Model Tests and Time-Domain Coupled Analysis of a Dicas-Moored FPSO in Deep Water

Author(s):  
Rolf Baarholm ◽  
Carl Trygve Stansberg ◽  
Fabio Gondim Palazzo
Author(s):  
Ying Min Low ◽  
Robin S. Langley

The global dynamic response of a deep water floating production system needs to be predicted with coupled analysis methods to ensure accuracy and reliability. Two types of coupling can be identified: one is between the floating platform and the mooring lines/risers, while the other is between the mean offset, the wave frequency, and the low frequency motions of the system. At present, it is unfeasible to employ fully coupled time domain analysis on a routine basis due to the prohibitive computational time. This has spurred the development of more efficient methods, including frequency domain approaches. A good understanding of the intricate coupling mechanisms is paramount for making appropriate approximations in an efficient method. To this end, a simplified two degree-of-freedom system representing the surge motion of a vessel and the fundamental vibration mode of the lines is studied for physical insight. Within this framework, the frequency domain equations are rigorously formulated, and the nonlinearities in the restoring forces and drag are statistically linearized. The model allows key coupling effects to be understood; among other things, the equations demonstrate how the wave frequency dynamics of the mooring lines are coupled to the low frequency motions of the vessel. Subsequently, the effects of making certain simplifications are investigated through a series of frequency domain analyses, and comparisons are made to simulations in the time domain. The work highlights the effect of some common approximations, and recommendations are made regarding the development of efficient modeling techniques.


Author(s):  
K. Gurumurthy ◽  
Suhail Ahmad ◽  
A. S. Chitrapu

Efficient dynamic analysis of mooring lines and risers is necessary for deepwater floating systems that typically consist of a number of mooring lines and risers. In deepwater, the interactions between the floater motions and the large number of risers and mooring lines become significant and must be considered for accurate prediction of floater motions as well as line dynamics. Time-domain coupled dynamic analysis procedures have been proposed which can account for the coupling effects and consider most of the nonlinearities present in the problem. These methods have been shown to give more accurate results compared to traditional de-coupled analysis methods although they tend to be computationally more expensive. If the system has a large number of mooring lines and risers, it becomes very difficult and impractical to perform time domain coupled analysis. A number of efficient methodologies have therefore been proposed in the past to balance the accuracy of results with computational efficiency. Such methods include the frequency domain approach, combination of frequency and time domain methods, and combination of coupled and uncoupled analysis methodologies. Enhanced de-coupled dynamic analysis is an efficient method and is similar to the traditional de-coupled dynamic analysis method except that the floater motions are computed by coupled analysis considering a coarse finite element model of the mooring lines. In this paper, dynamic analysis of mooring lines for a deep water classical spar floater under random waves is performed by using the enhanced de-coupled dynamic analysis method and the response statistics are compared with results obtained from coupled dynamic analysis. The spar is modeled as a rigid body with six degrees-of-freedom and the mooring lines are modeled as finite element assemblage of elastic rods. All major non-linearities and the dynamic interaction between spar and its mooring lines are considered while determining the tension time histories. Hinge connection is assumed at the fairleads. At every time step of the integration of equations of motion of the spar, a series of nonlinear dynamic analyses of the mooring lines is performed using a subcycling technique. From the analyses, it is found that the enhanced de-coupled dynamic analysis provides results comparable in accuracy with the results obtained from coupled dynamic analysis in terms of predicting the response statistics, but requires only one third of the computational time. Therefore, enhanced de-coupled dynamic analysis can be used for accurate prediction of mooring line dynamics for deep water floating systems.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Zhang ◽  
Lei Xing ◽  
Mingyu Dong ◽  
Weimin Chen

Abstract Articulated pusher barge vessel is a short-distance transport vessel with good economic performance and practicability, which is widely used in the Yangtze River of China. In this present work, the resistance performance of articulated pusher barge vessel in deep water and shallow water was studied by model tests in the towing tank and basin of Shanghai Ship and Shipping Research Institute. During the experimental investigation, the articulated pusher barge vessel was divided into three parts: the pusher, the barge and the articulated pusher barge system. Firstly, the deep water resistance performance of the articulated pusher barge system, barge and the pusher at design draught T was studied, then the water depth h was adjusted, and the shallow water resistance at h/T = 2.0, 1.5 and 1.2 was tested and studied respectively, and the difference between deep water resistance and shallow water resistance at design draught were compared. The results of model tests and analysis show that: 1) in the study of deep water resistance, the total resistance of the barge was larger than that of the articulated pusher barge system. 2) for the barge, the shallow water resistance increases about 0.4–0.7 times at h/T = 2.0, 0.5–1.1 times at h/T = 1.5, and 0.7–2.3 times at h/T = 1.2. 3) for the pusher, the shallow water resistance increases about 1.0–0.4 times at h/T = 2.7, 1.2–0.9 times at h/T = 2.0, and 1.7–2.4 times at h/T = 1.6. 4) for the articulated pusher barge system, the shallow water resistance increases about 0.2–0.3 times at h/T = 2.0, 0.5–1.3 times at h/T = 1.5, and 1.0–3.5 times at h/T = 1.2. Furthermore, the water depth Froude number Frh in shallow water was compared with the changing trend of resistance in shallow water.


