Fugro Bolsters Metocean Modeling Capabilities

Fugro has strengthened its numerical modeling capabilities in response to an increased interest in new development areas for oil and gas and renewable energy, resulting in a growing demand for high-quality metocean data relating to these largely unexplored regions.

Modeling the complexities of local environmental conditions requires refinement, both in the wind fields driving the models and in the model grid size. Although global models are available, their scale is often too large to capture regional features like tropical cyclones with enough accuracy.

Fugro’s newly expanded team of modelers are now working to fill this gap by creating a range of small-scale regional hindcast models that are nested within coarser global versions and driven by atmospheric model data.

Validation is an essential part of the modeling process. Fugro claims to hold a unique advantage in this respect thanks to an increasing bank of specific, measured metocean data from a range of locations around the world, serving as a validation source.

The products and services the modeling team can provide include long-term data sets for wind, wave and current hindcast; atmospheric, wave and current forecasts; and the site-specific modeling of near-shore wave and current processes.

These are not the only areas where the organization is expanding its numerical modeling expertise. Fugro is also using atmospheric and current models to drive oil spill modeling software, resulting in improved accuracy in the prediction of oil spill trajectories, the company said.

Fugro is coupling current and wave models with sediment transport modules to derive the sediment pathways and identify the erosional and depositional areas to be considered in the planning and design of port and coastal infrastructure. The team is also addressing the impact that the construction of industrial infrastructure, such as a desalination or power plant, has on the quality of coastal waters.