Wednesday October 7th
Professor Carl Ross
How Deep the Ocean ? – Advances in Submarine Structures
Carl Ross was Deputy Chief of the Project Design Office at Vickers-Armstrongs (Shipbuilders), Barrow-in-Furness. He then moved into academic engineering research at University of Manchester, Teeside and subsequently Portsmouth, where is he now emeritus Professor of Structural Mechanics. He is an innovative thinker and an entertaining speaker.
He made important engineering discoveries on the buckling of ring-stiffened cylinders under external pressure. In 1971 he co-invented the tube stiffened pressure hull, making for greater submarine strength. He also applied a similar approach to food cans, contributing to the ribbed structure we see today in ordinary food tins.
The importance of underwater exploration and challenges in making structures and vessels capable of exploring the great depths will be explained. Opportunities for retrieving vast quantites of methane fuel, for military activity and for applying similar engineering techniques in exploration of other planets will be discussed. Prof Ross has promised that no maths will be presented in the lecture!..