Abstract Model testing of offshore structures has been standard practice over the years and is often recommended in guidelines and required in certification rules. The standard objectives for model testing are final concept verification, where it is recommended to model the system as closely as possible, and numerical code calibration. Model testing of floating offshore wind turbines is complex due to the response depending on the aero-hydro-servo-elastic system, but also due to difficulties to perform model tests in a hydrodynamic facility with correctly scaled hydrodynamic, aerodynamic and inertial loads. The main limitations are due to the Froude-Reynolds scaling incompatibility, and the wind generation. An approach to solve these issues is by use of hybrid testing where the system is divided in a numerical and a physical substructure, interacting in real-time with each other. Depending on the objectives of the model tests, parts of a physical model of a FOWT can then be placed in a wind tunnel or an ocean basin, where the rest of the system is simulated. In the EU H2020 LIFES50+ project, hybrid model tests were performed in the wind tunnel at Politecnico di Milano, as well as in the ocean basin at SINTEF Ocean. The model tests in the wind tunnel were performed with a physical wind turbine positioned on top of a 6DOF position-controlled actuator, while the hydrodynamic loads and the motions of the support structure were simulated in real-time. For the tests in the ocean basin, a physical floater with tower subject to waves and current was used, while the simulated rotor loads were applied on the model by use of a force actuation system. The tests in both facilities are compared and recommendations on how to combine testing methodologies in an optimal way are discussed.

Abstract Generally, numerous marine and offshore structures are composed of a number of modules which introduce narrow gaps between the multi-modules arranged side by side. The interaction between water waves and floating structures excites complex wave runup in the gaps and wave forces on the adjacent modules. In this study, free surface oscillations in twin narrow gaps between identical floating rectangular boxes are investigated by establishing a 2D viscous flow numerical wave tank based on a Constrained Interpolation Profile (CIP) method. The Tangent of Hyperbola for INterface Capturing (THINC) method is employed to capture the free surface. The rigid floating bodies are treated by a Virtual Particle Method (VPM). The incident waves are generated by an internal wave maker. For the fixed module cases, the computational results of wave height in narrow gaps are found in good coincidence with the available experimental measurements, especially for the resonant frequencies. The wave forces on the floating bodies are calculated numerically. The characteristic response of wave forces on the leading and rear bodies are consistent with the free surface elevations in the corresponding narrow gaps. With shallow draft, the gap resonance occurs at higher wave number.

Abstract In the past few decades, 3D hydroelastic theory, an important branch of ship mechanics, has been developing dramatically. It offers a fluid-structure interaction method calculating response of structure of ship or offshore platform directly, which plays an significant role in the evaluation of wave loads on maritime structures. For platform with multiple modules, it is not only referred to loads on modules themselves but also to connectors’ loads between modules for their performance prediction. Absolutely, the 3D hydroelastic method described here can solve this problem accurately and directly. In this paper, 3D hydroelastic software, named COMPASS-THAFTS, has been developed by CSSRC and CCS on the basis of 3D hydroelastic theory initially established by Wu (1984). This software is very proper for designers and researchers of offshore structures because of its convenient and fast processing function. The COMPASS-THAFTS software mainly contains two modules, frequency-domain module and time-domain module. In this paper, we will focus our attention on introduction of integrated framework and processing functions in frequency domain module of COMPASS-THAFTS. Taking a certain offshore platform as application object, the 3D hydroelastic responses are calculated and the results are processed, and finally, the internal rules of data are analyzed. In subsequent work, some new modules, such as mooring module, will be integrated into COMPASS-THAFTS.

Abstract Weather downtime (WDT) is a logistical and financial risk when planning operations or offering services. Such risk is typically identified and managed in advance using statistical predictions based on historical weather data. Estimates of programme and cost for offshore construction work may vary, not because of the nature of a task, or the environment at the location, or the capability and price of a vessel, but because estimates of WDT have been calculated in different ways. Estimates of WDT are required in order to develop a realistic programme for complex and long duration projects. Therefore, a good understanding of the analytical options and a feel for the implications of the many and varied approaches is key to finding optimal solutions regarding WDT assessments. In this paper we consider a number of variants to the two principal approaches (namely ‘Weather Windows’ and ‘Simulation Based’ WDT analysis) to the derivation of WDT statistics. WDT estimates calculated using the same environmental input data, but alternative approaches are presented. The presentation highlights the potential variation in downtime statistics that can result from the alternative analyses, aiming to improve awareness of the application of such statistics when estimating project programme and cost at the planning stages.

