FACILITIES
Research facilities for the ocean engineering program are located in the Hydromechanics
Laboratories, Civil Engineering Laboratory Building, and Offshore Technology Research
Center on the main campus of Texas A&M. Equipment housed within these laboratories
includes the following:
- Three-dimensional deep water wave basin
- Two long two-dimensional wave channels
- Three-dimensional shallow water wave basin
- Long towing tank
- Two variable slope open channel flumes
- Dredge pump test loop
- Automatic data acquisition systems
- Laser and Acoustic Doppler Anemometers
The Texas A&M University System also has campuses at Galveston and Corpus Christi
which provide field research opportunities. These campuses have their own faculty and
students with a host of equipment for field experiments. They provide excellent
opportunities for ocean engineering students wishing to focus on field research. Students
also have access to computer equipment ranging from PCs to workstations to CRAY
Supercomputers.
CENTERS
Offshore Technology Research Center
The Offshore Technology Research Center is a joint venture between the University of
Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University. It was founded in 1988 to undertake basic
engineering research to support economical resource development in deep offshore waters.
Research is performed in three major research thrust areas: Fluid/Structure Interactions,
Materials/Structural Integrity, and Seafloor/Foundation Engineering. One of the primary
missions of the Offshore Technology Research Center is to provide a strong educational
program related to offshore technology, including the allied branches of science and
engineering. The Center is committed to providing students with cross-disciplinary team
research experience, industrial interaction, and an integrated engineering systems
approach to the field of offshore technology. These educational goals are accomplished
through active student involvement in the research programs of the Center, enhancement of
the instructional program, the development of instructional materials, and a broad
educational outreach program.
The Center for Dredging Studies
The Center for Dredging Studies was established in 1968 as a result of conferences held
between educators, representatives of the dredging industry, manufacturers, and officials
at Texas A&M University. The Center is part of the Department of Civil Engineering and
the Texas Engineering Experiment Station and is supported by gifts and research grants
from the dredging industry and the government. In addition to research and industrial
testing, the Center’s activities include teaching university courses and providing
annual seminars and short courses concerning advances in dredging engineering technology.
WES Graduate Institute
The Ocean Engineering Program is a partner with the Waterways Experiment Station
Graduate Institute with approximately six students from the Corps of Engineers attending
the program every two years. These students study at Texas A&M and at WES and receive
their graduate degree from the Ocean Engineering Program. About four or five visiting
faculty are appointed from WES each year.
Center for Texas Shores and Beaches
Established by the state legislature in 1993 in recognition of the state’s eroding
shoreline, the Center focuses research on the erosion problem. The Center is an entity
consisting of the capabilities at the Galveston, Corpus Christi, and College Station
campuses.
GRADUATE COURSES
Arctic Offshore Engineering OCEN 620
Arctic and sub-arctic cold regions engineering; ice mechanics, sea ice formation,
material properties and ice forces; limit load concepts, probabilistic methods, offshore
structures; islands, mobile and fixed platforms, new concepts and optimal design.
Dynamics of Ocean Vehicles OCEN 630
Dynamics and stability of motion of immersed and floating structures and ocean
vehicles; maneuverability and control; behavior of ocean vehicles and stationary platforms
in waves. Design considerations leading to motion reduction; applications to surface
vessels, submersibles and drilling rigs.
Ocean Wave Mechanics OCEN 671
Wave theory and applications to engineering problems; linear and nonlinear theories of
regular gravity waves; wave proper- ties and transformation in shoaling water; spectral
analysis of irregular waves; forecasting, hindcasting and theoretical spectra.
Coastal Engineering OCEN 672
Effects of waves on coastal structures; design of seawall break- waters, jetties,
harbors, ship channels and pipelines; intentional and accidental discharge of pollutants;
diffusion and spreading; oil spill containment and collection.
Dynamics of Offshore Structures OCEN 676
Review of concepts of linear structural dynamic analysis for time and frequency domain
simulations, functional design of offshore platforms, pipelines, floating structures and
moorings; environmental loading problems; hydrodynamic phenomena including wind and
current interaction, vortex shedding and wave forces; structure-fluid interaction models.
Hydromechanics OCEN 678
General conservation laws; Euler’s equation, forms of the Bernoulli’s equation;
potential flow of an incompressible fluid; flow past a body of any shape, source and
vortex distribution; lift for a slender body; linear and nonlinear water waves; small
amplitude oscillations in a compressible ideal fluid or viscous flow theory.
Seminar OCEN 681
Reports and discussion of current research and of selected published technical
articles.
Coastal Sediment Processes OCEN 682
Sediment properties and size distribution, fluvial sediment transport equations,
movement of material by the sea, review of pertinent wave theories, littoral drift, inlet
stability, coastal protection structures, similarity in sediment transport, movable bed
models, sediment tracing, Aeolian sand transport, case studies.
Estuary Hydrodynamics OCEN 683
Development of applicable equations for tidal dynamics applied to real estuaries;
technology for determination of mean velocities, circulation patterns, water depth,
turbulent dispersion patterns, etc., for solution of environmental problems in estuaries;
physical and mathematical models.
Problems OCEN 685
Special topics not within scope of thesis research and not covered by other formal
courses.
Offshore and Coastal Structures CVEN 686
Fundamental design and analysis techniques; offshore platform analysis by computer
(STRUDL, STRAN); pile driving analysis of large offshore piles by the wave equation;
finite element analysis of underwater shells of revolution; solutions to problems
submitted by industry to the class during the semester.
Marine Foundation Engineering OCEN 687
Foundation engineering problems associated with a marine environment; settlement and
bearing capacity and analysis of near- shore and offshore foundations; computer programs
used to analyze axially-loaded piles, laterally-loaded piles and sheet-pile walls.
Marine Dredging OCEN 688
Dredge pump selection; pump and system characteristics; cavitation; types of dredges;
continental shelf and deep-ocean dredging; head loss in horizontal and vertical pipes for
two and three-phase flow; design of disposal methods for dredged material; environmental
effects of dredging.
Special Topics in Ocean Engineering OCEN 689
Selected topics in an identified area of ocean engineering.
Dynamic Fluid-Solid Interaction MEMA 650
Dynamic interaction between fluid and solid systems with applications to space
vehicles, nuclear reactors, heat exchangers and structures in general; hydro-elasticity,
hydrostatic divergence, flow induced vibrations, instability and compliant surfaces.
Theory of Fluid Mechanics Models CVEN 679
Dimensional analysis; model laws; mathematical techniques; applications to fluid
mechanics and coastal engineering models; fixed-bed; movable-bed, geometric and distorted
models for flows with free surface; sediment transport; waves, tides and estuary models.