UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 17, Page 14
January 21, 1993
Ib Svendsen part of government water and sand motion study

     Ib Svendsen, chairperson of the Department of Civil Engineering, has
been asked by the U.S. Department of the Army to serve on a four-person
steering committee for  DUCK94 and Sandy Duck-large scale field experiments
that measure water and sand motion on beaches at Duck on the Outer Banks of
North Carolina. The Army Corps of Engineers has a large field research
facility at Duck with extensive equipment to monitor the coast, Svendsen
said.
     During DUCK94 and Sandy Duck, researchers from all over the country
will pool their resources and set up equipment to run massive experiments,
he said.
     Svendsen said computer modelists, who analyze data taken from
measurements and make predictions, will be included in the experiments for
the first time.
     "The modelists make mathematical calculations on computers of the
phenomena we measure. If we have a model that works, it can be used to
calculate, in theory, how sediments and the sea interact."
     Svendsen said the shoreline monitored at Duck is one kilometer long
and would require hundreds of thousands of measuring points for complete
coverage. In practice only 50 to 100 probes can be installed, and the goal
is to develop the mathematical modes to a level where they can augment the
measurements by filling in the gaps.
     Svendsen is serving as the modeler representative on the steering
committee.