Environmental Hydraulics
This page is under construction
Our facilities
Wave power
 |
Wave Power Machine
Seabed Object Interaction
Phil Mulhearn
Jiaxue (Jessie) Wu (Tongji University)
Sea floor
A number of studies are underway of the way various objects
interact with the seabed either on impact, when they are laid from a ship or
aircraft, or subsequently due to the effects of various processes. Examples
include:
- Modelling
the extent to which objects will bury on impact. This is relevant to
burial of explosive sea mines and of large mooring and anchoring devices.
- The rate and extent of burial of three-dimensional
objects by scour under the action of waves and tidal currents, which is
important for the same reasons.
- The physics of free-fall penetrometer
impacts and the relation between sediment shear strength and impact
dynamics. A number of free-fall penetrometers
have been under development with the aim of being able to rapidly survey
seabed properties. These are desirable for both military and for offshore
engineering purposes.
A compact automated vane-shear apparatus is also under development
for obtaining in-situ seabed shear-strength data from small boats. Current
equipment is both heavy and unwieldy and requires the use of vessels of a
reasonable size.
Scour around a cube
under wave action
An example of a free-fall penetrometer, the STING, from http://www.agoenvironmental.com/STING_Descrip.htm