The centrifuge facility at COFS is among the most active in the world, providing crucial geotechnical data and prediction models that enable the development of safe, economical and robust geotechnical structure for the offshore energy sector.
COFS currently operates the only geotechnical centrifuge facility in Australia, with a 3.6m diameter fixed beam centrifuge and a second 1.2m drum centrifuge.
A third 10m diameter centrifuge will be housed in the soon to be built Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre at UWA, which will make COFS the only geotechnical modelling facility in the world with three centrifuges.
The centrifuge team, headed by Christophe Gaudin (COFS Deputy Director and Centrifuge Manager) and Conleth O’Loughlin (Deputy Centrifuge Manager) maintain a full schedule of centrifuge experiments from local and international academics and industry clients, working closely with our in house workshop to design scale models of offshore infrastructure components.
Industry clients
The centrifuge facilities preform tests for industry clients including Advanced Geomechanics, TOTAL, Keppel, Delmar, ExxonMobil and Woodside. Additionally, over the past year we had an unprecedented number of requests for model T-bars, CPTS, piezocones, piezoballs, load cells etc., from research centres including the US Army Corp of Engineers, National University of Singapore, Dalian University of Technology, Tongji University, Zhejiang University and Institute of Technology, Sligo.
For questions regarding the centrifuge program contact: Christophe Gaudin
University information
CRICOS Code: 00126G
