Flexible Riser Response Induced by Springing of an FPSO Hull

Author(s):  
Jelena Vidic-Perunovic ◽  
Niels J. Risho̸j Nielsen ◽  
Haiwen Zhang

The hydrodynamic analysis of the flexible riser for offshore application is usually limited to the first order wave frequency motions of the floating vessel that holds the riser top end. In this paper effort is made to investigate the influence of non-linear second order springing deflection of the production vessel hull on flexible riser response. The system selected in this study consists of a free-hanging flexible riser configuration attached to an FPSO. Due to resonance between the excitation wave frequency and the natural vibration frequency of the hull, second order flexible vertical motions of the FPSO increase. This may influence the riser loads, presumably the tension force. Vertical motions including the second order high frequency contribution are assigned to the flexible riser at a point of attachment to the vessel. To account for the environmental loading, irregular sea is applied, characterized by modified linear wave spectrum. Second order excitation wave spectrum is truncated by use of WAFO routines for random second order wave simulation and an analytical form of the spectrum that accounts for the non-linear wave effects is proposed. Several environmental conditions are examined in order to consolidate the tendency in riser behaviour. The significance of the high-frequency quadratic terms in the loads along the flexible riser is discussed.

Author(s):  
Jo̸rgen Juncher Jensen

For bottom-supported offshore structures like oil drilling rigs and oil production platforms, a deterministic design wave approach is often applied using a regular non-linear Stokes’ wave. Thereby, the procedure accounts for non-linear effects in the wave loading but the randomness of the ocean waves is poorly represented, as the shape of the wave spectrum does not enter the wave kinematics. To overcome this problem and still keep the simplicity of a deterministic approach, Tromans, Anaturk and Hagemeijer (1991) suggested the use of a deterministic wave, defined as the expected linear Airy wave, given the value of the wave crest at a specific point in time or space. In the present paper a derivation of the expected second order short-crested wave riding on a uniform current is given. The analysis is based on the second order Sharma and Dean shallow water wave theory and the direction of the main wind direction can make any direction with the current. Numerical results showing the importance of the water depth, the directional spreading and the current on the conditional mean wave profile and the associated wave kinematics are presented. A discussion of the use of the conditional wave approach as design waves is given.


Author(s):  
J. Zang ◽  
R. Gibson ◽  
P. H. Taylor ◽  
R. Eatock Taylor ◽  
C. Swan

The objective of this research, part of the FP5 REBASDO Programme, is to examine the effects of directional wave spreading on the nonlinear hydrodynamic loads and the wave run-up around the bow of a floating vessel (FPSO) in random seas. In this work, the non-linear wave scattering problem is solved by employing a quadratic boundary element method. An existing scheme (DIFFRACT developed in Oxford) has been extended to deal with uni-directional and directional bi-chromatic input wave systems, calculating second-order wave diffraction under regular waves and focused wave groups. The second order wave interaction with a floating vessel in a unidirectional focused wave group is presented in this paper. Comparison of numerical results and the experimental measurements conducted at Imperial College shows excellent agreement. The second-order free surface components at the bow of the ship are very significant, and cannot be neglected if one requires accurate prediction of the wave-structure interaction; otherwise a major underestimation of the wave impact on the structure could occur.


Author(s):  
Marco Klein ◽  
Matthias Dudek ◽  
Günther F. Clauss ◽  
Norbert Hoffmann ◽  
Jasper Behrendt ◽  
...  

Abstract The applicability of the High-Order Spectral Method (HOSM) as a very fast non-linear method for deterministic short-term wave prediction is discussed within this paper. The focus lies on the systematic experimental validation of the HOSM in order to identify and evaluate possible areas of application as well as limitations of use. For this purpose, irregular sea states with varying parameters such as wave steepness and underlying wave spectrum are addressed by numerical simulations and model tests in the controlled environment of a seakeeping basin. In addition, the influence of the propagation distance is discussed. For the evaluation of the accuracy of the HOSM prediction, the surface similarity parameter (SSP) is utilized, allowing a quantitative validation of the results. The results obtained are compared to linear wave prediction to discuss the pros and cons of a non-linear deterministic short-term wave prediction. In conclusion, this paper shows that the non-linear deterministic wave prediction based on HOSM leads to a substantial improvement of the prediction quality for moderate and steep irregular wave trains in terms of individual waves and prediction distance.


Author(s):  
C. Guedes Soares ◽  
R. Pascoal ◽  
E. M. Anta˜o ◽  
A. J. Voogt ◽  
B. Buchner

This work aims at characterizing the probability of wave impact and expected impact load on the bow geometry of an FPSO. In order to determine the instants when impact occurs, an experimental program was performed on a specific bow shape. The bow was instrumented with pressure transducers and the test program, also making use of video recordings, was designed such that it was possible to determine the correlation between undisturbed wave shape and the impact pressure time traces. It has been found that wave impact at the bow is highly correlated with the local wave steepness, which for very high waves has at least second order effects. A comparison between the probability distributions of local wave steepness of the experimental undisturbed wave time trace and numerical simulations of second order wave theory is provided and it confirmed that the latter is very adequate for calculations. The experimental results were further used to determine how the probability of impact varies with free surface vertical velocity. It was found that the significant wave height of the sea state itself does not have significant influence on the result and a regression model is derived for that type of bow. The proposed model for determining the probability of impact load is based on combining both models. The analytical nature makes it fast and easy to expand to other cases of interest and some example calculations are shown to demonstrate the relative ease of the procedure proposed. The position of the impact is determined by the non-linear wave crests and the ship motions. The ship motions can be determined based on a linear response to the non-linear waves considered.


