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June 2009 swinburne<br />
Oceanography<br />
23<br />
Hs (m) January<br />
6<br />
Hs (m) August<br />
6<br />
60<br />
60<br />
40<br />
5<br />
40<br />
5<br />
20<br />
4<br />
20<br />
4<br />
0<br />
3<br />
0<br />
3<br />
−20<br />
2<br />
−20<br />
2<br />
−40<br />
1<br />
−40<br />
1<br />
−60<br />
−60<br />
50 100 150 200 250 300 350<br />
0<br />
50 100 150 200 250 300 350<br />
0<br />
and other marine structures.<br />
“To design a platform you need to<br />
know the typical wave height in a one-in-<br />
100-year storm, so the top <strong>of</strong> the platform<br />
will be above the waves. Every extra<br />
metre you don’t need to build can save<br />
you $10 million,” Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Young says.<br />
Likewise marine architects can study<br />
the conditions along the sea routes their<br />
new vessels will sail based on decades<br />
<strong>of</strong> information, and shape the design<br />
accordingly. Planners <strong>of</strong> coastal cities and<br />
ports can better adapt their seafront to the<br />
extremes expected under climate change.<br />
Industry partner RPS MetOcean hopes<br />
to obtain precise information about ocean<br />
conditions in specific locations out <strong>of</strong> the<br />
new dataset to improve the design quality<br />
and efficiency <strong>of</strong> their projects.<br />
“As physical oceanographic consultants<br />
working mainly with the <strong>of</strong>fshore oil and<br />
gas industry, our job is to quantify the<br />
marine environment their structures are<br />
likely to have to withstand over the coming<br />
50 to 60 years,” explains MetOcean’s Steve<br />
Buchan. “We need to be able to predict the<br />
future wave climate in particular, because<br />
waves are usually the greatest determinant <strong>of</strong><br />
the survival <strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong>fshore structures, typically<br />
exerting more force than winds or currents.”<br />
Optimising the design <strong>of</strong> these steel<br />
leviathans requires a deep insight into likely<br />
wave conditions now and in the future. For<br />
the first time, the <strong>Swinburne</strong> project <strong>of</strong>fers<br />
The average wave<br />
height around the<br />
world (Hs), measured<br />
in metres, during the<br />
month <strong>of</strong> January (left)<br />
and August (right),<br />
obtained from the<br />
satellite database.<br />
The colour bar to the<br />
right shows the scale<br />
from 0 to 6 metres.<br />
Note the high waves<br />
in the North Atlantic<br />
and North Pacific<br />
during the northern<br />
hemisphere winter<br />
(January). The Southern<br />
Ocean is rough all year,<br />
with the maximum<br />
waves occurring in the<br />
southern hemisphere<br />
winter (August).<br />
that information planet-wide, Mr Buchan<br />
says. “We will use the data to improve<br />
and calibrate the models we use to predict<br />
ocean conditions so platform developers can<br />
design to a less than one-in-10,000 chance <strong>of</strong><br />
structural failure.”<br />
RPS MetOcean is one <strong>of</strong> a handful<br />
<strong>of</strong> companies worldwide with this sort<br />
<strong>of</strong> capability, and early access to the<br />
consolidated global wave data will give<br />
Australia a clear competitive edge in the<br />
field, he adds. ••<br />
Contact. .w<br />
<strong>Swinburne</strong> <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Technology</strong><br />
1300 MY SWIN (1300 697 946)<br />
magazine@swinburne.edu.au<br />
www.swinburne.edu.au/magazine