Abstract Numerical modelling of wave interaction with offshore structures provides deep insights into the complex wave hydrodynamics and the wave-structure interaction problem. Offshore structures such as an FPSO vessel are susceptible to continuous wave loading under operational conditions and catastrophically large wave loadings under extreme conditions. It is essential to obtain accurate information on the environmental forcing due to waves on an FPSO to reliably predict the operational conditions to optimise the operational times while considering operational safety. In addition, the wave hydrodynamics involved under extreme wave conditions also have to be evaluated in order to predict the survivability of the vessel and avoid major accidents at sea. In the current study, the open-source hydrodynamic model REEF3D is used to study the wave interaction with an FPSO structure. The numerical results are compared to available experimental data for the free surface around the structure, the pressure due to wave incidence and the motion of the structure. The wave interaction with the structure is studied for a fixed structure and considering the six degrees-of-freedom for a floating object. Different incident waves are simulated including irregular waves using the JONSWAP spectrum and phase-focussed irregular waves. The model solves the incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with high-order discretization schemes for convection and time discretization. The local directional immersed boundary ghost cell method extended to three dimensions is used to represent the boundaries of complex objects. The level set method is used to obtain a sharp free surface. The Poisson pressure equation is solved using the multi-grid preconditioned BiCGStab algorithm provided by the Hypre high performance solver library. The numerical model is fully parallelised using the MPI library.

Abstract Countries around the world are increasingly interested in resource development in the Arctic due to global warming. Recently, Arctic coastal states (Russia, USA, Canada, etc.) are pursuing infrastructure construction projects for resource development in the Arctic region. Because the offshore structures in the Arctic are exposed to the sea ice, in order to ensure the safety of the structures, the calculation of the ice resistance is of paramount importance for offshore structures. In general, studies on the ice resistance have been carried out for the breaking and clearing performance of icebreakers. However, in the case of fpu (floating production unit) for resource development in the Arctic region, it is necessary to estimate the ice resistance in the oblique condition to ensure safety. Thus, despite estimation of the ice resistance in the oblique condition is significant, there has not been enough research until recently. In this paper, we suggest algorithms for estimating the ice resistance in the oblique condition. For the estimation process, an in-house code software program is used and an ice resistance estimation module is implemented for the oblique condition using empirical formula. This paper shows results of the ice resistance which was calculated in the oblique condition, and the change of the ice resistance is shown according to various oblique angles in pack ice. In addition, the results are compared to the model test result of a fpu in pack ice of 80% concentration.

Abstract As development of the Arctic grows in intensity, semi-submersible platforms are one of promising type of offshore structures used for arctic oil exploitation. Generally a good ice management is equipped by a moored floating platform to reduce ice loads to manageable levels, thus the most common scenario for a polar operating semi-submersible platform is pack ice conditions. The resistance test of a 4-columns structure is performed in a normal towing tank in China using synthetic non-refrigerated material with similar density to model sea ice. Three component load cells on top of each column and a batch of single component load cells embedded in the surface of the columns near the waterline are used to measure indirect and direct ice loads on the structures. The effects of a series of parameters such as column shapes, orientations, column spacing ratios, ice floe shapes, ice drift speeds and ice concentrations are analyzed.

Abstract Global population growth and climate change are driving a need for increased clean renewable energy generation. One such resource is wind energy and while the onshore and fixed offshore wind energy industries are mature, the floating offshore wind energy industry is still at a demonstration phase. Floating wind turbine platforms are generally of a much smaller displacement than the typical offshore structures that have been used in the oil and gas industry. This difference results in changes to the platform dynamics, especially those resulting from second order wave forces. Existing research into low frequency drift motions of small body platforms has been mainly confined to numerical modelling with some experimental work. This work expands on this knowledge by validating numerical modelling with full scale observational data. In this paper, a numerical time-domain model of a relatively small displacement platform is developed. The platform is installed in a relatively shallow water depth of about 110 m and station keeping is provided by four equally spaced catenary mooring chains. The required fidelity for the low frequency response is compared using first order forces only and either a full QTF (quadratic transfer equation) or Newman’s approximation. The model is compared with observation data from the Fukushima FORWARD project’s floating substation, an advanced spar type, which is composed of measurements of multidirectional wave spectra, wind and current as model inputs and six DOF platform motions as outputs. In addition to this the model computational expense is reduced by decreasing the number of wave directions simulated. The accuracy of such reductions is then described. Observation data is grouped according to sea-state data. An empirical drag coefficient formula is proposed. The 50 year return period design sea-state is also modelled using a JONSWAP spectrum and the various numerical models.

