The thesis Reliability and optimization on marine engineering has been prepared by Carmen Castillo Sánchez, in the installations of the Andalusian Centre for the Environment and under the co-supervision of Miguel Ángel Losada Rodríguez. This work contributes important scientific novelties to optimize building design in breakers areas, with a double-control model that predicts possible faults of the structures and cheaper repairs.
Most of the factors which affect marine engineering are random variables, such as surge, wind or sea level. This last is the total of different random fluctuations of the water column, a concept which is not usually taken into account on these works (in favour of wave height) and which is one of the great scientific novelties contributed by this research work.
“It is essential to get to know the statistical characteristics of the components of the water column to carry out a more rigorous analysis of the processes which govern the dynamic of the breakers area”, points out the author. To calculate the reliability of a construction, they have used the computer package GAMS (General Algebraic Modelling System). This way they take into account all the variables that make up the water column and the statistical models as well as the cost function and safety, geometry or good practice restrictions that the building must satisfy. The result is a more economical design.
The doctoral thesis includes two real applications: a slope dock, which minimizes the construction cost in economic and engineer terms; and a vertical dock, with the calculation of the cost of possible faults after the construction, and in which conditions they could occur.
This methodology allows, for example, to use a double-control system of the structure safety, permitting an automatic contrast of the mathematic data obtained in the study. Besides this, “it is easy to obtain the sensitivity of the cost to small changes of variables like the specific gravity of concrete or the increase of the sea level”, explains Castillo Sánchez.
Reference: Dr. Carmen Castillo Sánchez. Andalusian Centre for the Environment.
Phone numbers. 958 133 274.
E-mail. mcastill@ugr.es.
Prof. Miguel Ángel Losada Rodríguez.
Phone number: 958 814 862.
E-mail: mlosada@ugr.es