Author(s):  
Vincenzo Nava ◽  
Felice Arena

Nowadays technical and scientific communities are increasingly interested in the development of technologies for floating devices which can serve different purposes both in coastal and offshore environment. Thus, strong effort is required in the development of correct and efficient algorithms for studying the behavior of such structures under the action of sea wave loadings. At this purpose, in the past few years several approaches were investigated, both in frequency and in time domains, using linear and non-linear structural models and linear and non-linear wave theories. In this note, the effects of nonlinearities in the wave model on the dynamics of a non-linear floating rigid body model are calculated using the second-order Quasi-Determinism (QD) theory (see [1], [2]; [3]) under the action of extremely high waves. Structural nonlinearities consist essentially in non linear damping and nonlinear stiffness due to mooring lines, following the model shown in Nava & Arena, [4]. Numerical nonlinear simulations were performed by means of an algorithm based on the approach showed in Zheng et al. [5], and the results compared to those provided by the nonlinear QD theory. The purpose of this note is to show not only the effects of nonlinearities in the behavior of a floating body and to compare them with those obtained from a linear approach, but also to estimate them through non linear QD theory under the occurrence of a large wave in order to evaluate the reliability of the proposed approach.


1982 ◽  
Vol 1 (18) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
J.B. Crowley ◽  
C.A. Fleming ◽  
C.K. Cooper

A non-linear wave refraction model was developed which allows for the combined refraction and shoaling of Vocoidal waves over an arbitrary sea bed. The effects of bed friction and percolation are also catered for. The method is based on the cirular arc technique which is widely used for linear wave refraction. The method was extensively tested against Vocoidal wave refraction results obtained previously for a plane beach. A comparison of Vocoidal and linear wave refraction over an arbitrary sea bed indicated that Vocoidal waves refract less than linear theory, thereby yielding higher wave heights and angles of incidence at the breaker line. This result is in line with results of non-linear refraction over parallel bed contours quoted for other non-linear wave theories in literature. Further work is required before caustics can be adequately treated. Future research should include wave spectrum transfer and the re-evaluation of empirical relationships in use in the shallow water region and which will use this new higher-order refraction technique.


Author(s):  
Scott Taylor ◽  
Nicholas Haritos ◽  
Krish Thiagarajan

Tension Leg Platforms (TLPs) are predominately used for deep water oil and gas production. The use of tendons creates a small amplitude, high cyclic response in the vertical plane (heave, roll and pitch). Under these conditions fatigue cracking becomes an important consideration. The amplitude of the vertical motion is minimised by ensuring the natural frequency of the TLP lies above the energetic part of the wave spectrum. However, due to non-linear wave loading effects, it is possible for waves to create an output at their sum-frequency, which may consequently equal the natural frequency of the platform. This phenomenon is more commonly known as ‘springing’. The Volterra method [1] is a technique used to model the behaviour of TLPs under these conditions. This approach quantifies the linear and non-linear (quadratic, cubic, etc) responses separately using transfer functions, which are determined from the input and output of the system. In this paper an orthogonalised Volterra series for use with both Gaussian and non-Gaussian input data is presented. The data used in the Volterra modelling was collected from tests conducted on a model TLP. The wave height and platform motion were measured at wave frequencies around one, a half and a third of the model’s heave natural frequencies. Both regular and irregular wave tests were performed to varying wave heights and frequencies. Using the Volterra method, the transfer functions were calculated up to the third order. Difficulties encountered due to the use of discrete data were identified and where possible their effects minimized. The results demonstrate clear evidence of springing, with dynamic amplification present at sum-frequencies close to the natural frequency of the platform for the non-linear responses.


Author(s):  
P. H. Taylor ◽  
B. A. Williams

A study has been made into the average shape of large crests and troughs during several storms using wave elevation data from the WACSIS measurement programme. The analysis techniques adopted were data-driven at all times, in order to test whether 2nd order wave theory could reproduce important features in the field data. The sea surface displayed obvious non-linear behaviour, reflected in the fact that the shapes of crests were always sharper and larger than their trough equivalents. Assuming that the dominant non-linear correction is second order in the wave steepness (but without a knowledge of the detailed form of 2nd order theory), the average shapes of maxima in the underlying linear wave components were shown to match NewWave. This NewWave is the scaled auto-correlation function for a linear random process with the same power spectrum as the measured waves. Thus, NewWave was shown to be an acceptable model for the linear part of large waves on intermediate water depth (here ∼17m). Assuming that NewWave is a good model for the linear part of large crests and troughs, a value for the second order coefficient required to estimate crest elevation statistics was derived from the measured data for several storms. This coefficient was in good agreement with the results of the 2nd order random simulations of Forristall and Prevosto. As well as studying vertical asymmetry, required for crest and trough statistics, horizontal asymmetry was examined using the Hilbert transform. Compared to a large amount of vertical asymmetry, the analysis showed that there was virtually no horizontal asymmetry for the bulk of the waves in the records. However, there is a very small degree of horizontal asymmetry exhibited in the largest waves in the records. Thus, given a surface elevation record, it is difficult to distinguish the direction of the time axis, again consistent with most of the non-linearity being due to simple 2nd order bound waves.


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