Abstract This work considers the numerical modelling of wave interaction with thin porous structures, based on tests conducted in simplified conditions. Wave flume tests were conducted to measure the wave loads on thin porous sheets extending over the full water column. The porous sheets tested had a range of porosities, hole separation distances and thicknesses. Numerical and analytic models for the wave forces on the porous sheet are formulated under the assumptions of either a linear or quadratic pressure loss across the porous sheet. An iterative boundary element method (BEM) model is formulated to solve the quadratic pressure loss across the porous sheet. It is shown that the assumption of a linear pressure loss at the porous boundary is inadequate to capture the variation in the wave load with both wave frequency and amplitude, but that the quadratic model is in good agreement with the measured forces. The porosity of the sheet is shown to have the dominant effect on the wave loads. The hole separation distance affects the phase of the force on the porous wall, but has only a small effect on the amplitude of the force. The sheet thickness is shown to have a small effect on the amplitude of the force but a significant effect on the phase of the force. The results are of interest for numerical modelling of structures with thin porous boundaries in a wide range of contexts such as breakwaters, aquaculture and offshore structures with porous elements designed to reduce loads.

Abstract Vortex-induced motion (VIM) phenomenon is a great challenge for design and operation of offshore structures subjected to ocean flow. Semi-submersibles with three columns are often applied to the field of wind turbine, suffering VIM motions probably. In recent years, it is showed that many factors have more or less influence on VIM of platforms. A comparison of circular columns with square columns on VIM characteristics of three-column semisubmersibles is carried out using the detached eddy simulation (DES) method via Star-ccm+ software. This paper analyzes motions in the transverse direction and yaw, as well as fluid forces including drag force and fluctuating lift force. The results show that transverse amplitudes of semisubmersible with three square columns are much lower than those of semisubmersible with three circular columns at all incidences. Besides, the authors conclude that the semisubmersible with three square columns do not experience obvious resonance behavior, which is different from the semisubmersible with three circular columns. Besides, galloping phenomenon occurred at large reduced velocities at 0°-incidence for the semisubmersible with three square columns, which is likely not induced by lift force directly. Meanwhile, in these cases, yaw amplitudes are also larger than the others. This may be due to the galloping behavior, which is just a conjecture.

Abstract Plunging breakers, unlike non-breaking waves, impose additional slamming load on the offshore structures. This additional slamming load is considered an extreme event and is one of the most devastating forces that an offshore structure could encounter during its operational lifecycle. Whilst there are design guidelines for offshore structures pertaining to breaking waves, however it is limited to only cylindrical shape. The amount of slamming load contribution by the plunging jet is also dependent on the cross section geometries of the offshore structures. Different geometries would give rise to different air entrainment phenomenon during wave breaking and therefore affecting the slamming load contributions. In this research, JONSWAP spectrum was used to create plunging breakers via the focusing method at Newcastle University’s Wind Wave and Current tank. The crux of this research is to investigate the wave-breaking impact load on cylindrical structures with different cross section geometries commonly used in the offshore industry.

Abstract The interest towards offshore wind energy has grown manifolds in the last few decades. Jacket structures are one of the most widely used substructures in the offshore wind turbine installations for intermediate water depths. Offshore structures are exposed to breaking waves. The interaction of breaking waves with the jackets is quite complicated due to the multiple vertical, horizontal and diagonal members. In the present study, a numerical investigation of the wave hydrodynamics and wave forces exerted by regular breaking waves on a jacket is performed. The open-source CFD code REEF3D is used for this purpose, which raises the possibility to model the breaking process physically. The conducted model-scale laboratory experiments have been performed in the past such that a direct comparison is presented.

