Ocean Engineering
Considerable engineering experience has been derived from the work of federal agencies in development of the largest taut-moored instrumented buoy system ever deployed in the deep ocean. Developed by Ocean Science 81 Engineering, Inc., it is useful in observation and prediction of environmental changes.
The system embodies substantial advances in design. It incorporates, among other features, an acoustically commanded underwater winch for adjustment of the mooring depth after the buoy is deployed, and for recovering a 16,000-pound submerged data-recording instrument canister. This buoy system can survive being moored in up to 18,000-foot depths of the open ocean for upward of 30 days.
The very first deep-ocean, taut-moored buoy system was developed for the government in 1954, and has since become an important tool for oceanographers and others who seek stable instrument platforms at sea. The buoys have the advantage of minimizing horizontal movement due to currents, winds, and waves.
The National Marine Consultants Division of Interstate Electronics Corporation has developed for the government a system for measuring the propagation of seismic sea waves (tsunamis).
Work of these sorts contributes materially to reliable ocean engineering. And the measurements made by these sophisticated instruments contribute to our knowledge of ocean fluid dynamics and wave mechanics.
Corrosion is a huge, ever-present problem plaguing oceanographic engineers, ship designers, mariners, operators of desalination plants, petroleum companies with offshore facilities, and, in fact, everyone who places structures in salt water to do useful work. While the basic mechanisms of corrosion are known, there are many detailed aspects that are not: For example, the precise role of bacteriological slimes in causing corrosion on supposedly protected structures. Radioisotope tracers now are helping engineers follow the chemical, physical, and biological actions in corrosion processes.