Floating offshore oil drilling platforms, offshore wind farms and buoys are vulnerable to waves, especially those from storm swells. But a team of engineers has found a way to make those ocean-faring structures invisible to waves. The technique could help protect marine structures from damage when big storms hit.
Mohammed-Reza Alam, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, have designed a rippled platform that sits on the seafloor directly below an ocean-faring structure. The ripples in the platform influence the the behavior of the water all the way up to the surface -- ultimately reducing the size of damaging surface waves. Alam calls…
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