Sway Platforms: Influence of Configuration, Topside Weight and Design Philosophy on Structural Reliability

Author(s):  
B. F. Ronalds ◽  
R. Pinna ◽  
D. J. Trench ◽  
D. G. Cosson ◽  
G. K. Cole

Moment magnification in platforms such as monopods and jack-ups may be addressed in a variety of ways in the design process. This paper investigates how differing treatments influence the reserve strength ratio (RSR) and hence structural reliability of sway platforms. Both WSD and LRFD versions of API RP2A are considered, together with several methods of estimating the moment magnification factor. The effect of varying topside weight is also incorporated — increasing topside load increases the second order moments but also increases the amount of steel provided by the Code to resist the loadings. It is found that the RSR varies widely for different structural configurations and may either increase or decrease with increasing topside weight. The RSR is also sensitive to the design approach adopted. As a result, a single set of partial load factors will not succeed in narrowing the spread of reliabilities across different configurations and design philosophies. Indeed, the use of a WSD format may result in more uniform reliability levels than API RP2A-LRFD for certain sway platforms.

1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Efthymiou ◽  
J. W. van de Graaf ◽  
P. S. Tromans ◽  
I. M. Hines

The key issue addressed in this paper is the accuracy of structural reliability models for the case of fixed steel offshore structures under extreme storm loading. The emphasis is on engineering accuracy for the purpose of use in decision-making, and more specifically to achieve sufficient accuracy to enable the use of reliability models in deriving design criteria for fixed offshore platforms. These reliability models are used to derive partial load factors for use in conjunction with API LRFD to achieve a target reliability level appropriate for permanently manned installations. These load factors are location-dependent. Further load factors are proposed for the design of new, not normally manned installations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Treadaway ◽  
Gail Kenning

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present design research investigating the development of sensory textiles with embedded electronics to support the wellbeing of people with late stage dementia in residential care. Design/methodology/approach – The research presented is qualitative and uses a mixed method approach informed by grounded practical theory and positive design methodologies. It uses an inclusive and participatory co-design process involving people with dementia and their families with an interdisciplinary team of experts. Findings – Both the co-design process and the artefacts developed have been beneficial in supporting wellbeing. The textile artefacts have been found to soothe, distract and comfort people with dementia. They have also been shown to facilitate in the moment conversational bridges between family members and carers with persons with dementia. Research limitations/implications – The findings are based on a small cohort of participants, observational reports and descriptive accounts from family members and carers. Practical implications – The paper proposes ways in which simple hand-crafted textiles can be used beneficially to support the wellbeing of people with late stage dementia. It provides examples of how technology can be used to personalise and extend the sensory properties of the artefacts created. Social implications – It promotes an inclusive co-design methodology involving care professionals, carers and people with dementia with designers and technologists. Originality/value – The paper describes new ways of extending sensory properties of textiles through the integration of technology.


Design Issues ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-22
Author(s):  
Joachim Knape

Abstract This article deals primarily with object design from a production-theoretical perspective. It is focused on the question of the rhetorical achievement of design, i.e., its persuasiveness, which was already discussed by Buchanan and Krippendorf in 1985. To this day, the relationship between aesthetic and rhetorical calculuses in the design process is controversial in theoretical discussion. The solution to the problem: Aesthetics and rhetoric combine in the appeal structure (1) at the moment of creation of design and (2) at the moment of the user's decision for an object. In these processes, the design argument results from the combination of aestheticized gestalt and rhetorical appeal of an object.


1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 956-983 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis E Becker

This paper examines the foundation design process in terms of level of safety associated with current state-of-practice, sources of uncertainty and how they are handled, importance of engineering judgement and experience, and the role of codes of practice. Working stress, limit states, reliability-based design approcahes are described and discussed in terms of their historical development, fundamental bases and differences, advantages, and limitations. Limit states are conditions under which a structure no longer performs its intended function. Limit states design considers seperately the two classes of ultimate and serviceability limit states using partial factors of safety. The European factored strength approach and the North American factored overall resistance approach are compared and discussed. The factored resistance approach is a logical extension of working stress design and has the significant advantage that it reflects not only uncertainty in strength, but also in theoretical models, site conditions, construction tolerances, and failure mechanisms. The partial load and resistance factors are interrelated and are a function of characteristic values. A consistent, rational basis for the selection of the geotechnical characteristic value is required. The use of a conservatively assessed mean value is recommended, and an approach for its interpretation is presented. Key words: limit states design, working stress design, characteristic value, partial factors, factored resistance, load and resistance factor design.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-193
Author(s):  
Sean Ahlquist

