The Philadelphia Section of The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers' last technical meeting of the 1980-81 program was held recently at the Engineers Club in Philadelphia.

Following the cocktail and dinner hours, the meeting was formally opened by chairman J.J. Hibbits, who immediately presented the following nominations for the coming year, all of which were unanimously approved by the members present: chairman, T.P. Campbell, Sun Ship, Inc.; vice chairman, D.S. Champlin, Selby Battersby & Company; secretary-treasurer, C.W. Lofft, Sun Ship, Inc.; and Executive Committee, J.J. Hibbits, R.V. Ciliberti, and K.W. Lawrence.

The technical session featured a thesis titled, "The Effect of Superstructure Proportions on Smokestack Performance."

The thesis, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a bachelor's degree in naval architecture and marine engineering by Robert Conachey and Michael Kidwell while students at the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, describes a system to test the effect of various sizes of superstructures on the occurrence of deck contamination from stack exhaust for a typical superstructure.

The system, previously researched by Kevin Calhoun and Mark Herder, in 1978 while students at Webb, involves a test performed by placing a freeboard model of a 270,000-dwt tanker upside down in the Webb free surface flow channel and using a dye ejected out of the stack to simulate the smoke exhaust. The thesis submitted by students Conachey and Kidwell, using the same system described above, tested various superstructure models, and analyzed the results, from which they determined what the necessary height of a smokestack above the superstructure boundary layer should be to insure satisfactory smokestack performance. An oral presentation, along with slides, was presented by Mr. Kidwell.

The meeting was coordinated by R.C. Lockwood from the Army Corps of Engineers. The authors were presented with a certificate of appreciation by chairman Hibbits.

Among participants at recent Philadelphia Section SNAME meeting were (standing, L to R): T.P. Campbell, vice chairman; K.W. Lawrence, Executive Committee; R.C. Lockwood, coordinator; and C.W. Lofft, Executive Committee. (Seated, L to R): K. Gyswyt, Executive Committee; M.J. Kidwell, author; and J.J. Hibbits, chairman, Philadelphia Section.