Dr. Garry Glaspell from the U.S. Army Engineer Research...

The Port of Long Beach, California, is the second busiest port in the United States. It handles more than nine-million 20-foot container units each year with cargo valued at $200 billion. Yet existing channel dimensions and tidal delays pose limitations and inefficiencies for current and future deep draft vessel traffic. To navigate the port complex, these larger vessels must carry a lighter load from their point of origin, which ultimately increases the nation’s transportation costs by requiring more ships to move cargo into and out of the complex. In 2016, Port of Long Beach officials began to address these constraints and sought federal assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District to conduct a deep draft navigation feasibility study of the port to widen and deepen its navigation channel. To test its proposed channel design improvements, District project engineers reached out to the U.S. Army’s Watercraft and Ship Simulator, headquartered at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to run ship simulations with pilots from the Port of Long Beach. The feasibility study was completed in 2021 and included in the Water Resources Development Act of 2022. The project is now in the pre-construction engineering design phase, and Los Angeles District project engineers have once again sought out ERDC’s expertise in ship simulation to help verify the navigability and safety of the selected channel design. Watch to learn more.

The Port of Long Beach, California, is the second busiest port in the United States. It handles more than nine-million 20-foot container units each year with cargo valued at $200 billion. Yet existing channel dimensions and tidal delays pose limitations and inefficiencies for current and future deep draft vessel traffic. To navigate the port complex, these larger vessels must carry a lighter load from their point of origin, which ultimately increases the nation’s transportation costs by requiring more ships to move cargo into and out of the complex. In 2016, Port of Long Beach officials began to address these constraints and sought federal assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District to conduct a deep draft navigation feasibility study of the port to widen and deepen its navigation channel. To test its proposed channel design improvements, District project engineers reached out to the U.S. Army’s Watercraft and Ship Simulator, headquartered at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to run ship simulations with pilots from the Port of Long Beach. The feasibility study was completed in 2021 and included in the Water Resources Development Act of 2022. The project is now in the pre-construction engineering design phase, and Los Angeles District project engineers have once again sought out ERDC’s expertise in ship simulation to help verify the navigability and safety of the selected channel design. Watch to learn more.

Dr. David Young and Dr. Brandan Scully from the U.S....

Researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) along with Association of Maryland Pilots performed virtual simulation tests on a bypass channel around the Francis Scott Key Bridge accident site using the Ship/Tow Simulator located at the ERDC’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory in Vicksburg, Miss. As part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ERDC is assisting in the Unified Command’s Francis Scott Key Bridge Response mission by utilizing their real-time ship simulators to analyze methods of transporting imports and allowing cargo ships to move commerce in and out of Baltimore Harbor. (Video by: Desiree Kapler, Tim Reeves)

A team from the USACE Detroit District recently visited the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) to review ongoing research and development projects in the areas of military engineering and civil works. The visit gave Detroit District Commander Lt. Col. Brett Boyle and his team the opportunity to review technologies already available to address challenges the district is facing and to engage with ERDC’s engineers and scientists about future collaboration. Watch this video to learn more about Detroit District’s visit and the improvements they have made in their project planning process by involving R&D earlier in the process.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Maryland Port Administration have invested heavily in dredging to maintain Baltimore’s navigation channel depth and width. However, while the current configuration works well for legacy ships that can easily exit the terminal via a loop channel, those with drafts greater than 42 feet, such as Ultra Large Container Vessels, can only back out through the loop channel’s turning basin, a maneuver that presents safety concerns and vessel traffic inefficiencies. As a result, the USACE Baltimore District and the Maryland Port Administration initiated a study to identify safe, technically feasible, economically justifiable, and environmentally acceptable modifications to the existing Seagirt Loop Channel. The study included engineering improvements, such as deepening and widening the western half of the Seagirt Loop Channel, to meet future demand capacity and provide large vessels an alternative path to exit the terminal. The study also tapped the rich expertise of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Ship Simulator facility and a team of licensed pilots from the Association of Maryland Pilots, who ran multiple simulations of proposed design improvements to the Seagirt Loop Channel, providing valuable feedback on vessel navigation safety.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Maryland Port Administration have invested heavily in dredging to maintain Baltimore’s navigation channel depth and width. However, while the current configuration works well for legacy ships that can easily exit the terminal via a loop channel, those with drafts greater than 42 feet, such as Ultra Large Container Vessels, can only back out through the loop channel’s turning basin, a maneuver that presents safety concerns and vessel traffic inefficiencies. As a result, the USACE Baltimore District and the Maryland Port Administration initiated a study to identify safe, technically feasible, economically justifiable, and environmentally acceptable modifications to the existing Seagirt Loop Channel. The study included engineering improvements, such as deepening and widening the western half of the Seagirt Loop Channel, to meet future demand capacity and provide large vessels an alternative path to exit the terminal. The study also tapped the rich expertise of the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Ship Simulator facility and a team of licensed pilots from the Association of Maryland Pilots, who ran multiple simulations of proposed design improvements to the Seagirt Loop Channel, providing valuable feedback on vessel navigation safety.

