Open challenges for structural dynamics in marine engineering

Short- and long-term strategies to address climate change together with the rapid growth of some new technologies and sectors have brought significant modifications in the field of marine engineering. In this respect, a traditional and well consolidated sector such as maritime transportation is experiencing a sudden increase of innovation to deal with new requirements in terms of environmental impact but maintaining the necessary level of safety. On the other side, emerging sectors such as marine robotics and new challenges for the offshore engineering, including the deep-sea mining and the exploitation of marine renewable energies, have introduced new issues which cannot be translated into a simple knowledge and technology transfer. Most of the structural dynamics related problems in marine engineering involve hydroelastic interaction therefore, the analysis of the coupling characteristics is fundamental for a correct verification of the structural resistance and for the development of ad hoc mitigation strategies. Innovative materials, active control and advanced methodologies for the design are the main features of this transformation. In this paper some new trends for structural dynamics related problems in the field of maritime transport, offshore structures and underwater robotics are analyzed and discussed.