Studying about Large Marine Engines

Hello People!

I'm a Marine Engineer from India and currently working as a sailing marine engineer on VLOCs (Very Large Ore Carriers).

I've a full-time graduate degree in marine engineering from the top marine engineering college in India (ie MERI, Kolkata).
I wish to study about the theory of large propulsion engines and their integration with the shipboard machinery, at masters level.

I've done my own search and come up with the following universities:

1. TU Delft MSc Maritime Engineering (with marine engineering specialisation)

2. University College London MSc in Marine Engineering

3. Newcastle University

4. Southampton University

5. Strathclyde University

6. NTNU Trondheim

So where can I do a masters which focuses more on the machinery part rather than on naval architecture?
I find the course syllabus in TU Delft (marine engineering specialization) to be the closest matching to my requirements however I'd like to hear some more comments on it or other universities.

Also, I've been told that UK masters degrees are much more renowned and globally accepted than other European masters.
How true is that?

My main aim is to do an Industrial PhD with any of the major machinery manufacturers so I need a Masters.

Engines which I've dealt with in my career include MAN B&W large 2-stroke and 4-stroke engines, Daihatsu 4-stroke, Yanmar 4-stroke, Cummins 4-stroke, Mitsui Deutz 4-stroke.

Kestrel5915

Welcome to the fourm.

All the uni's you have quoted are very good, any one would be ok. I am biased to Southampton, my uni.

What I would suggest is to apply for work with any one of the companies you have outlined and explain you wish to do a Masters/PhD on such a topic and they hopefully will pay for your studies as well as being employed in-between term time. They will provide you with the focus you need for your higher education in terms of what will be useful once completed.

Greetings and best wishes. If you were to try to do that at my university (The University of British Columbia, in Vancouver Canada) I would recommend enrolling in a Mechanical Engineering program. We do have a naval architecture and marine engineering program, so could add a certain amount of marine content. But the core of your study would be engine mechanical engineering, combustion engineering, and thermodynamics.

So my suggestion is to look for a school that has, not so much a strong marine component, but a strong Mechanical Engineering component.

Of course, I do think our MECH department here at UBC would qualify well under that rubric!

Best wishes.

Chris McKesson

Ad Hoc said:

Kestrel5915

Welcome to the fourm.

All the uni's you have quoted are very good, any one would be ok. I am biased to Southampton, my uni.

What I would suggest is to apply for work with any one of the companies you have outlined and explain you wish to do a Masters/PhD on such a topic and they hopefully will pay for your studies as well as being employed in-between term time. They will provide you with the focus you need for your higher education in terms of what will be useful once completed.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your prompt reply!

Your advice is certainly very good and I was myself thinking on the same lines.
Let's see how it goes.

My main dilemma, however, is that which universities out of these are having facilities like diesel engine test beds, combustion simulators, etc.
All of them are having facilities related to hydromechanics like towing tanks, cavitation tunnels, etc.
But since I'm more interested in the machinery part of I'd like to know about that too.

I tried sending mails to a few of them but usually they just provide links to the course structure and all.

I can see Newcastle is having Jones Engine Lab having a test bed and other such facilities.

But other things being equal I think Delft syllabus covers all the topics I'm inclined to study.
Plus I'm also concerned about UK having work visa issues.

cmckesson said:

Greetings and best wishes. If you were to try to do that at my university (The University of British Columbia, in Vancouver Canada) I would recommend enrolling in a Mechanical Engineering program. We do have a naval architecture and marine engineering program, so could add a certain amount of marine content. But the core of your study would be engine mechanical engineering, combustion engineering, and thermodynamics.

So my suggestion is to look for a school that has, not so much a strong marine component, but a strong Mechanical Engineering component.

Of course, I do think our MECH department here at UBC would qualify well under that rubric!

Best wishes.

Chris McKesson

Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply!

I'll certainly check out the courses at UBC.

You make an excellent point here about the strong mechanical engineering component and that is what I was looking for.
But since the matching of a ship, propeller and engine is an extremely critical process for large vessels I'm looking for a course that can provide me good knowledge about the integration of the marine propulsion system while focusing on machinery.

I'll, however, most certainly have a look at UBC courses and facilities.