Blogs provide updates on activities in the industry and the SNAME Offshore Technical and Research Committee. Contributions and comments on this and other topics are welcome.
The leadership team of the SNAME Offshore Technical and Research Committee (OC) is:
Jim Brekke, OC Chair; OC-10 Panel Chair (acting) – Ocean Renewable Energy
Arjan Voogt, OC-8 Panel Chair – Wind Technologies; OC-8 Subcommittee Chair – Wind Tunnel Testing
Brian Cheater, OC-9 Panel Chair – Robustness of FPSs, OC-8 Subcommittee Chair – Empirical Methods;
Wei Ma, David Hodapp, OC-8 Subcommittee Co-Chairs – Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
Jorge Martinez, OC-8 Expert Consultant – Wind Tunnel Testing
Karel Wagner, OC-10 Subcommittee Chair – Wind Turbine Installation – Jack-Ups
Michael Raftery, OC-10 Subcommittee Chair – Marine Hydrokinetics
Lars Samuelsson, OC-10 Subcommittee Chair – Floating Wind Energy Installations
Below is a recap of the activities of SNAME OC through June 2019.
SNAME OC-8
The OC-8 panel on Wind Technologies delivered a session at the OTC Conference in Houston that was comprised of seven papers, one of which won a SNAME Best Paper award. A model used for the wind tunnel testing work was displayed with videos at the SNAME Technology Pavilion at OTC.
OC-8 is continuing work on the preparation of two SNAME bulletins among other documents. The first bulletin is an update to the 1988 SNAME bulletin “Guidelines for Wind Tunnel Testing” which is nearing completion. The second bulletin will be called “Guidelines for Wind Load Estimation”.
SNAME OC-9
The OC-9 panel on Robustness of Floating Production Systems delivered a panel session in February of 2018 at the SNAME Offshore Symposium in Houston. This session focused on the new SNAME Bulletin on Robustness of Floating Production Systems – Definitions and Philosophy. A printed version of this bulletin was also made available at the SNAME Technology Pavilion at the OTC. Further work is planned for a Joint Industry Program to document industry practices and write a second version of the bulletin.
SNAME OC-10
The OC-10 panel on Ocean Renewable Energy worked jointly with ASCE to deliver an OTC Conference panel session entitled “Offshore Wind Energy in the US: Dawn of an Industry”. Panelists included the government regulators BOEM and NYSERDA, together with five industry stakeholders. In addition, a former Dept. of Energy – Renewables official was secured to serve as an OTC luncheon keynote speaker.
The OC-10 panel also established 3 subcommittees on the subjects of Wind Turbine Installation (WTI) Jack-Ups, Marine Hydrokinetics, and Floating Wind Energy Installations. Interest in WTI jack-ups has led to two large meetings and a plan for a joint-industry program to write a SNAME Bulletin on industry standards.
Jim Brekke
Brekke Offshore Consulting, LLC 