USACE collaboration to further knowledge in ship navigation and CFD

HR Wallingford will provide ERDC with fully editable code, which the US Army Corps of Engineers’ research arm will use to develop improved operations in and around water, including beach landings and bridge crossings.

As part of the collaboration, the two organisations will share improvements and developments to the code, which will ultimately benefit all end-users of the technology.

The agreement will generate new knowledge in the areas of: coastal and fluvial hazard analysis (now and in the future); numerical modelling of fluids-soil-structure interaction; uncertainty and sensitivity analysis; multiscale sediment processes; and navigation simulation.

There will also be joint research that will result in the development of robust numerical models, analytical capabilities and electronic devices. These will be applied to a number of diverse fields such as floating and powered navigable vessel behaviour, as well as riverine, coastal, ocean and environmental processes.

The US Army Corp of Engineers have an interesting remit, which means they are not only responsible for military engineering, but for civil projects too, with mission areas in flood risk management, coastal storm damage reduction, ecosystem restoration and navigation.

This wide scope this has led to a range of existing collaborations between ERDC and HR Wallingford, including developing approaches to adapt to sea level rise, characterising extra tropical storms and levee (flood defence) design and management, as well as previous developments of CFD modelling code.

This latest partnership promises to yield similarly successful results, resulting in progress for the simulation of ship navigation and CFD technology around the world.