Research Areas

The development of shipbuilding industry and establishment of offshore technology in Turkey necessitated scientific and technical research to support the industry. Ata Nutku Ship Model Testing Laboratory (ANSMTL) operating within the Faculty of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering at Istanbul Technical University plays an important role for the marine technology in Turkey. The laboratory is the largest and the most active facility of the faculty; it provides education, research, and development activities for the faculty and consultancy service for the marine industry in Türkiye. It has established technical cooperation between the university and the industry. The consultancy service has recently been extended to overseas due to its increasing research capabilities and the expertise of the staff on the field.

The activities of the laboratory are centered on ship resistance and propulsion, offshore technology, ship design and transportation. As the leading academic institution in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering in Turkey, the background work is directed towards the development of theoretical, computational and experimental methods and design tools to be used in ship design and ocean engineering applications.

Ata Nutku Ship Model Testing Laboratory has an ITTC membership and in the 22nd ITTC Conference (1999), Assoc. Prof. Dr. M. Insel, on behalf of the ANSMTL, has been selected and working as a delegate for the Specialist Committee.

ANSMTL participates in the EUCLID project, which is conducted by the West European Armament Organization (WEAO), as a research team. A team from ANSMTL, under the guidance of Prof. Dr. A. Y. Odabaşı, participates in the "Optimum Hull Geometries" project along with other research teams from England, Italy and Greece.

At present, within the Faculty of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, the research and development projects can be classified as follows:
· University supported projects
· State sponsored projects
· Industry sponsored projects
University sponsorship is generally provided for basic research in the form of support for post-graduate studies through employment as research assistants as well as the provisions for the coverage of expenses including hardware and firmware acquisitions for projects of limited duration with an aim to increase the department's capabilities in different interest areas.
Sources of State sponsorships are the Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Establishment (TÜBİTAK), State Planning Organization (DPT), Advisory Services to the Prime Minister, Istanbul City Local Government, and the Department of the Navy. These projects vary greatly in their scopes, contents and durations and generally tend to address specific topics like Bosphorus Marine Traffic Simulation or the Design of Oil Spill Recovery Vehicles. In a number of cases, part of the financing has been in the form of donation of equipment or free supply of certain specialist services for facility and equipment improvements.
Industry financed projects are largely short term and the main topics are design, development and evaluation of ships and shipbuilding facilities requiring the use of computational methods (including computer simulations), model testing and full scale measurements. In addition to contribution towards improved technical awareness in the industry, these projects provide invaluable data to the academic personnel for their future research and development efforts.