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Dr. Alessandro Toffoli   Lecturer - Water, Oceanography and Port Engineering

Profile Photo
Areas:
Centre for Ocean Engineering, Science and Technology
Civil Engineering
Port Engineering
Office:
ATC734
Phone:
+61 3 9214 4708
E-Mail:
atoffoli@swin.edu.au
Campus:
Hawthorn
Faculty of Engineering & Industrial Sciences (H38)
Swinburne University of Technology
PO Box 218
Hawthorn, Victoria, 3122
Australia

Education

  • PhD in Civil Engineering, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), 2006
  • Master of Science in Civil Engineering, Politecnico di Torino (Italy), 2001

Areas of Research and Scientific interests

  • Extreme waves
  • Nonlinear waves
  • Wave statistics
  • Wave breaking
  • Air sea interaction
  • Wave-Structure interaction
  • Laboratory experiments
  • Field measurements

Current Research Projects

  • Oceanic Conditions within Extreme Tropical Cyclones
  • Extreme waves in transverse current

Supervision of higher degree by research (HDR) (Current students)

NameDegreeResearch CentreStart yearRoleInstitution
Anne BelskiPhDCSI2009Co-SupervisorSwinburne
Agustinus RibalPhDCSI2009Co-SupervisorSwinburne
Julian O'GradyPhDCSI2010Co-SupervisorSwinburne

Media

  • Understanding freak waves

    Understanding freak waves

    Rogue waves, once considered nothing more than a sailors myth, are more predictable than ever thanks to new research from the oceanography team at Swinburne University of Technology
  • Freak wave probability higher than thought

    Freak wave probability higher than thought

    Devastating freak waves the size of a 10-storey building can be more common than previously thought. The findings by Dr Alessandro Toffoli of Swinburne, and colleagues, have been accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters

Publications

Scholarly Book chapters

  1. Toffoli A., Onorato M., Osborne A.R., Monbaliu J., 2008. "Non–Gaussian properties of shallow water waves in crossing seas", in: Extreme Ocean Waves, E. Pelinovsky and C. Kharif eds., Springer Netherlands: 53–69.

