Ocean Engineering is an ambiguously-defined discipline, but may refer to Oceanographic Engineering[1] a term describing Marine Electronics Engineering applied to supporting the work of Oceanographers; or, may refer to Offshore Engineering, or Maritime Engineering, which is the branch of engineering allied to Civil Engineering, and concerned with the technical aspects of fixed and floating offshore marine structures and systems related to harnessing ocean resources. These include offshore oil and gas and the rapidly-expanding area of ocean renewable energy, as well as other ocean resource activities such as sub-sea mining and aquaculture.[2]
The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) describes the work of "Ocean Engineers" as follows:
- Ocean engineers study the ocean environment to determine its effects on ships and other marine vehicles and structures. Ocean engineers may design and operate stationary ocean platforms, or manned or remote-operated sub-surface vehicles used for deep sea exploration. [3]
Although the term appears to describe one who designs, maintains, and operates oceans, the SNAME description bears a strong resemblance to a conflation of Naval Architecture, Marine Electronics, and Offshore Engineering.
As with all engineering disciplines Ocean Engineering should be concerned with the design and operation of systems - in the Ocean; and should not be confused with Oceanography - the scientific study of Oceanic systems; nor Marine Electronics Engineering (Oceanographic Engineering), which is concerned with the design and operation of remote sensing systems. Ocean Engineering sounds essentially like another name for Offshore Engineering and a variant term for Subsea Engineering to encompass the reality of Subsea structures and systems being both above and below the water. Ocean Engineering does not include the design of ships (Naval Architecture), or the design of electronic, electrical and mechanical systems that exist within ships and offshore installations.
"Ocean Engineering" is essentially an American neologism for Offshore Civil Engineering and Oceanographic Electronic Engineering; as such it may encompass the study of man-made structures such as nearshore piers, breakwaters, groins, piles, and sewer outfalls as well as common offshore structures such as petroleum drilling and operating platforms.
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Renewable ocean energy
The ocean environment presents a vast quantity of renewable sources of energy in the form of winds, waves, tides, currents and the density and thermal gradients between ocean water layers.
Ocean engineering education
ABET established the following criteria for the curriculum of ocean engineering programs:
- The program must demonstrate that graduates have: knowledge and the skills to apply the principles of fluid and solid mechanics, dynamics, hydrostatics, probability and applied statistics, oceanography, water waves, and underwater acoustics to engineering problems; the ability to work in groups to perform engineering design at the system level, integrating multiple technical areas and addressing design optimization.[2]
ABET currently accredits ten ocean engineering programs in the United States:
- Florida Atlantic University
- Florida Institute of Technology
- University of Florida
- University of Hawaii at Manoa
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- University of Rhode Island
- Texas A&M University
- Texas A&M University at Galveston
- United States Naval Academy
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
British institutions involved in Ocean Engineering
- University of Strathclyde
- Southampton University
- Newcastle University
- Liverpool John Moores University
See also
- Marine engineering
- Naval architecture
- Naval engineering
- Physical oceanography
- Civil engineering
- Underwater explosion
- subsea
References
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