Ocean Engineering at the University of Oxford
The emphasis of much of the research in this group in the
Department of Engineering Science
is on the loading and dynamic response of offshore structures. Several offshore companies
are closely associated with the work.
The research on hydrodynamic loading is partly aimed towards developing methods
to evaluate non-linear wave diffraction. This is relevant both to the large low frequency
motions of compliant structures in random waves, and to high frequency "springing" and
"ringing" excitation of floating structuress. Applications include structures for offshore oil and gas exploitation, and for harnessing wind, wave and tidal energy.
A major area of interest is the development of methods in marine computational
fluid dynamics. This involves the study of both fully non-linear potential
flow models, and models based on the Navier-Stokes equations. Some of this
work involves joint projects with the
CFD Research Group at University College London.
Studies of the dynamic response of offshore structures in waves include both fixed and
compliant platforms. An important area involves the application of signal processing
techniques to non-linear systems in random waves.
There are sometimes vacancies available in the group, details of which are available through the main web site of the
Department of Engineering Science.