Abstract Slender offshore structures of a cylindrical cross section, such as drilling and production risers, are susceptible to vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) when exposed to water currents. The present work presents an experimental investigation of the suppression of VIV of a circular cylinder by means of three different types of helical strakes: (i) a strake with continuous blades, (ii) a strake with serrated blades (or fins) and (iii) a strake with serrated blades individually twisted in relation to the incoming flow. By altering the blade geometry to produce the twisted-bladed strake, it was possible to keep the same level of suppression of the cross-flow vibration achieved by conventional strakes, but reducing drag in 15%. Experiments have been conducted in a recirculating water channel at moderate Reynolds numbers.

Abstract Spiral strand wire ropes are commonly used in the mooring system of offshore structures. When dealing with the fatigue limit state, engineers have to consider many different load cases, according to the variability of the environmental state. This usually prevents the use of any detailed numerical model of the mooring lines. In this paper, we propose a new method to evaluate with an affordable computational cost the detailed mechanical stress state in different parts of the wire ropes used for mooring a floating offshore wind turbine. We first compute tension and bending history in the mooring, with the hydrodynamic software Deeplines™, assuming for simplification stationary aerodynamic loads on the floater. These time series are then accounted for in a novel Finite Element Model of the spiral strand, with small sliding among the wires. The obtained kinematics and stress state of the wires can then feed a fatigue law based on fretting fatigue, which has been experimentally evidenced to condition the fatigue life of spiral strand wire ropes. The potential of this method is illustrated with an application to a cylinder-like shape floater equipped with 3 pairs of catenary mooring lines. It is shown that bending and tension histories do not significantly depend on the wire rope bending stiffness.

Abstract The horizontal motions of a moored offshore structure in waves are dominated by the resonance phenomena that occur at the natural frequencies of the system. Therefore, the maximum excursions of the structure depend on both the wave loads and the damping in the system. At present, potential flow calculations are employed for predicting the wave loads on offshore structures. However, such methods cannot predict hydrodynamic damping which is dominated by viscous effects. Therefore, the current practice in the industry is to obtain the low-frequency damping based on model testing. Nowadays, CFD simulations also have the potential to predict the low-frequency viscous damping of offshore structures in calm water. To obtain confidence in the accuracy of CFD simulations, a proper validation of the results of such CFD calculations is essential. In this paper, the flow around a forced surging or swaying LNGC is calculated using the CFD code ReFRESCO. The objective is to assess the accuracy and applicability of CFD for predicting the low-frequency viscous damping. After a description of the code and the used numerical methods, the results are presented and compared with results from model tests. Both inertia and damping coefficients are analyzed from the calculated hydrodynamics loads. Extensive numerical studies have been carried out to determine the influence of grid resolution, time step and iterative convergence on the flow solution and on the calculated damping. The numerical uncertainty of the results are assessed for one combination of amplitude and period for the surge motion. The CFD results are compared to experimental results indicating that the calculated damping coefficients agree within 5% for both surge and sway motion.

Abstract The DP capability plot is a useful tool to show the limitations of a dynamic positioning system for ships or offshore structures under loading from wind, waves and ocean currents. At the preliminary design stage, it is desirable to use fast methods for calculating the forces and moments caused by the environment, preferably without the need for CFD simulations or model experiments. Empirical methods are available for predicting aerodynamic forces and moments, and hydrodynamic forces and moments from currents, but little is published for second order wave drift forces. Wave drift forces and moment calculations have been carried out using WAMIT, for a series of ship hulls from OSVs to VLCCs and the effects of wave direction and frequency on the Surge, Sway, and Yaw forces and moment have been studied. The presentation of the results allows the user to interpolate the resulting drift forces and moments as a function of wave direction for a given ship size. In terms of wave drift loads calculation, it is found that the very large vessels are dominant in the low frequency waves, while smaller size ships are in high frequencies. The wave frequency and direction in which maximum drift load occurs depends on the ship size.

