Green Water Loads Determination for FPSO Exposed to Beam Sea Conditions

Considering new offshore frontiers for oil exploration and production, specially the Santos Basin region, FPSOs will be exposed to more severe wave conditions. This scenario requires careful analysis with respect to the green water phenomenon. The complex physics involved in the water-on-deck flow implies on several uncertainties regarding green water loads analysis. Taking into account model tests, CFD simulations and analytical formulations, this paper aims to simplify the green water loads determination, proposing a methodology to estimate these loads considering the water elevation above deck measured from experiments or numerical tools. In order to accomplish this objective, CFD simulations with different solvers were run for a benchmark case, showing that it is a suitable approach for a global result in impact dam break cases. After that, a special boundary condition was calibrated to represent model test results of water propagation in a FPSO deck exposed to beam sea in terms of water elevation. Using this CFD model, the loads on exposed structures was determined and compared against the dam break analytical formulation, which was modified to take into account the gap between each structure and the deck. Finally some vane type protection structures were simulated and their efficiency in partially obstructing the water-on-deck flow was evaluated. As a global result from all these analysis, a more comprehensive strategy for green water loads determination is proposed.