The Optimal Design of TMD for Offshore Structures

This paper presents the optimal design procedure of Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) for reducing vibration of an actual steel jacket offshore platform excited by random wave loading. In this study, a frequency domain is taken. The force on the structure is determined by use of the linearized Morison equation for an input Power Spectral Density (PSD) of wave elevation. The sensitivity of optimum values of TMD to characteristic parameters of random wave spectrum is analyzed. An optimized TMD design for the modeled platform is given based on design conditions and the findings of the study.

Multiple-Step Predictive Control for Offshore Structures

Ocean wave propagation is slow, visible and measurable, so a wave theory can be used to approximately predict the imminnent wave force on an offshore structure based on measured, real-time wave elevation near the structure. This predictability suggests the development of a more efficient algorithm, than those that have been developed for structures under wind and seismic loads, for the active vibration control of offshore structures. The present study delveops a mutiple-step predictive optimal control (MPOC) algorithm that accounts for multiple step external loading in the determination of optimal control forces. The control efficiency of the newly developed MPOC algorithm has been Investigated under both regular (single-frequency) and irregular (multiple-frequency) wave loads, and compared with that of two other well-known optimal control algorithms: classical linear optimal control(CLOC) and instantaneous optimal control(IOC).

Analysis of Collision Protection for Ocean and Offshore Structures

An elasto-plastie impact model based on the p-version finite element method is presented for the collision protection of ocean and offshore structures. The impact force and responses of the impactor-absorber-structure system can be predicted efficiently and automatically. A cost-effective Cellular Reinforced Concrete Absorber （CRCA） is designed to smooth the impact force and absorb the impact energy. Quasi-static tests show that the concrete absorber has an excellent energy absorbing characteristic. The impact experiment of a scaled offshore oil-piping frame with the proposed concrete absorber is carried out. The simulation results of the elasto-plastie model and the p-version finite element method are in good agreement with the experimental ones. Owing to the plastic deformation of the absorber, the impact force during the impact and responses of the structure are considerably reduced. Further, the proposed impact model and the concrete absorber are applied to the design of collision protection of the sheet-pile groin on the Qiantang River used to weaken the famous Qiantang bore.

Fatigue reliability analysis of fixed offshore structures:A first passage problem approach

This paper describes a methodology for computation of reliability of members of fixed offshore platform structures, with respect to fatigue. Failure criteria were formulated using fracture mechanics principle. The problem is coined as a “first passage problem”. The method was illustrated through application to a typical plane frame structure. The fatigue reliability degradation curve established can be used for planning in-service inspection of offshore platforms. A very limited parametric study was carried out to obtain insight into the effect of important variables on the fatigue reliability.

Scour and liquefaction issues for anchors and other subsea structures in floating offshore wind farms: A review

This article reviews scouring and liquefaction issues for anchor foundations of floating offshore wind farms.The review is organized in two sections:(1)the scouring issues for drag-embedment anchors(DEAs)and other subsea structures associated with DEAs such as tensioners,clump weights,and chains in floating offshore wind farms;and(2)the liquefaction issues for the same types of structures,particularly for DEAs.The scouring processes are described in detail,and the formulae and design guidelines for engineering predictions are included for quantities like scour depth,time scale,and sinking due to general shear failure of the bed soil caused by scoui\The latter is furnished with numerical examples.Likewise,in the second section,the liquefaction processes are described with special reference to residual liquefaction where pore-water pressure builds up in undrained soils(such as fine sand and silt)under waves,leading to liquefaction of the bed soil and precipitating failure of DEAs and their associated subsea structures.An integrated mathematical model to deal with liquefaction around and the resulted sinking failure of DEAs,introduced in a recent study,has been revisited.Implementation of the model is illustrated with a numerical example.It is believed that the present review and the existing literatures from the"neighboring"fields form a complementary source of information on scour and liquefaction around foundations of floating offshore wind farms.

