No this isn’t going to be a post about china’s new submarines…. instead we look at designing ships to be quiet for more relaxing purposes.
Eurodam News, Holland America’s newbuild blog, shares the secret;
When Zuiderdam, the first Vista-class ship, entered service, it quickly became evident that the aft part of the main restaurant had higher-than-usual noise and vibration levels. On all Holland America ships the aft section of the main restaurant is located above the propellers, but on Vista-class ships the main restaurant was located three decks lower and therefore is closer to the propellers.
Fincantieri engaged Danish consulting company Odegaard & Danneskiold-Samsoe to work with the shipyard’s noise and vibration department to develop a solution. They hit on the idea of installing an air-injection system that would create a cushion of air bubbles between the propellers and the hull to absorb some of the noise frequencies that would otherwise be transferred directly to the hull. A similar system had been installed on private yachts before, but the technology had never been tried on a large cruise vessel.
For the rest of the article click HERE. Also visit gcaptain’s new Free-board for Jobs In Naval Architecture.
This article was originally posted in October 2007
