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COFS academic Dr Shazzad Hossain has been awarded a 2015 UWA Vice-Chancellor’s Mid-Career Research Award at a ceremony held during UWA’s Research Week.

Shazzad is an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Fellow (2014~16) whose research focuses on the foundations for mobile drilling rigs and anchoring systems for floating platforms in the oil and gas industry.

Shazzad, along with his 3 PhD students, has developed a robust automated design approach for characterisation of seabed layering, and identification of spudcan punch-through hazard from in situ penetrometer data. Industry partner Keppel Offshore and Marine Pte Ltd is implementing the design approach in their designed rigs. His research outcomes are also being implemented by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. Shazzad has also devised new notions and spudcan shapes for mitigating two major reasons for drilling rig failures (cost US$10~30m/event) – punch-through and footprint interaction issues.

For deep water (>150 m depths), Shazzad’s research is underpinning the design of anchoring systems (used to support e.g. FPSOs, FLNG units) in calcareous sediments. He has devised improved total-energy based-, and cone penetrometer-based design approaches and failure envelopes for torpedo anchors installation and capacity under operational loadings. Importantly, he has developed a novel fish anchor. These are timely as Australia’s offshore oil and gas developments progressing into water depths in excess of 1000 m.

Further information on Dr Hossain’s research and publications are available on his UWA staff profile.

Media references

Dr Shazzad Hossain , Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems, +61 8 6488 7358