Hon Noriyuki Sasaki

Personal statement

Noriyuk Saski is Honorary Professor of Naval hydrodynamics in the Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering. He worked for the Japanese major Shipyard (Sumitomo Heavy Industries) and invented many energy saving devices and filed 4 active patents which have been used for all vessels which Sumitomo built. The first patent was SILD(1995) which is a small duct with twisted fins in front of the propeller. The first ship equipped with SILD is 280type VLCC and the test was conducted at HSVA in 1994. This idea is exactly the same as Mewis Duct which began to be sold 2012. He invented many other energy saving devices such as NBS propeller, HLES Rudder and Delta bow, they are still applied to their ships even after 15 years. He has expert knowledge not only in practical field but also in academic field. He received the JASNAOE (The Japan Society of Naval Architects and Ocean Engineering) award as the main author of his paper on CRP design mythology among other major shipyard researchers in 1997. He was also the leader of hydrodynamics group of the company and he designed and delivered the world 1^st  Double acting tanker (TEMPERA) in 2002, the vessel was received the ship of the year 2002. Later, he was invited from National Maritime Research Institute of Japan (NMRI) to promote 10 mode of the sea (the origin of the Japanese proposal for EEDI to IMO). Following this successful project he received the Japanese ministerial award from Ministry of Land (2010). His deep investigation for the possibility of future energy saving by the energy saving device and hull form improvement was introduced to Japanese proposal for the EEDI phase 1, 2 and 3. This new scenario of phase 1 to phase 3 was presented in the world forum which was organized by NMRI in 2005. From April 2008 – March. 2010, he was also managing whole projects of Fluid Engineering Department as senior director of research and project Leader of project team of Ship Performance Index “10 mode at Sea” and Project Zeus which is aiming zero emission ship utilizing twin podded propulsion systems. He also contribute ITTC as a chairman of Special Committee of Azimuthing Podded Propulsors, after he became an AC member as a representative of NMRI.

After his retirement of NMRI in 2013, he was invited by MTI which is a research institute belonging to the world famous Japanese shipping Company NYK (Nippon Yusen Kaisha), NYK is the first established company in Japan and allowed to work in the building in front of emperor residence. At MTI, he was in charge of totally 26 projects as a project manager. In these 26 projects, 13 projects are related to ship performance (prediction, improvement, monitoring). 3 projects were related to fouling of ship hull and propeller.

In 2014 Dr Sasaki was invited to Newcastle University as a Visiting Professor to contribute into the R&D activities of the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel Group at the School of Marine Science and Technology. This was followed by further invitation from the University of Strathclyde at the Dept of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering and hence moved to Glasgow to pursue his research activities on the Energy Saving of Ships and novel propulsion systems. Prof Sasaki currently supports several KE projects and supervision of numerous PhDs related to ship performance and novel propulsors including CRPs, NBS propellers and Gate Rudder. After leaving Newcastle University, he has introduced his newly patented invention, “Gate Rudder System” and has been promoting this concept to be a major project in the university.

Prof Sasaki published a total of 125 Journal and conference papers as the main author in the field of energy saving and manoeuvring of ship. He was also involved more than 100 papers as the invited speaker and co-author.