On May 19, the ceremony for announcing the service of the first scientific expedition and trial ship of Tsinghua SIGS, “Qing Yan 1”, was held on Shenzhen Haijian Square Wharf.

Leaders and guests unveiling “Qing Yan 1”

Amidst participants' warm applause and a loud whistle, leaders and guests unveiled the ship. Participants then boarded and visited the ship to get to know the very first scientific expedition and trial ship of Tsinghua University.

Participants in the cabin of the ship

"Qing Yan 1" is the first scientific expedition and trial ship of both Shenzhen City and Tsinghua University, which aims to facilitate the development of marine-related disciplines in Tsinghua University. Construction of the ship started in 2016 with measurements of 49.8m, 13m and 4.4m respectively. Its full load displacement is near 1,000 tons, with an economic speed of 11Kn. In Oct 2018, parts of the navigation system of "Qing Yan 1" were tested in the Yangtze river, acknowledging that the maximum speed, performance of the main equipment and other indicators met the requirements. In Nov 2018, the sea trial of "Qing Yan 1" was carried out in the East China Sea near Shanghai. In April 2019, the first scientific expedition was successfully completed in the Pearl River Estuary sea area.

One of the main tasks of "Qing Yan 1" is to provide sea trial services for Shenzhen and beyond. In the future, trials concerning the hydrodynamics and environmental endurance of ocean engineering equipment will be arranged to reveal the influence of the complex marine environment of the South China Sea. The ship will also serve as a research platform for dynamics of drilling platforms and inventions of new ocean engineering equipment. This ship is believed to  help Shenzhen advance in the fields of ocean engineering, marine science and relevant technologies. It is considered a milestone in the development of marine science and technology for both Tsinghua University and Shenzhen City.

Tsinghua marine test field

The ceremony held on May 19 also announced the service of a maritime experimental field near Guiling Island, Shanwei. The experimental field allows researchers to test innovative marine technology without using scaled-down physical models. Together with a wave basin located in the Tsinghua Ocean Building on the SIGS campus and supercomputers that are capable of large-scale computation, these infrastructure provide unique opportunties for research and consulting.  The wave basin is equipped with an open-ended wind tunnel that is able to generate wind flows with prescribed characteristics. Both the wave basin and experimental field provide realistic wind and wave conditions of the South China Sea, which is vital to research on deepwater equipment, offshore platforms and floating wind turbines. 

Ceremony to announce service of "Qing Yan 1"