A local university has completed the installation of a world-class test facility for large-scale models of surface ships and submarines, which the university says could be of much help to the navy.
The test facility, called the Large Cavitation Tunnel (LCT), is the third largest of its kind in the world. Completed earlier this year, it sits in the Keelung-based National Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU). It cost nearly NT$400 million to build and took more than three years to complete.
The university made a detailed introduction to the functions and capabilities of the LCT on Wednesday at the Tenth National Conference on Naval Ship Engineering hosted by the Chung-Cheng Institute of Technology of the military.
Dr. Ke Yung-tse (
"Commercial ship designs do not need to be tested in the LCT. Only military ships will need tests in the LCT, since they must not produce much noise while in operation," Ke said.
The LCT tests are aimed at finding out -- using a one-tenth scale model of a surface ship or submarine design -- the noise level which would be produced by the vessel's propeller or the vortex which would be caused by the hull design of the vessel.
"If the navy is not interested in using the university's LCT for the design of a submarine, it could consider applying it to find out the noise levels or other relevant facts about surface ships already in service," Ke said.
"The domestically-built Cheng Kung-class frigate, for instance, has been short of such data since the design phase. It is really necessary for the navy to start building a data bank for the Cheng Kung-class frigate regarding facts such as the noises that the ship produces during operation," he said.
The university's installation of a world-class LCT marks part of the efforts being made by academic institutions to comply with the government's policy of developing a self-reliant defense industry.
Besides NTOU, the National Taiwan University and National Chen Kung University have also built similar but lower-end test facilities, which the navy could use in its ship-building efforts.
But these efforts might not be appreciated by defense contractors, who prefer to buy mature technologies from abroad rather than domestically-developed ones that need to take time to become reliable.
The state-run China Shipbuilding Corp. (CSBC), which has been bidding to participate in the construction of part of the eight diesel-powered submarines that the US has promised to get for Taiwan, does not think the university's LCT will be of any help to its submarine building project.
A spokesman for the CSBC said the company does not want to start from scratch, since it does not have much time.
"We are now trying to import existing submarine designs from abroad so as to be able to get into the business as early as possible," the company spokesman said.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
RSS