Extreme Engineer of the Month

Profile: Evan Zimmerman, Ocean Engineer

Evan’s interest in ocean engineering began with a fascination with oceans in general. Coupling that with a strong interest in structural and mechanical engineering lead him to the off-shore area within the field. He didn’t enter college as an ocean engineering major, however. Despite his interest in the field, he didn’t feel he had enough information to know if it was truly a good fit for him. While he declared computer engineering as his major going in, presentations he attended during his first semester at Texas A&M triggered the switch. Evan was fascinated by the kinds of problems ocean engineers solve in their work off shore—finding ways to develop the off shore oil and gas. “It was one of those frontier areas where there is room for creativity and innovation,” Evan says.

As a student, Evan won several awards. His senior design project won the American Society of Mechanical Engineers International’s Best Student Project for 1998 for the Ocean Engineering Division. The project focused on designing mooring systems for water depths ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 feet of water. Current water depth records were in the 6,000 to 7,000 foot range. A feasible mooring system that would work in up to 10,000 feet of water was something industry was looking for. He worked on a similar project during his internship with David Tein, Ph.D., a respected naval architect with nearly three decades of experience in the field. He worked for David part time during the school year beginning his sophomore year and full time during summers. Since it was a small firm, Evan was able to work on real projects with industry members even before he graduated. He got the theory in class and practiced or saw the implementation of theory almost real time. In January of his senior year, he accepted a full-time position with David for after graduation. His work with David was focused on the front end design side. Projects were then handed off to clients for implementation. In his current position with Delmar he has the ability to take a project from front end design then follow it all the way through implementation off shore.

While Evan won awards as a student, he helped to set a world record as an engineer with Delmar. The record was for the deepest anchor depth, which they set in Alaninos Canyon in the Western Gulf of Mexico. The water depth was 9,100 feet at the well. The deepest anchor was right at 10,000 feet. “Delmar prides itself on the being the first to do things,” say Evan. Delmar worked closely with Shell on the project, which allowed Shell to access their deep water leases that were conventionally not available for a moored vessel. “Conventionally they were only available to dynamically positioned drill ships,” says Evan, “which has a much more expensive day rate than a moored vessel.”

Among Evan’s current projects, he’s working on a joint industry/government project team on mobile off shore drilling unit mooring reliability in the Gulf of Mexico. This has become a priority because of recent hurricane activity. Working closely with all of major operators, majority of independents, and joint contractors, he’s studying and assessing the current rig fleet in the gulf to develop more reliable mooring systems that will reduce business interruption. The project goal: to mitigate potential damage to infrastructure to limit business interruption.

While no loss of life or major environment incidents occurred during Katrina, there was significant pipeline damage on the seafloor, which resulted in 20 percent of off shore production being shut down. “That has a direct impact on the market price of oil and gas,” says Evan. “That’s what we see at the pump. That’s why we’re getting a lot of participation from government agencies in the project as well.”

Among Evan’s other innovations at Delmar was inventing a new anchor that helps mitigate damage during storms. The patent for this new devise is expected to be published soon. “It’s essentially a gravity installed anchor,” says Evan. “It’s lowered to near the sea floor and released,” he says. Among the product details, it penetrates into the mud under its own weight. It has an attachment point that rotates 360 degrees around, which means it will still have holding capacity if you pull on it in almost any direction. He notes that this is different than the way anchors are currently designed. He also says that it dives under load, which means as you pull harder on the anchor it will continue to go deeper into the soil. That, in turn, means that it will continue to gain capacity as you put more load on it—an additional benefit of the anchor. His project team started testing with 10 and 12 inch anchors in mud tanks. Then they built a full scale prototype and took it off shore for more testing.

A third innovation Evan has worked on is synthetic ropes for mooring systems. The elasticity, lightweight in the water, and corrosion free properties are significant benefits. The rope is designed with filter cloth barriers, so that it can be put in the mud without damage—a limitation on prior designs. The ropes, which are buoyant but have the same strength as steel, allow anchors to be much more stable in their free fall to the ocean floor.

Evan says that he likes the fact that his engineering specialty is a frontier field. He says it’s a part of engineering where there is still much left to be done. “Invention and innovation takes place on a day-to-day basis in this field,” he says. “We get continual challenges not only from companies wanting to be able to go deeper but also from mother nature,” he says. It’s a very dynamic industry. With current oil price conditions, it’s a field that is getting national attention. “Our oil reserves in the gulf are being seen as a national asset,” he says. The offshore sector is currently projected to be about 30 percent of our domestic production, and it’s expected to increase in the future.

While most of Evan’s work is on dry land, he does get off shore a couple of times a year to test products, do some fact finding tours, or investigate things off shore that they’re having trouble understanding.

Evan recommends the field to students looking for challenge, the opportunity to innovate, and a field with high demand. Evan says that it’s a field with many professionals nearing retirement age. “If students enjoy the creative side of inventing things, ocean engineering is one of the best fields to get into,” he says. “Because you’re dealing with such harsh environments, the structures must be built to withstand wind forces far beyond what land structures are designed for. In addition, you’re not dealing static structures, but dynamic structures, which can move thousands of feet during a storm.” For Evan all of that makes this an exciting field to be part of.

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