Torsionally Coupled Response Control of Offshore Platform Structures Using Circular Tuned Liquid Column Dampers

In this paper, the control performance is investigated of Circular Tuned Liquid Column Dampers (CTLCD) over torsional response of offshore platform structures excited by ground motions. Based on the equation of motion for the CTLCD-structure system, the optimal control parameters of CTLCD are given through some derivations on the supposition that the ground motion is a stochastic process. The influence of systematic parameters on the equivalent damping ratio of the structures is analyzed with purely torsional vibration and translational-torsional coupled vibration, respectively. The results show that the Circular Tuned Liquid Column Damper (CTLCD) is an effective torsional response control device.

Analysis and Research of Ice Loads Acting on Offshore Structures

Usually, the action of sea ice on offshore engineering structures is one of the controlling loads in cold waters engineering structure design. The reasonable selection of environmental condition and the physical mechanical properties of ice in the region are directly related to the structure design, operation and safety. In this paper, the sea ice force acting on the structure, the physical mechanical properties of ice and the selection of parameters in calculation are discussed. Some suggestions are proposed as to the calculation of various kinds of ice loads acting on the structure.

Review on Artificial Intelligence-aided Life Extension Assessment of Offshore Wind Support Structures

The primary objective of the present literature review is to provide a constructive and systematical discussion based on the relevant development,unsolved issues,gaps,and misconceptions in the literature regarding the fields of study that are building blocks of artificial intelligence-aided life extension assessment for offshore wind turbine support structures.The present review aims to set up the needed guidelines to develop a multi-disciplinary framework for life extension management and certification of the support structures for offshore wind turbines using artificial intelligence.The main focus of the literature review centres around the intelligent risk-based life extension management of offshore wind turbine support structures.In this regard,big data analytics,advanced signal processing techniques,supervised and unsupervised machine learning methods are discussed within the structural health monitoring and condition-based maintenance planning,the development of digital twins.Furthermore,the present review discusses the critical failure mechanisms affecting the structural condition,such as high-cycle fatigue,low-cycle fatigue,fracture,ultimate strength,and corrosion,considering deterministic and probabilistic approaches.

Two phenomena: Honji instability, and ringing of offshore structures

Honji instability and ringing of offshore structrures are two different phenomena. Honji instability occurs at a circular cylinder in transverse periodic finite motion in a water tank. It is superposed on the streaming flow induced by the cylinder’s boundary layer. Its oscillation period is half of the period of the cylinder oscillation. Finite volume calculations of the filtered Navier-Stokes equations visualize the three-dimensional instability, where fluid particles transported by the circumferencial roll pairs exhibit a periodic mushroom-like pattern. Force is the same with and without the Honji instability. The large eddy simulation calculations for high Reynolds number support a drag coefficient in accordance with the Stokes-Wang solution below separation and conform with experimental measurements of the damping force on a harmonically oscillating cylinder. Ringing of offshore structures are vibrations which appear at natural frequencies and concern fatigue. It is generated by a higher harmonic force oscillating with frequency being 3-4 times the fundamental wave frequency. Together with a strong inertia load in phase with the incoming wave’s acceleration, a secondary load cycle appears in strong seas when the wave crest leaves the structure; this occurs about 1/4 wave period after the main force peak, it starts when the wave crest is about one cylinder radius behind the cylinder, lasts for about 15-20 percent of the wave period and has a magnitude up to 11 % of the peak-to-peak total force. It is a gravity effect and appears in strong irregular seas when kA > 0.18 and um/√gD > 0.4 (k wavenumber, A amplitude, um maximal wave induced velocity, g acceleration of gravity, D cylinder diameter).

Recent Developments in Fatigue Assessment of Ships and Offshore Structures

A review is provided of various approaches that have been adopted recently to assess the fatigue of ships and offshore structures.The relevant fatigue loading is reviewed first,focusing on the successive loading and unloading of the cargo and the transient loadings.The factors influencing fatigue strength are discussed,including the geometrical parameters,material,residual stress,and ones related to the environment.Different approaches for fatigue analyses of seam-welded joints are covered,i.e.,the structural stress or strain approach,the notch stress or strain approach,notch intensity approach,and the crack propagation approach.