Computational design affords agency: the ability to orchestrate the material, spatial, and technical architectural system. In this specific case, it occurs through enhanced, authored means to facilitate making and performance—typically driven by concerns of structural optimization, material use, and responsivity to environmental factors—of an atmospheric rather than social nature. At issue is the positioning of this particular manner of agency solely with the architect auteur. This abruptly halts—at the moment in which fabrication commences—the ability to amend, redefine, or newly introduce fundamentally transformational constituents and their interrelationships and, most importantly, to explore the possibility for extraordinary outcomes. When the architecture becomes a functional, social, and cultural entity, in the hands of the idealized abled-bodied user, agency—especially for one of an otherly body or mind—is long gone. Even an empathetic auteur may not be able to access the motivations of the differently-abled body and neuro-divergent mind, effectively locking the constraints of the design process, which creates an exclusionary system to those beyond the purview of said auteur. It can therefore be deduced that the mechanisms or authors of a conventional computational design process cannot eradicate the exclusionary reality of an architectural system. Agency is critical, yet a more expansive terminology for agent and agency is needed. The burden to conceive of capacities that will always be highly temporal, social, unpredictable, and purposefully unknown must be shifted far from the scope of the traditional directors of the architectural system. Agency, and who it is conferred upon, must function in a manner that dissolves the distinctions between the design, the action of designing, the author of design, and those subjected to it.


Author(s):  
Владимир Аверченков ◽  
Vladimir Averchenkov ◽  
Алексей Вилюха ◽  
Alexey Viluykha ◽  
Михаил Рытов ◽  
...  

The article deals with the design process of low-frequency rectangular electrical connectors and determining the position CAD/CAE-systems in it. The review of the actual literature shows that development trends of design and technological preparation of low-frequency rectangular electrical connectors production mean using CAD/CAM/CAE-systems. But at the moment these systems are used for solving partial issues. The authors formalize the empirical method of the design and systemize the factors, which influence the design process. As a result of the mentioned above actions, the working algorithm of the multipurpose CAD/CAE electrical connectors design system was obtained. The results of the research were applied to automize the design process of connectors housings.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1203 (3) ◽  
pp. 032137
Author(s):  
Aleksander Filip Furmanek

Abstract The constant progress of technique is inevitable nowadays and seems to be the same in a predictable future. The observation of this phenomenon leads us to formulate a few reflections on it. The use of advanced techniques causes a clearer detachment of production processes from human work. Robotics and automation were initially supposed to facilitate the production of elements, but over time they began to replace humans more and more. Will there be a place for human work in the future? It is already being pushed out of many bastions in which it was supposed to be indispensable. Autonomous cars and buses are the best example of this. Can similar phenomena be noticed in design? Will the machine replace the creator? The development of artificial intelligence (AI) shows that it is possible. Complicated algorithms are already able to compose a piece of classical music. In the case of architecture, architects are still in the lead, however, one has to take into account the conquest of this field by AI. At the moment, designers have various advanced techniques at their disposal to facilitate and accelerate their work. The most important among them are: digital 3D modeling CAD (Computer Aided Design), Building Information Modeling (BIM), visualizations, and computer animations mainly used to present ready-made ideas, but also useful at the concept stage. Apart from them, three-dimensional printing is also important, as well as three-dimensional design of structures. The above technologies are increasingly used in the design process. They are more compatible with each other than before. They allow you to save labour, accelerate the implementation of tasks, as well as to optimise the designed buildings in many respects related to construction, prefabrication or energy efficiency, to name just a few. An important, although not very common, advantage of technological innovations is their use not only during design and construction, but also during the maintenance of ready-made buildings. The best example of this is BIM, which facilitates the previous management of these technology designed objects. In the future, it will be much easier to design the adaptations of such buildings and to store information of changes which were made. This approach fits in with the idea of Management of Change, which can be included in an even broader aspect among the paradigm of sustainable development.


Author(s):  
Matthew Walker

Architects and Intellectual Culture in Post-Restoration England charts the moment when well-educated, well-resourced, English intellectuals first became interested in classical architecture in substantial numbers. This occurred after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660 and involved people such as John Evelyn, Robert Hooke, Sir Christopher Wren, and Roger North. The book explores how these figures treated architecture as a subject of intellectual enquiry, either as writers, as designers of buildings, or as both. In four substantial chapters it looks at how the architect was defined as a major intellectual figure; how architects acquired material that allowed them to define themselves as intellectually competent architects; how intellectual writers in the period handled knowledge of ancient architecture in their writing; and how the design process in architecture was conceived of in theoretical writing at the time. In all, the book shows that the key to understanding English architectural culture at the time is to understand how architecture was handled as knowledge, and how architects were conceived of as collectors and producers of such knowledge. It also makes the claim that architecture was treated as an extremely serious and important area of intellectual enquiry, the result of which was that, by the turn of the eighteenth century, architects and architectural writers could count themselves amongst England’s intellectual and cultural elite.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document