The Virtual Autonomous Navigation Environment (VANE) is a suite of modeling and simulation tools developed by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). Users can leverage VANE to analyze environmental effects on an autonomous vehicle system, from sensors and algorithms to tire-soil interactions and the vehicle's mechanical performance. VANE was created from ERDC's near-surface phenomenology and sensor research that supported IED detection in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and its rich expertise in ground vehicle mobility research dating back to World War II. Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) must undergo rigorous testing to ensure their autonomy is reliable under challenging conditions. VANE's physics-based simulations are particularly valuable in UGV development. Using VANE, DoD researchers can explore how autonomous systems will behave in various operationally relevant environmental conditions that are often difficult to replicate with physical testing. This virtual testing capability is valuable across the complete robotic life cycle by enabling both early stage autonomy prototyping and final performance evaluation.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has produced a new enterprise research and development (R&D) strategy focused on discovering, developing and delivering innovative solutions for our nation’s most complex engineering challenges. The USACE R&D Strategy focuses on 10 priorities and is a strategic collaborative effort that uses innovative solutions to save time, money and effort in addressing generational problems. The strategy charges USACE divisions, districts and centers to facilitate a whole-of-government approach to tomorrow’s problems. To ensure successful strategy execution, USACE will examine future research needs, focus on collaborative R&D application, enhance R&D community engagement and serve as a key partner in the whole-of-government effort for solutions. To view and download the USACE R&D Strategy, visit https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16021coll11/id/5457.

Army acquisition of mobility systems such as wheeled and tracked vehicles can be a lengthy process often driven by changing requirements and budgets. Over the last several decades of ERDC’s mobility research, we have played a critical part in the entire acquisition process using mobility modeling and simulation tools. These tools have helped the Army define requirements and test vehicle designs against those requirements in many different operational environments. For acquisition stakeholders, this could lead to accelerated decision making and cost savings in the absence of physical testing.

Army acquisition of mobility systems such as wheeled and tracked vehicles can be a lengthy process often driven by changing requirements and budgets. Over the last several decades of ERDC’s mobility research, we have played a critical part in the entire acquisition process using mobility modeling and simulation tools. These tools have helped the Army define requirements and test vehicle designs against those requirements in many different operational environments. For acquisition stakeholders, this could lead to accelerated decision making and cost savings in the absence of physical testing.

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Research Vessel Martin, the first full-size, semi-autonomous craft of its kind in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), maneuvers near the Vicksburg, Mississippi, harbor April 1, 2021. A USACE civil works Navigation Systems Research Program project, the system gives surveyors the ability to conduct survey missions with a limited crew during emergencies — like the recent COVID-19 pandemic — or in post-disaster areas where it’s not safe to send a manned vessel.

Since its creation following the Great Flood of 1927, the Engineer Research and Development Center and its forerunner have constructed thousands of physical models to support projects across our nation in streams, rivers, inlets, estuaries and coasts. ERDC has the deep expertise and unique facilities to do robust physical modeling of coastal and hydraulic structures, including two three-dimensional wave generators and three two-dimensional wave flumes. It also combines its vast physical modeling capabilities with high-tech numerical modeling to improve navigation, optimize the design of structures, understand the response and resiliency of natural features, and solve some of the toughest civil works and military operational challenges facing our nation today. ERDC’s models are value-added, saving projects millions of dollars by improving designs and saving them from failure.