Metocean Data in the South China Sea: Hindcast (SEAFINE) vs. Measured Data

Offshore engineering has always been significantly more complex in design compared to land-based civil engineering works due to the fact that it is located in a fluid body which has an unpredictable nature or in statistical terms, stochastic in nature. The stochastic nature of sea conditions are coupled with the effect of ocean currents on top of the more extreme wind conditions prevalent in open seas. As such, a strong understanding or fundamental of these environmental/metocean loads at sea form a critical component in almost every stage of an offshore facility’s life cycle. These stages include the design of facilities and forecasting of operations for offshore vessels. The understanding of these metocean loads will be critical from two ends of the engineering consideration, which is to prevent loss of life as a result of structural failure or capsizing (underdesign) and to prevent the overdesign of offshore structures (which results in excessive usage of steel in fabrication)