Slow-Drift Pitch Motions and Air-Gap Observed From Model Testing With Moored Semisubmersibles

Author(s):  
Carl Trygve Stansberg

Low-frequency pitch motions of a moored semisubmersible in irregular sea states are analyzed. Physical mechanisms and significance to air-gap problems are addressed. Excitation from wave drift and from moorings/risers is primarily considered, Effects from current and wind are also addressed. Related challenges in deepwater model testing of semis with truncated moorings are discussed. Motion and air-gap data from two previously performed model tests are analysed. Catenary moorings in 335m water depth and in 1100m water depth, respectively, are considered. Model scales are 1:55 and 1:150, respectively. Observed slow-drift pitch components are of the same magnitude level as the wave-frequency components. Comparisons to coupled numerical analysis models are made. Wave drift moment coefficients calibrated empirically according to experiments were used, since the original coefficients gave too low results. The final comparisons show good agreement for the 1:55 case. For the 1:150 case, fairly good agreement is found, but some deviations are observed and believed to be due to poorer wave repeatablity. Tests with truncated moorings at half of the two actual depths were also included, for a check of methods for deepwater model tests performed at reduced depths and combine with numerical analysis (hybrid verification). The importance of proper experimental reproduction at reduced depths, of full-depth pitch and air-gap, is addressed. The results show that with the actual truncation designs, reasonable agreements are obtained, but use of the scale 1:150 seems to give too large uncertainties due to the poorer wave repeatability.

Author(s):  
Timothy E. Kendon ◽  
Ola Oritsland ◽  
Rolf J. Baarholm ◽  
Svein I. Karlsen ◽  
Carl-Trygve Stansberg ◽  
...  

Model test verification of floater systems in ultra-deep water meets limitations when it comes to available laboratory sizes. Systems in depths beyond 1000–1500 m cannot be tested at reasonable scales without the truncation of the mooring and riser system. The development of methods and procedures to overcome this problem has been addressed through extensive research programs at MARINTEK (VERIDEEP, VERIDEEP Extension, NDP, DEMO2000). This led to a hybrid verification procedure which combines reasonable truncation principles, model tests of the truncated system, and numerical simulations, to estimate the system’s response at full depth. There is, however, still a need to address the actual influence from the truncation procedure, and from the integration with simulations, on the final extrapolated full depth results. This paper presents a case study for the validation of the procedure, that compares full depth model test results of a semisubmersible in water depth 1250m against the extrapolated full depth results obtained from a truncated system of 500m. Results are presented for line tension and vessel responses in 3 seastates. In general the extrapolated full depth results were found to be in good agreement with the full depth model tests. However, the results confirmed expectation that the low frequency response has the greater uncertainties and presents the greatest challenge for the procedure.


Author(s):  
Limin Yang ◽  
Arne Nestegård ◽  
Erik Falkenberg

Viscous effects on the low-frequency excitation force on column based platforms are significant in extreme waves. The wave drift force as calculated by a zero-current potential flow radiation/diffraction code becomes negligible for such waves. In the present study, the effect of current and viscous contributions on the slowly varying wave forces are adjusted by a formula developed in the Exwave JIP, see e.g. [1], which is validated against model test results. This paper presents numerical predictions of low frequency horizontal motions of a semi-submersible in combined high waves and current condition. In the simulation model, frequency dependent wave drift forces from radiation/diffraction code are modified by the formula. Static current forces and viscous damping are modelled by the drag term in Morison load formula using relative velocity between current and floater and with force coefficients as recommended by DNVGL-RP-C205 [2]. Low frequency surge responses calculated by the simulation model are compared with model tests for waves only and for combined collinear and noncollinear wave and current conditions.


Author(s):  
Dara Williams ◽  
Patrick Ashton

As has been noted in industry publications and conferences in the recent past the use of more modern deepwater capable 5th and 6th generation semisubmersible drilling rigs in relatively shallow water applications (when compared to design water depth) is likely to become more commonplace. Water depths of 500m or less will necessitate the use of mooring systems in order to maintain position close to the well centre whilst drilling. For fatigue assessments of moored MODUs, the current industry practice to estimate fatigue damage in the drilling riser and the wellhead, using global riser analysis techniques, is to consider both wave and VIV fatigue effects. Standard wave fatigue analysis considers two key response parameters, firstly the impact of the hydrodynamic loading on the riser joints due to drag forces, inertia and added mass effects, and secondly the effects of vessel motions on the riser system and wellhead loading. Standard practice for wave fatigue analysis is to consider only first order motion effects as described by the vessel RAO (response amplitude operator). However, for a moored MODU low frequency (100s-200s period) vessel response can have a significant impact on the overall vessel motions. The actual response and magnitude of MODU motion will be influenced by the size and displacement of the vessel in addition to the configuration of the mooring system. First order lateral motions for a semisubmersible tend to increase as wave period is increased and therefore at lower periods first order motions can be quite low. However, the opposite can be said of wave drift forces that contribute to second order response. Although the wave drift forces are largest for lower wave periods, these low period drift forces have a significant influence on the resulting long period second order response of a moored MODU. This has important implications for drilling riser and wellhead fatigue analysis as in many cases the critical seastates for fatigue damage are low period seastates with a large number of occurrences. Thus the current global analysis techniques for fatigue calculations may lead to an underestimation of fatigue damage contribution from low period seastates. The purpose of this paper is to present the key conclusions and findings of a study carried out in order to determine the effects of low frequency moored MODU motions on wellhead fatigue. These results are derived from a case study of a moored 6th generation semi-submersible drilling vessel in 500m water depth.


