Development of near-real time software to aid in at-sea seafloor engineering decision making with a GIS interface

The seafloor can vary greatly from location to location and with time. As such, even with the best pre-construction surveys and planning, real time seafloor engineering decisions are often made minutes before a piece of equipment is placed on the seafloor. To aid in making these at-sea decisions, NFESC has been developing software and algorithms that automate the processing of seafloor soil strength data and use the strength data to make near-real time engineering calculations. The soil strength profiles (SSP) may be collected from Mini-Cone Penetrometers, XDPs (expendable Doppler Penetrometers) and cores, with strength data stored in a geo-referenced database. A field user can access the database though the software interface and choose from any of the locations where SSP data is available to perform automated engineering calculations. Engineering calculations currently available using the software include sliding, tilting, settlement and recovery force (breakout). New engineering calculations can also be added as modules to the software. This paper will give an overview of the program components and software logic, with emphasis on how the user interfaces with the GIS.