At the facility scale, a fundamental challenge to offshore energy assets’ safe design and operation is to understand and design all aspects of fluid-structure interaction. Our ability to predict the evolving sea state, wind, wave loads, and the dynamics of subaqueous sediment-laden currents while considering the uncertainties of the natural events that trigger them is crucial in evaluating the risk associated with the deployment of offshore energy assets.
Recent field measurements and laboratory experiments (Cross-Functional Team 5) and state-of-the-art modeling and simulation capabilities (Cross-Functional Team 4 and Cross-Functional Team 2) have greatly expanded our understanding of these flows and their effects on offshore structures. Our quest will be to apply this understanding to develop technologies that improve system safety, understand asset risk and improve resiliency.
Team Leads
The leads of the cross-functional team studying the fluid-structure interaction in harsh environments are:
- Krishna Nandakumar (Louisiana State University)
- S. “Bala” Balachandar (University of Florida)
- Brian Haus (University of Miami)
- Rick Mercier (Texas A&M University)
- Jeffry Falzarano (Texas A&M University)
Focus Areas
The team’s focus areas are:
- Physics-based models: Novel, resilient designs of assets will be developed for use in harsh environments using scalable physics-based models. The team will consider multiphase phenomena; multiphysics interactions that are involved in oil spills; multiscale aspects such as nested modeling to couple models at different scales and the development of leading-edge computer simulation programs for the global-performance evaluation and safety assessment of oil and gas platforms, offshore wind and marine energy devices (with Cross-Functional Team 2).
- Testbeds: We have access to well-testing facilities at Louisiana State University, The University of Texas at Austin, the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center and the Offshore Technology Research Center, and wind tunnel and wave generation facilities at Texas A&M University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the University of Miami. When such in-house facilities are inadequate, we will seek collaborations with facilities such as SINTEF in Norway or the Oil and Hazardous Materials Simulated Environmental Test Tank (OHMSETT) built by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