Author(s):  
Yihua Su ◽  
Jianmin Yang ◽  
Longfei Xiao ◽  
Gang Chen

Modeling the deepwater mooring system in present available basin using standard Froude scaling at an acceptable scale presents new challenges. A prospective method is to truncate the full-depth mooring lines and find an equivalent truncated mooring system that can reproduce both static and dynamic response of the full-depth mooring system, but large truncation arise if the water depth where the deepwater platform located is very deep or the available water depth of the basin is shallow. A Cell-Truss Spar operated in 1500m water depth is calibrated in a wave basin with 4m water depth. Large truncation arises even though a small model scale 1:100 is chosen. A series of truncated mooring lines are designed and investigated through numerical simulations, single line model tests and coupled wave basin model tests. It is found that dynamic response of the truncated mooring line can be enlarged by using larger diameter and mass per unit length in air. Although the truncated mooring line with clump presents a “taut” shape, its dynamic characteristics is dominated by the geometry stiffness and it underestimates dynamic response of the full-depth mooring line, even induces high-frequency dynamic response. There are still two obstacles in realizing dynamic similarity for the largely truncated mooring system: lower mean value of the top tension of upstream mooring lines, and smaller low-frequency mooring-induced damping.


Author(s):  
Mathieu Renaud ◽  
Fla´via Rezende ◽  
Olaf Waals ◽  
Xiao-Bo Chen ◽  
Radboud van Dijk

Due to the installation of LNG terminals moored in proximity to the coast, the wave kinematics in shallow water and the consequence on the behavior of those terminals have recently became a major concern of the offshore industry. One key issue is the accurate simulation of the low-frequency motions of LNG carriers, specially the surge, for which the vessel presents low damping, in order to perform the design of the mooring system. The present paper focuses on the effect of wave directionality on second-order slow-drift loads and the related response of the vessel. The paper describes results of model tests in regular cross waves — monochromatic but coming from two directions separated by 90 degrees, as well as bichromatic cross waves. The new “middle field” formulation extended to the case of cross waves, is used to compute the wave drift loads and low-frequency Quadratic Transfer Function (QTF). The results are compared with those from the model tests.


1986 ◽  
Vol 30 (02) ◽  
pp. 103-122
Author(s):  
J. A. P. Aranha ◽  
C. P. Pesce

The slow-drift phenomenon is important when the waves are irregular and the sea spectrum has a relatively narrow band. In this paper an expression is derived for the low-frequency force due to the second-order potential. This expression is the leading-order contribution in the wave spectrum bandwidth and can be exactly determined without computing the second-order potential. It is shown that this effect is of importance when the water depth is relatively shallow or the typical wave period relatively long.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Fonseca ◽  
Galin Tahchiev ◽  
Jose Miguel Rodrigues ◽  
Sebastien Fouques ◽  
Carl Trygve Stansberg

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-93
Author(s):  
Hamed Khanger Mina ◽  
Waleed K. Al-Ashtrai

This paper studies the effect of contact areas on the transient response of mechanical structures. Precisely, it investigates replacing the ordinary beam of a structure by two beams of half the thickness, which are joined by bolts. The response of these beams is controlled by adjusting the tightening of the connecting bolts and hence changing the magnitude of the induced frictional force between the two beams which affect the beams damping capacity. A cantilever of two beams joined together by bolts has been investigated numerically and experimentally. The numerical analysis was performed using ANSYS-Workbench version 17.2. A good agreement between the numerical and experimental results has been obtained. In general, results showed that the two beams vibrate independently when the bolts were loosed and the structure stiffness is about 20 N/m and the damping ratio is about 0.008. With increasing the bolts tightening, the stiffness and the damping ratio of the structure were also increased till they reach their maximum values when the tightening force equals to 8330 N, where the structure now has stiffness equals to 88 N/m and the damping ratio is about 0.062. Beyond this force value, increasing the bolts tightening has no effect on stiffness of the structure while the damping ratio is decreased until it returned to 0.008 when the bolts tightening becomes immense and the beams behave as one beam of double thickness.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1243
Author(s):  
Hongseok Jeong ◽  
Jeung-Hoon Lee ◽  
Yong-Hyun Kim ◽  
Hanshin Seol

The dominant underwater noise source of a ship is known to be propeller cavitation. Recently, attempts have been made to quantify the source strength using on-board pressure sensors near the propeller, as this has advantages over conventional noise measurement. In this study, a beamforming method was used to estimate the source strength of a cavitating propeller. The method was validated against a model-scale measurement in a cavitation tunnel, which showed good agreement between the measured and estimated source levels. The method was also applied to a full-scale measurement, in which the source level was measured using an external hydrophone array. The estimated source level using the hull pressure sensors showed good agreement with the measured one above 400 Hz, which shows potential for noise monitoring using on-board sensors. A parametric study was carried out to check the practicality of the method. From the results, it was shown that a sufficient recording time is required to obtain a consistent level at high frequencies. Changing the frequency resolution had little effect on the result, as long as enough data were provided for the one-third octave band conversion. The number of sensors affected the mid- to low-frequency data.


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