Naval Ocean Facilities Research And Development - An Historical Perspective And Current Status

The Navy's ocean facilities engineering research program was initiated at the Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory (NCEL) some 20 years ago and continues there as a vigorous component of the military ocean engineering program. This program exists to support the facilities and logistics needs and capabilities of naval operating forces. The scope of this research program ranges from fully developed ports and remote beach facilities to deep ocean construction sites in 20,000 feet of water. This program has led to hardware and methods suitable for direct application and benefit to operating forces and field activities. These accomplishments vary from a simple modification of a commercially available hand tool to permit a working diver to accomplish a new underwater task, to sophisticated finite element computer programs to analyze the motions and tensions of complex three-dimensional ocean cable structures, to an offshore bulk fuel handling system centering around a 62-ton single point mooring buoy secured by four drag embedded anchors, each having a holding capacity of over 400,000 pounds. As controlled by the overview nature of the paper, each topic is only briefly addressed. Although less than complete in technical detail, the paper serves as a thorough reference to naval ocean facilities R&D accomplishments.