Papers in refereed journals

  1. Toffoli A., Bitner–Gregersen E. M., 2011. "Extreme and rogue waves in directional ave fields",. Open Ocean Eng. J., in press (accepted May2010).
  2. Toffoli A., Bitner–Gregersen E. M., Osborne A. R., Serio M., Monbaliu J., Onorato M., 2011. "Extreme waves in random crossing seas: Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations",. Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L06605, doi:10.1029/2011GL046827. (ERA–A*)
  3. Toffoli A., Cavaleri L., Babanin A. V., Benoit M., Bitner–Gregersen E. M., Monbaliu J., Onorato M., Osborne A. R. and Stansberg C. T., 2011. "Occurrence of extreme waves in three dimensional mechanically generated wave fields propagating over an oblique current",. Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 11, 895–903.
  4. Babanin A.V, Waseda T., Kinoshita T., Toffoli A., 2011. "Wave breaking in directional fields",. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 41(1), 145–156, doi: 10.1175/2010JPO4455.1 (ERA–A*)
  5. Toffoli A., Gramstad O., Trulsen K., Monbaliu J., Bitner–Gregersen E., Onorato M., 2010. "Evolution of weakly nonlinear random directional waves: laboratory experiments and numerical simulations",. J. Fluid Mech., 664, 313–336, DOI:10.1017/S002211201000385X (ERA–A*)
  6. Onorato M., Proment D., Toffoli A., 2010. "Freak waves on crossing seas",. Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics, 185, 45–55, doi: 10.1140/epjst/e2010–01237–8.
  7. Toffoli A., Babanin A. V., Onorato M., Waseda T., 2010. "The maximum steepness of oceanic waves: field and laboratory experiments",. Geophys. Res. Letters, 37, L05603, doi:10.1029/2009GL041771. (ERA A*)
  8. Toffoli A., Onorato M., Bitner–Gregersen E. M., Monbaliu J., 2010. "The development of a bimodal structure in ocean wave spectra",. J. Geophys. Res., 115, C03006, doi:10.1029/2009JC005495. (ERA–A*)
  9. Onorato M., Waseda T., Toffoli A., Cavaleri L. Gramstad O., Janssen P.A.E.M., Kinoshita T., Monbaliu J., Mori N., Osborne A.R., Serio M., Stansberg C.T., Tamura H., Trulsen K., 2009. "On the statistical properties of directional ocean waves: the role of the modulational instability in the formation of extreme events",. Physical Review Letters, 102, 114502, doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.114502. (ERA–A*)
  10. Onorato M., Cavaleri L., Fouques S., Gramstad O., Janssen P.A.E.M., Monbaliu J., Osborne A.R., Pakozdi C., Serio., Stansberg C.T., Toffoli A., Trulsen K., 2009. "Statistical properties of mechanically generated surface gravity waves: a laboratory experiment in a 3D wave basin",. J. Fluid Mech., 627, 235–257, doi:10.1017/S002211200900603X. (ERA–A*)
  11. Toffoli A., Benoit M., Onorato M., Bitner–Gregersen E.M., 2009. "The effect of third order nonlinearity on statistical properties of random directional wave fields",. Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 16, 131–139 (invited paper) .
  12. Toffoli A., Bitner–Gregersen E., Onorato, M., Babain A.V., 2008. "Wave crest and trough distributions in a broadbanded directional wave field",. Ocean Engineering, 35 (17–18), 1784–1792, doi:10.1016/j.oceaneng.2008.01.010. (ERA–A)
  13. Toffoli A., Onorato M., Bitner–Gregersen E., Osborne A.R., Babain A.V., 2008. "Surface gravity waves from direct numerical simulations of the Euler equations: a comparison with second–order theory",. Ocean Engineering, 35(3–4), 367–379, doi:10.1016/j.oceaneng.2007.10.004. (ERA–A)
  14. Toffoli A., Onorato M., Babanin A.V., Bitner–Gregersen E., Osborne A.R., Monbaliu J., 2007. "Second–order theory and set–up in surface gravity waves: a comparison with experimental data",. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 37(11), 2726–2739, doi:10.1175/2007JPO3634.1. (ERA–A*)
  15. Toffoli A., Onorato M., Monbaliu. J., 2006. "Wave statistics in unimodal and bimodal seas from a second–order model",. European Journal of Mechanics B\Fluids, 25, 649–661, doi:10.1016/j.euromechflu.2006.01.003 (invited paper) . (ERA–B)

Refereed conference papers

  1. Toffoli A., Chai S., Bitner–Gregersen E., Pistani F., 2011. "Probability of occurrence of extreme waves in three dimensional mechanically generated wave fields: a comparison with numerical simulations", Proc. Int. Conf. Offshore Mech. Artic Eng., June 19–24, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (accepted February 2011). (ERA–A)
  2. Toffoli A., Babanin A.V., Ardhuin F., Benoit M., Bitner–Gregersen E.M., Cavaleri L., Monbaliu J., Onorato M., Osborne A.R., Fouques S., Moe V., Pakodzi C., Satnsberg C.T., 2010. "Extreme waves in sea states crossing an oblique current", Proc. Int. Conf. Offshore Mech. Artic Eng., June 6–12, Shanghai, China (paper OMAE2010–20619). (ERA–A)
  3. Lefevre J. M., Toffoli A.:. "Analyse des états de mer associés à l'accident de prestige", Mémoire de la 107ème session de l'Association Technique Maritime et Aéronautique,. Paris, Juin 2009 (in French with English abstract).
  4. Bitner–Gregersen E. M., Toffoli A.: "Uncertainties of wind sea and swell prediction from the Torsethaugen spectrum", Proc. Int. Conf. Offshore Mech. Artic Eng., 31 May – 5 June, 2009, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. (paper OMAE2009–80261). (ERA–A)
  5. Toffoli A., Bitner–Gregersen E. M., Onorato M., 2008. "Statistical properties of a directional wave field: direct simulations of the Euler equations and second–order theory", Proc. Int. Conf. Offshore Mech. Artic Eng., June 15–20, 2008, Estoril, Portugal. (paper OMAE2008–57374) (ERA–A)
  6. Mercelis, P., Vanmarcke, N., Smith, G., Dumon, G., Toffoli A., Monbaliu J., 2008. "Influence of location and instrumentation on wave group characteristics", Proc. Int. Conf. Offshore Mech. Artic Eng., June 15–20, 2008, Estoril, Portugal. (paper OMAE2008–57683). (ERA–A)
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