2013 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z.J. Westgate ◽  
D.J. White ◽  
M.F. Randolph

Subsea pipelines are becoming an increasingly significant element of offshore hydrocarbon developments as exploration moves into deep-water environments further from shore. During the lay process, pipelines are subject to small amplitude vertical and horizontal oscillations, driven by the sea state and lay vessel motions. Centrifuge model tests have been used to simulate these small-amplitude lay effects, with varying degrees of idealization relative to the real lay process. In the soft soils found in deep water, pipe embedment can exceed a diameter or more, thus significantly affecting the lateral pipe–soil interaction, axial resistance, and thermal insulation. In this paper, results from centrifuge model tests are used to calibrate a model for calculating the dynamic embedment of a subsea pipeline. The model uses elements of plasticity theory to capture the effects of combined vertical and horizontal loading, and incorporates the softening of the surrounding soil as it is remoulded due to the pipeline motions. Influences from the lay rate, lay geometry, and sea state are included in the calculation process. The model is compared with observed as-laid pipeline embedment data from field surveys at three different offshore sites. Using site-specific soil parameters obtained from in situ testing and idealized pipe loads and motions to represent the load and displacement patterns during offshore pipe-laying, respectively, the model is shown to capture well the final as-laid embedment measured in the field surveys.


Author(s):  
Rodrigo A. Barreira ◽  
Vinicius L. Vileti ◽  
Joel S. Sales ◽  
Sergio H. Sphaier ◽  
Paulo de Tarso T. Esperança

A new conceptual design of a deepwater MONOBUOY, named DeepWater MultiColumn Buoy (DWMCB), patent PCT/BR2011/000133, was developed by PETROBRAS/CENPES. The DWMCB was designed to be part of an offloading system for a Spread Moored Floating Production Offloading Unit (FPSO). The offloading system principle consists of Oil being exported from the FPSO to a Shutle tanker passing through Offloading Oil Lines (OOLs) that are supported by the DWMCB. The system is designed to operate at a water depth of 2,200 meters, with expected in site life duration of 25 years. The geometry of DWMCB was defined after an optimization process in order to minimize its motions. This paper describes the development of this concept and discusses the results from some design verifications done with the help of a model tests campaign. An equivalent traditional shaped monobuoy was also tested for comparison purposes.


2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 132-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernt J. Leira ◽  
Tore Holma˚s ◽  
Kjell Herfjord

Analysis and design of deep-water riser arrays requires that both collision frequency and resulting stresses in the pipes are addressed. Within a probabilistic context, the joint modeling of the current magnitude and surface floater motions must be taken into account. The present paper gives an outline of the general analysis setup, and response statistics obtained as a result of time domain simulations are described. Utilization of the analysis is also discussed in relation to estimation of extreme response and fatigue lifetime. As an example of application, a specific Spar buoy riser configuration at a water depth of 900m is considered.


Author(s):  
Ge´rson B. Matter ◽  
Joel S. Sales ◽  
Sergio H. Sphaier

The paper deals with the dynamics of floating systems (FPSO units) moored in deep water in the presence of currents. The offloading operation is carried out in a tandem arrangement from the FPSO to a Shuttle ship of lesser capacity. According to the classical theory of dynamic systems, a study of the behavior of floating units is performed by determining the equilibrium position and then analyzing the stability around this position. The time domain analysis is also used to compare the results. This procedure is extended to the case of systems in a spread mooring configuration and with turret.


Author(s):  
Mathieu Brotons ◽  
Philippe Jean

The accurate prediction of SPM vessel yaw motion is important to its mooring system design. Inconsistencies have been observed between the numerical and model test predictions of offloading responses. In some cases, the numerical simulation predicted unstable yaw behavior of the vessel (fishtailing) while the model tests did not show such instability. This discrepancy between experiment and theory casts doubt as to whether the numerical simulation predicts correctly the vessel yaw motion. The work presented in this paper investigates the following two hypotheses to possibly explain the non-expected fishtailing in the numerical simulations: The mooring software may not accurately integrate non-linear differential equations that describe the yaw motion of the SPM vessel. Some damping terms may be under-estimated in the software (user input issue). To validate the integration scheme of the system of non-linear differential equations as implemented in the mooring software, a stability analysis has been conducted on a shuttle tanker moored to a West Africa deep water buoy. Variations of parameters like the hawser length, its axial stiffness and the vessel’s drag coefficients have been studied to explore their impacts on the vessel yaw stability. The approach is to identify without performing any time domain simulations, the domains of stability by linearizing the differential equations of SPM vessel’s yaw motion around its equilibrium point. The validity of the developed approach is then confirmed by performing time domain simulations of the same case. The second conjecture which may explain the non-expected fishtailing in numerical simulations was that some damping terms may be under-estimated. A semi empirical formula for the drag moment can be derived from rotation tests and comparisons were performed with the engineering model implemented in the mooring analysis software. The results show that by calibrating this damping term with the one derived from the experiments, the numerical simulations would match the stable yaw motion behavior as predicted during model tests. Following the above findings, a tool has been developed to fit the yaw drag moment engineering model based on experimental measurements, for any case of mooring analysis.


Author(s):  
Mamoun Naciri ◽  
Helene Schaegis ◽  
Guillaume Ardoise

MURPHY Sabah Oil Co. Ltd. has developed the Kikeh Field located offshore Malaysia in the South China Sea in a water depth of 1325m. This field development is based on a Floating Production Storage and Offloading unit (FPSO) and a Spar Dry Tree Unit (DTU). Fluids are transported in fluid transfer lines (FTL) using SBM’s newly developed and patented Gravity Actuated Pipe (GAP) system. To our knowledge this is the first time two large moored floaters are connected together by a slender body closing a gap of 1600m. It was not clear at the beginning of the project to what extent the first and second order motions of the two floaters were coupled, if at all, owing to the presence of the GAP system. To investigate the extent of coupling, both frequency domain (modal analysis) and time domain analyses of the FPSO, GAP system and Dry Tree Unit were performed. The salient features and results are presented.


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