FEg,Professor of Mechanical Engineering
University of Oxford
The Japanese research programme on floating islands is highly respected around the world. It was therefore my very good fortune to be offered the opportunity to spend one month in the spring of 1997 working in Professor Ohkusu's research group in RIAM. My own research has been particularly directed at the hydrodynamics and structural dynamics of offshore platforms developed for the oil and gas industry (for example in the North Sea, where there have been major technological developments over the last 20 years). There are of course many common themes in the naval architectural principles applied to floating islands such as airports and to novel floating platforms for extraction of hydrocarbons from under the sea. There are, however, subtle differences, associated for example with the sheer size of a floating airport (say 5000m long by 1000m wide). This can lead to an extremely flexible structure, in which responses in the vibrational modes are much more significant than the rigid body responses which usually govern the design of a more compact floating structure. The opportunity to participate in the Japanese programme studying this problem of hydroelasticity was particularly attractive to me, since my first paper on marine structures (published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1973) was also concerned with hydroelasticity (in connection with wave induced vibration response of large ships). It was refreshing to return to this subject after a gap of 25 years.
The specific problem which occupied me in RIAM concerned the dynamics of a free-free flexible plate excited by waves. Professors Ohkusu and Kashiwagi have both published significant contributions to this topic, and at least two visitors to RIAM before me had also been involved (Professor Miloh from Tel Aviv University and Professor Korobkin from the Lavrentyev Institute of Hydrodynamics, Novosibirsk). My own modest contribution during my month at Kyushu University, on forms of the Green function for the free-free plate, has been submitted as a joint publication with Professor Ohkusu to the journal Applied Ocean Research.
During my time at RIAM I had ample opportunities to interact with the graduate students and staff in the Division of Mechanics and Ocean Engineering. Apart from the technical interest, this brought me into contact with an openness and friendliness on which I feel I must comment. I also now understand rather more about the extremely generous Japanese hospitality. I had made four brief visits to Japan previously, but living, commuting, working and relaxing in Fukuoka provided a far richer and more rewarding set of experiences than simply attending a conference for a few days. I am enormously grateful to my hosts for making my visit possible, and for all the kindnesses shown to me.
I first met Professor Ohkusu in 1974, when he presented a paper at a conference we organized at University College London (I moved from there to Oxford University in 1989). We meet regularly at the annual International Workshop on Water Waves and Floating Bodies. He in fact organized the 1994 Workshp (at Kuju, Oita), and I hosted the 1995 Workshop in Oxford. He has kindly asked me to serve on the Scientific Committee for the 2nd International Conference on Hydroelasticity which he is hosting in December 1998. I much look forward to coming back to Fukuoka then. It is my earnest hope that he will make the return visit to spend several months in my laboratory in Oxford, as soon as he is able to pass on his heavy responsibilities as Director of the Institute.
Photo:Prof.and Mrs.Eatock Taylor are enjoying painting china a kiln of Arita
- 筆者のＥａｔｏｃｋ Ｔａｙｌｏｒ氏は，オックスフォード大学の教授で， 専門は機械工学。’９５−’９６にはエンジニアリング・サイエンス学部長でした。 記事にもあるとおり，平成９年の春に１ヶ月間，応用力学研究所の大楠丹教授（所長） 及び柏木正助助教授との共同研究のため来学していました。
- （用語解説）
hydrodynamics（流体力学） structural dynamics（構造力学）
hydrocarbons（炭化水素） free-free plate（端が自由な平板）
次の記事：Ｍｒ．Ｆｏｌｅｙ Ｃｏｍｅｓ ｔｏ Ｆｕｋｕｏｋａ