Hence his mental faculties and physical stamina should be more than a match for the task he is entrusted with.

Skills required of a good Naval Architect

i). Good at conceptualization. Should have a creative bent of mind.
ii). Good analytical skills
iii) Good at systems thinking. Should be able to look beyond the specifics at the whole picture. Should be good at integrating the various systems.
iv). Project management skills of a high order. After all you are building the most complex engineering feat to be undertaken by man. System integration of the hull, electrical and engineering equipments requires a high order of project management skills.

Qualifications for a Naval Architect

i) Graduation in the field of Naval Architecture/ Civil Engineering / Mechanical Engineering / Ocean Engineering.

ii). A one year apprenticeship with a Shipbuilding firm/ Ship design firm

iii). Higher qualifications depending on the specialized skills.

Where all can a Naval Architect be employed

i) In shipyards / shipbuilding firms
ii) In Naval dockyards
iii) Ship Design Bureaus
iv) Navies of respective countries
v) Naval Architecture Consultancy firms
vi) Offshore Structures
vii) Oceanographic Institutions

How much does it pay to be a Naval Architect

This seems to be the most important question put forward by wannabe Naval Architects. “How much will I get being a Naval Architect?” is the most common query that I frequently encounter. The answer varies from around US $5000 to anywhere between a million dollars for the top management executives. Most of the salary data is confidential and companies rarely delve these information to the general public. However being in the Industry for the past fifteen years I can make a reasonable guess:
Supervisory Level: US $ 36000 Per Annum
Lower Management Level: US $ 50000 Per Annum
Middle Management Level: US $ 1,00,000-5,00,000 Per Annum
Top Management Level : Anywhere upwards of One Million dollars Per Annum.

If one is working in the Offshore field expect a salary 2-5 times the quoted salary above.

Can a Naval Architect work onboard a Ship as a Marine Engineer

Definitely yes. All he has to do is to enroll as a trainee marine engineer apprentice in any of the Shipyards /Institutions for a duration of 18 months( usually varies from 12-18 months) and after the apprenticeship he will be ready to carry out his assignments as a Engineering Officer.

Naval Architect in Shipbuilding Industry

Naval Architects are employed in shipyards as production managers to oversee the construction of new ships. He will be either involved with the Design Bureau or in the production floor. In the Design Bureau , he will be undertaking the detailed workshop/production level drawings of ships after the concept design has been carried., He will be involved with structural calculations using the latest sophisticated structural software like Ansys, NISA, Pro-Engineer, etc. He might also be involved with system integration of the various ship systems. Detailed level drawings for use in the production floor will be carried out by him using latest Ship design Packages like TRIBON or General Engineering Packages like CATIA. Being a complex undertaking, there will be a lot of overlap between systems and he might have to resolve the conflicts arising from the conflicting requirements of different ship systems.
As a Production level Engineer/Manager, he will be in the process of the actual building of the Ship. Usually the Naval Architect is involved with Hull Fabrication and Outfitting aspects of Shipbuilding.

Naval Architects in Ship Repair Yards

Naval Architects are employed in Ship repair yards in the Fabrication, Dry docking and Outfitting Centers. He should be a good man manager and should have excellent project management skills. Though detailed technical knowledge is not called for, he should have a good understanding of the follwing aspects:
i). Materials used for marine applications
ii) Composites like GRP
iii). Wood Technology
iv). Welding Technology
v). Corrosion Science

Here the adage “Jack of all trades, Master of none” is well suited.

He might have to work under very daunting time schedules and keep up with the deadlines for meeting the target requirements.