A Real-Time System for Forecasting Extreme Waves and Vessel Motions

The University of Michigan is leading a team that includes subcontractors Ohio State University, Aquaveo, LLC, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute to design, implement, and test an Environmental and Ship Motion Forecasting (ESMF) system. The system has application to many challenges associated with offshore operations, including skin-to-skin transfer of cargo/personnel and extreme wave/response prediction. Briefly, the system uses a modified commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) Doppler marine radar to determine the wave field surrounding the vessel; nonlinear wave theory to propagate the wave surface forward in time; and seakeeping theory to predict future vessel motions. A major challenge is that all computations must be done in real time. This paper will briefly describe the system and show an example application of predicting extreme waves and motions for a floating offshore type platform.