Monday, Jul 15, 2013
Muscat: A seven-member student team from Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) made waves at the twelfth edition of the International Submarine Races held at the Naval Surface Warfare Centre, Carderock Division, Maryland, USA recently.
Sultanah II, a submarine conceived and designed by Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering students, won fourth place after finishing 11 runs out of 12.
Sultanah II, a one person-one propeller submarine, was designed and constructed to participate in the 2013 human-powered submarine race.
In 2011, Sultanah I was entered in the human-powered submarine race.
Dr Jameel Abdo, Associate Professor in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department, who supervised the students, along with Dr Nasser Al Azri, in this initiative, said that it took about two years to build Sultanah II.
“Two teams worked on designing and constructing the submarine,” he said in a statement released to media on Monday.
The first team, he pointed out, comprised five students and seven made up the second team, he said, adding that five students were from mechanical engineering and two from the mechatronics engineering programme.
Commenting on the performance of Sultanah II at the 2013 race, Dr Abdo said that the submarine did very well and was one of the best vessels as far as stability, control and speed were concerned. “In terms of number of successful runs Sultanah II came number 4. The submarine made 11 out of 12 successful runs. The speed of Sultanah II was improved by 25 per cent over that of Sultanah I and in terms of the number of successful runs Sultanah II was improved more than 100 per cent,” he said.
“Sultanah I was made of fibreglass and weighed 120kg whereas the modified Sultanah II is made of carbon fibre and weighs only 30kg which enables smooth running under water,” said Dr Nabeel Al Rawahi, Head of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at SQU,
The submarine project was also supported by the Public Authority for Civil Defence and Ambulance, which provided some of the diving equipment for the SQU team members.
Salim Sultan Al Maamari, Nawaf Hussain Al Beloushi, Eyad Hashem Al Beloushi, Hamza Salim Al Mahrouqi, Mohammad Hamad Al Mahrouqi, Rashid Nasser Al Shabibi, and Saeed Hilal Al Jabri were the students involved in conceiving and designing the submarine. “We took note of the challenges of the first edition of the submarine and applied the best solutions with regard to the propulsion and steering system in addition to considerably reducing the weight of the submarine,” said Al Maamari.
Staff Report
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
