Fluid–Structure–Foundation–Soil Interaction in Offshore Environments: Theory, Modeling and Engineering Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Background: As offshore engineering advances toward deeper, more complex, and multifunctional systems, offshore structures experience strong structure–soil–fluid interactions under combined wave, current, and seabed effects, involving pronounced nonlinearity, large deformation, and multi-scale, multiphysics processes. With the rapid growth of floating wind, deepwater energy, and deep-sea engineering, conventional decoupled analysis approaches are increasingly inadequate for ensuring structural safety and reliability. Developing unified frameworks that capture structural dynamics, soil constitutive evolution, and fluid interactions has thus become a critical challenge for design and long-term performance assessment. This motivates a dedicated Special Issue on offshore structure–soil–fluid interactions to consolidate recent advances in theory, numerical modeling, experiments, and engineering applications, and to foster interdisciplinary progress.

Aim and scope:

This Special Issue aims to establish a high-level exchange platform for the international academic and engineering communities, focusing on a unified theoretical and modeling framework for offshore structure–soil–fluid interactions, advanced numerical methods for multiphysics coupling, nonlinear, and large deformation problems, dynamic response and failure mechanisms under extreme offshore environments and long-term cyclic loading, engineering applications and design methods for novel offshore engineering projects (such as floating wind power and deep-sea platforms). This Special Issue is intended for researchers and engineers in the fields of offshore engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, computational mechanics, and offshore energy.

Cutting-edge research: Frontier research in the field of offshore structure–soil–fluid interactions is focusing on strongly nonlinear, multi-scale, and multiphysics coupling problems. It aims to overcome the limitations of traditional separation analysis methods under large deformation, interfacial contact, and cyclic loading conditions, systematically revealing the intrinsic coupling mechanisms between wave, ocean current, and structural dynamic response, as well as the constitutive evolution of seabed soil. Current research hotspots include the overall dynamics of structure–mooring–seabed in floating offshore wind power and deep-water platforms; non-stationary load responses in extreme offshore environments; progressive instability processes induced by scour and liquefaction; and unified numerical modeling and full-life-cycle prediction based on high-performance computing and data-physics fusion methods, providing theoretical and methodological support for the safe design and sustainable operation of next-generation offshore engineering structures.

What kind of paper we are looking for (not limited to):

• Unified theoretical framework and multiphysics coupling mechanism for offshore structure–soil–fluid interactions.
• Nonlinear dynamic response of structure–seabed systems under wave, current, and wind–wave–current combined actions.
• Mechanical mechanisms and modeling methods for structure–soil interface contact, large deformation, and progressive instability.
• Constitutive behavior of seabed soil under cyclic loading.
• Coupled bearing and dynamic characteristics of offshore foundation systems (monopiles, jacket foundations, suction cylinders, gravity foundations, etc.).
• Overall dynamic behavior of floating body-mooring-anchored foundation–seabed in floating platforms and offshore wind power.
• Fluid–solid coupling problems in soft and low-permeability soils in deep and ultra-deep water environments.
• Impacts of seabed scour, liquefaction, and sediment resuspension on structural safety and long-term stability.
• Coupled response and reliability assessment under extreme offshore environments (typhoons, storm surges, giant waves).
• Application of advanced numerical methods (FEM, MPM, SPH, CFD, etc.) in structure–soil–fluid problems.
• Multi-scale simulation, high-performance computing, and uncertainty analysis methods.
• Centrifuge model testing, large-scale physical testing, and field monitoring technologies.
• Data-driven and physically constrained fusion modeling, parameter inversion, and digital twin technologies.
• Life-cycle analysis, design methods, and engineering applications of offshore engineering structures.

Prof. Dr. Bisheng Wu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• offshore geotechnical engineering
• structure–fluid interaction
• floating structures
• advanced numerical methods