Marco A. Öttl (Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Technical Hydromechanics, UniBw M)
The burial and displacement of objects on the seabed pose significant risks to maritime safety, navigation, and ecological integrity, particularly in busy coastal waters like the North Sea. To address this challenge, the research project aims to develop and validate an advanced numerical model capable of accurately predicting these processes. Building upon existing research, the project endeavours to create a probabilistic forecasting tool to determine sedimentation processes induced by waves and currents. The objective is to enhance the prediction of sedimentation patterns affecting objects, including partially or fully buried ones, thereby reducing associated risks and improving detection capabilities. The study initially focuses on water depths ranging from 10 to 60 meters, examining timeframes from several hours to a few months. The simulation comprehensively accounts for critical hydrodynamic processes such as wave actions, currents, and seabed structural characteristics. Currently, the project utilizes a software solution primarily based on ArcGIS combined with Python scripting. This solution leverages existing model input data that will be provided in the future by the Bundeswehr’s Geoinformation Service. It incorporates Python libraries such as arcpy for geographic data processing, NumPy for numerical computations, and Pandas for efficient data management. Despite these strengths, the existing model exhibits limitations in terms of computational efficiency and scalability. Additionally, the model experiences excessive memory usage due to inefficient handling of large raster datasets, compounded by limited parallel processing capabilities.
The research group at the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Technical Hydromechanics at the University of the German Armed Forces Munich intends to leverage the resources of hpc.bw to optimize numerical algorithms, parallelize computationally intensive processes, and enhance memory management strategies. Additionally, the project aims to develop the foundations for a graphical user interface to facilitate user interaction. Furthermore, this should establish a simple internal communication structure for the German Armed Forces activities, which will be further developed over the course of the project. Regular collaboration with HPC specialists will complement the development efforts, significantly advancing the capability to perform accurate, large-scale hydrodynamic simulations relevant to marine engineering contexts.