Abstract Vortex-Induced Vibration (VIV) remains a challenge to the offshore structures such as deepwater riser and subsea pipelines, which require a robust and cost-effective control to circumvent the impact of the dynamic loads and the fatigue damage. While the state-of-the-art helical strakes are effective in the suppression of VIV amplitudes, they cause a higher drag force and bending moment on the submerged structure. In this work, we numerically investigate the recently proposed staggered groove concept to reduce both the VIV amplitudes and the drag force. The staggered groove is constructed by aligning the square grooves alternatively along the spanwise (axial) direction of the cylinder. The performance of the staggered groove concept is examined in three dimensions for two VIV configurations at subcritical Reynolds number (Re) namely: (i) two-degree-of-freedom elastically mounted rigid cylinder (Re = 3000–10000), and (ii) pinned-pinned flexible cylinder in a uniform current flow at Re = 4800. Their characteristic responses and the vortex dynamics are compared to their plain cylinder counterparts. For the two VIV configurations, our results show a remarkable reduction of both the peak vibration amplitude and the drag force up to 40% and 20%, respectively. Further analysis has shown that such reduction is related to the diminishing of the spanwise correlation of hydrodynamic forces due to the alternating alignment of the grooves. Such effect on the spanwise correlation leads to the broadening of the frequency spectra of the forces, thereby reduces the average power transferred to the cylinder and leads to the VIV suppression.

Abstract Usually, mooring system restoring forces acting on floating offshore structures are obtained from a quasi-static mooring model alone or from a coupled analysis based on potential flow solvers that do not always consider nonlinear mooring-induced phenomena or fluid-structure interactions and the associated viscous damping effects. By assuming that only the mooring system influences the restoring force characteristics, the contribution of mooring-induced damping to total system damping is neglected. This paper presents a technique to predict hydrodynamic damping of moored structures based on coupling the dynamic mooring model with a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations solver. We obtained hydrodynamic damping coefficients using a least-square algorithm to fit the time trace of decay tests. We analyzed a moored offshore buoy and validated our predictions against experimental measurements. The mooring system consisted of three catenary chains. The analyzed response comprised the decaying oscillating buoy motions, the natural periods, and the associated linear and quadratic damping characteristics. Predicted motions, natural periods, and hydrodynamic damping generally well agreed to comparable experimental data.

Abstract In situations where the calculation of ocean wave propagation and impact on offshore structures is required, fast numerical solvers are desired in order to find relevant wave events in a first step. After the identification of the relevant events, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based Numerical Wave Tanks (NWT) with an interface capturing two-phase flow approach can be used to resolve the complex wave structure interaction, including breaking wave kinematics. CFD models emphasize detail of the hydrodynamic physics, which makes them not the ideal candidate for the event identification due to the large computational resources involved. In the current paper a new numerical wave model is represented that solves the Laplace equation for the flow potential and the nonlinear kinematic and dynamics free surface boundary conditions. This approach requires reduced computational resources compared to CFD based NWTs. In contrast to existing approaches, the resulting fully nonlinear potential flow solver REEF3D::FNPF uses a σ -coordinate grid for the computations. Solid boundaries are incorporated through a ghost cell immersed boundary method. The free surface boundary conditions are discretized using fifth-order WENO finite difference methods and the third-order TVD Runge-Kutta scheme for time stepping. The Laplace equation for the potential is solved with Hypres stabilized bi-conjugated gradient solver preconditioned with geometric multi-grid. REEF3D::FNPF is fully parallelized following the domain decomposition strategy and the MPI communication protocol. The model is successfully tested for wave propagation benchmark cases for shallow water conditions with variable bottom as well as deep water.

Abstract Recently, the installation areas of offshore structures has expanded into deep sea areas, and as a result, strength and plate thickness of the steel plate required for the offshore structures have become higher. And the main property of offshore structure steel is the crack tip opening displacement (CTOD) property of multi-pass weld joint. Thus, the developed steel was designed to improve HAZ toughness of multi-pass weld joint. Firstly, in order to achieve both high strength of the base metal and good HAZ toughness, the TMCP technology was applied, and Ceq. was minimized. And to obtain fine HAZ microstructure, fine TiN and Ca(O,S) particles having pinning effect and nucleation site effect were used. Finally, to decrease the formation of brittle martensite-austenite constituent (M-A) in HAZ of multi-pass weld joint, Si content was decreased. By using above technologies, the YS 500MPa class thick steel plate with good weld joint CTOD property have been developed.