Windship Technology

Windship Technology, Part A contains the proceedings of the International Symposium on Windship Technology (WINDTECH '85), held at the University of Southampton, England, on April 24-25, 1985. The symposium provided a forum for discussing developments in windship technology, including the use of calculation methods to analyze wind propulsion on cargo ships and weather routing for wind-assisted ships. Measurements of the comparative performance of sailing rigs are also presented. Comprised of 17 chapters, this volume begins by tracing the revival of serious interest in the possible use of the wind in ship propulsion over the past decade, and giving examples of the wide range of rigs that have been developed and are now installed on ships. The reader is then introduced to Project INDOSAIL intended to develop cargo sailing vessels for the Indonesian inter-island trade. Subsequent chapters focus on sail-assist developments from 1979 to 1984; economic aspects of the application of additional sail power on small German fishing vessels; sail retrofit on inter-island vessels in Fiji; and the aerodynamics of a triangular jib-and-boom combination. The book concludes with an evaluation of two-dimensional sail shape determined by pressure and its tension. This book will appeal to government officials, academics, ship owners, and other parties with an interest in windship technology.

In the midst of a technological age, a strange and menacing phenomenon rains upon the Earth, changing people into mindless savages. While governments around the globe unite to combat this spreading infection, airships of the 1930’s are redesigned and reintroduced to the world. Because of the vessel’s size and its capability to stay airborne for weeks at a time, it is regarded as the next innovation for cruise ship/vacation travel industries, while environmentalists envision it as a solution to the world’s overpopulation problem. The windship proves its worth when the stricken become organized and rise up against the world. It is then; the windship becomes a reckoning force and Earth’s only hope for survival.

The course of daily life in the United States has been a product of tradition, environment, and circumstance. How did the Civil War alter the lives of women, both white and black, left alone on southern farms? How did the Great Depression change the lives of working class families in eastern cities? How did the discovery of gold in California transform the lives of native American, Hispanic, and white communities in western territories? Organized by time period as spelled out in the National Standards for U.S. History, these four volumes effectively analyze the diverse whole of American experience, examining the domestic, economic, intellectual, material, political, recreational, and religious life of the American people between 1763 and 2005. Working under the editorial direction of general editor Randall M. Miller, professor of history at St. Joseph's University, a group of expert volume editors carefully integrate material drawn from volumes in Greenwood's highly successful Daily Life Through History series with new material researched and written by themselves and other scholars. The four volumes cover the following periods: The War of Independence and Antebellum Expansion and Reform, 1763-1861, The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Industrialization of America, 1861-1900, The Emergence of Modern America, World War I, and the Great Depression, 1900-1940 and Wartime, Postwar, and Contemporary America, 1940-Present. Each volume includes a selection of primary documents, a timeline of important events during the period, images illustrating the text, and extensive bibliography of further information resources—both print and electronic—and a detailed subject index.

From the Thirteenth century through the Nineteenth, the waterways of the world provided the major means of transportation for exploration, trade, the military, and even criminals. Find out what life was like for those who chose to sail the high seas, as well as for those who didn't choose to be on board, like wives brought to sea by husbands and slaves en route to the auction block. What were their quarters like? What did they eat? How did they pass their long days at sea? These and other questions are answered in animated prose that brings the lives of ordinary people who oftentimes engaged in extraordinary activities, into sharp focus. First-hand accounts from such sources as personal journals and magazine articles are provided to help bring the time period alive. Students will also learn what life was like in the seaport towns and what the sailors did when they visited these towns, as well as the physical parts of the ships and the different roles different members of the crew played. This engaging history helps to separate fact from fiction while exploring the reasons the sea and sea life have held such prominent roles in popular fiction, and will help students understand what life was truly like for these people.

The shipping industry handles over 90% of the global trade volume and is responsible for approximately 3% of global CO2 emissions. Meanwhile, trade by the shipping industry is expected to increase by up to 130% by 2050 compared to 2008. At the same time, the goal is to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions from the shipping industry to half of the 2008 level by 2050. In support of this goal, this thesis is concerned with a comprehensive approach for optimizing the ship's operation, i.e., an optimization approach that simultaneously involves route selection, energy management, propeller pitch, and engine control. In addition, this thesis also analyses the application of wind propulsion systems. The optimization of the ship's operation is implemented in the form of Reinforcement Learning (RL) methods. The use of RL-based methods to simultaneously optimize various aspects of the ship's trajectory and controls is a novel approach compared to the current state-of-art and embodies this thesis' inherent innovation. The results specifically highlight the importance of parallelizing route optimization with the optimization of other control aspects. Ultimately, it is found that the solution emanating from a purely RL-based approach can be further enhanced when the optimized route, speed, and power profiles are used to perform individual DP-based optimizations on the energy management in a post-processing step.