Experimental Evaluation of the Dynamic Air Gap of a Large-Volume Semi-Submersible Platform

Definition of air gap is an extremely important issue in the design of floating offshore systems such as semi-submersible or TLP platforms. For these systems, any unnecessary increase in the static value of air gap generally demands the payload to be decreased or leads to a larger buoyant hull, which, in any case, has a negative effect on the project economics. Designers face a difficult challenge since there is no well-established methodology for predicting the air gap demand in the early stages of the design. This is a consequence of the inherent complexity involved in the problem of predicting the free-surface elevation around large structures in steep-waves, such as the largest wave expected during a design storm-sea spectrum. Non-linear diffraction models are usually called for a more consistent evaluation of the wave field under the deck and the wave run-up upon the columns, but even second-order analysis is not free of uncertainties. Therefore, air gap evaluation still relies heavily on experimental analysis. This paper presents some towing-tank results performed for the evaluation of the dynamic air gap of a large-volume semi-submersible platform. Regular wave tests were performed for the small-scale model in both restrained and moored configurations and results were confronted with numerical predictions. Air gap response at different locations of the hull was evaluated under three different sea states and results were compared to some semi-analytical models proposed in literature for preliminary air gap estimation. The role of dynamic coupling provided by a taut-leg mooring system on the air gap results is also discussed based on the experimental results.