This presentation, hosted by the Royal Institution of Naval Architects will focus on two key topics:

1. Physical experiments in a wave basin and fluid dynamic simulations on wave interactions with floating structures:

LNG Side-by-Side offloading operations in operational sea state – with wave resonance in the gap, and (ii) green water events for FPSOs in extreme sea states – wave on deck, arising from the combination of incoming waves, wave scattering off the hull, ship motions and overtopping. New, interesting and practically important phenomena have been captured for both problems. Attendees will discover how we have unravelled new physics and built efficient prediction models, with practical engineering applications to the fore.

2. Overview of wave-energy convertors followed by examples investigated recently (flexible bag device and M4 wave-energy converter):

A history overview of wave energy will follow with a discussion about fundamentals of wave energy absorption, highlighting some challenges arising from the oscillatory nature of the problem, and conclude with examples of wave energy converters that we have been investigating recently. These will including flexible bag device and M4 wave-energy converter, as a snapshot of our recent research efforts towards making progress in this fascinating field.

About the speakers

Dr Wenhua Zhao
Senior Research Fellow, The University of Western Australia
Wenhua is a DECRA fellow and Shell-funded Senior Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia. His research focuses on hydrodynamics and wave-structure interactions, which has led to more than 70 publications spaning from the most renowned academic journal in fluid mechanics to most industry-focused conferences. Wenhua has been serving as a Chief Investigator for the Offshore Hub (https://www.offshorehub.edu.au) and the TIDE (https://tide.edu.au). He was elected as a By-Fellow in 2020 at Churchill College of Cambridge University, and he is currently a Deputy Editor for the Ocean Engineering journal.

Dr Adi Kurniawan
Research Fellow, The University of Western Australia
Adi is a Research Fellow with the Wave Energy Research Centre, UWA. His research covers aspects of wave energy conversion, wave-structure interactions, and multi-objective optimisation. He has numerically modelled a variety of wave-energy converters. Adi obtained his PhD in Marine Technology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Before joining UWA, he worked at Aalborg University, Denmark, and the University of Plymouth, UK. Adi is the co-author of Ocean Waves and Oscillating Systems: Linear Interactions Including Wave-Energy Extraction (2nd edition). He is a member of the Standards Australia Committee EL-066 on Marine energy.

Piotr Sujkowski
Floating Systems Manager, Subsea Engineering Associates
Piotr is a professional naval architect with over 27 years of experience in the offshore oil & gas, shipbuilding and defence industries. He specialises in Floating Production Systems such as FPSO, FSO or FSRU. Piotr’s career started with engineering design and analysis, and then marine surveying and ship construction with a major international classification society. He later moved into offshore oil and gas industry and has been working in the areas of engineering consulting, offshore construction management and business management. Piotr has held various roles, including Engineering and Project Manager, Construction and Commissioning Manager and a Vice President of a floating systems business unit. He is a Chairman of The Royal Institution of Naval Architects, Western Australian Section.