This data repository is an outgrowth of a perceived need within the offshore community, particularly those involved in deepwater development where the structures are extraordinarily large and complex. Simplified laboratory test data, while always valuable often does not possess the richness and complexity of large scale test data. The latter is typically very costly to acquire and generally regarded as highly proprietary. The down side of this situation is that numerical model developers (commercial and academic) are often excluded from access and therefore are not adequately challenged. The industry will be better served if datasets more closely representative of the real offshore configurations are available for benchmarking. Software accuracy and efficiency can be improved, with blind tests to demonstrate accuracy to follow.

The assembly of the site has been a truly collaborative effort by members from the offshore academia, industry and commercial suppliers, and was an outgrowth of participants to CFD & VIV of the ASME OMAE conference (2006 & 2007). Special thanks are due to all those individuals and companies who helped make the data available for free download. Our hope is that the sample datasets provided here will allow our numerical models to be improved for the benefit of the industry. Your active use of the data, constructive critique of the website and participation in the effort would be greatly appreciated.