Theoretical Analysis of Mechanical Vibration for Offshore Platform Structures

A new class of support structures, called Periodic Structures, is introduced in this paper as a viable means for isolating the vibration transmitted from the sea waves to offshore platform structures through its legs. A passive approach to reduce transmitted vibration generated by waves is presented. The approach utilizes the property of periodic structural components that create stop and pass bands. The stop band regions can be tailored to correspond to regions of the frequency spectra that contain harmonics of the wave frequency, attenuating the response in those regions. A periodic structural component is comprised of a repeating array of cells, which are themselves an assembly of elements. The elements may have differing material properties as well as geometric variations. For the purpose of this research, only geometric and material variations are considered and each cell is assumed to be identical. A periodic leg is designed in order to reduce transmitted vibration of sea waves. The effectiveness of the periodicity on the vibration levels of platform will be demonstrated theoretically. The theory governing the operation of this class of periodic structures is introduced using the transfer matrix method. The unique filtering characteristics of periodic structures are demonstrated as functions of their design parameters for structures with geometrical and material discontinuities, and determine the propagation factor by using the spectral finite element analysis and the effectiveness of design on the leg structure by changing the ratio of step length and area interface between the materials is demonstrated in order to find the propagation factor and frequency response.

Damage Detection of Offshore Jacket Structures Using Frequency Domain Selective Measurements

The development of damage detection techniques for offshore jacket structures is vital to prevent catastrophic events. This paper applies a frequency response based method for the purpose of structural health monitoring. In efforts to fulfill this task, concept of the minimum rank perturbation theory has been utilized. The present article introduces a promising methodology to select frequency points effectively. To achieve this goal, modal strain energy ratio of each member was evaluated at different natural frequencies of structure in order to identify the sensitive frequency domain for damage detection. The proposed methodology opens up the possibility of much greater detection efficiency. In addition, the performance of the proposed method was evaluated in relation to multiple damages. The aforementioned points are illustrated using the numerical study of a two dimensional jacket platform, and the results proved to be satisfactory utilizing the proposed methodology.

STRESS ANALYSIS OF RING STIFFENED TUBULAR JOINTS FOR OFFSHORE STRUCTURES——REVIEW OF STUDIES IN CHINA

In China, the stress analysis of tubular joints for offshore structures was started at the end of 1970's. In addition to simple joints, the ring stiffened tubular joint have been analyzed recently. In this paper, the author reviews the research work of stress analysis of ring stiffened joints, including brief introduction to the methods used, stress concentration behaviour, effects of ring stiffeners' number, location, dimension, type and stress distribution of ring stiffeners. Emperical formulae for predicting SCF of ring stiffened joints are also presented.

Structural Vibration Mode Re-Analysis of Offshore Structures

-This paper reviews the current methodology for dynamic reanalysis. Rayleigh-Ritz approach and receptance approach are discussed in detail. Based on a general finite element structural analysis program SAPS, an eigenproblem re-analysis prorgram ERP was compiled. With a very small change the program can be implemented readily with any general FEM program. Finally, some numerical examples show that the new algorithm is of high precision and efficiency. In the case of local modification in the offshore platform, the efficiency is raised by 20- 50 times when compared with the re-calculation of the whole model.

A New Probability of Detection Model for Updating Crack Distribution of Offshore Structures

There exists model uncertainty of probability of detection for inspecting ship structures with nondestructive inspection techniques. Based on a comparison of several existing probability of detection (POD) models, a new probability of detection model is proposed for the updating of crack size distribution. Furthermore, the theoretical derivation shows that most existing probability of detection models are special cases of the new probability of detection model. The least square method is adopted for determining the values of parameters in the new POD model. This new model is also compared with other existing probability of detection models. The results indicate that the new probability of detection model can fit the inspection data better. This new probability of detection model is then applied to the analysis of the problem of crack size updating for offshore structures. The Bayesian updating method is used to analyze the effect of probability of detection models on the posterior distribution of a crack size. The results show that different probabilities of detection models generate different posterior distributions of a crack size for offshore structures.

Green Offshore Structures Promising Viable Utilization of Shipyard Facilities

The shipbuilding industry in Europe is in crisis due to the recent economic recession and competition from countries with low labour costs. Greek shipyards have been forced to make a series of structural changes which have resulted in lower employment levels. Although these changes were gradually creating the conditions for shipyards profitably to re-enter international markets, the current economic crisis and the consequences to the shipping sector have created major problems to the shipyards employment. Perama shiprepair zone, an industrial zone mainly consisted from SMEs （small and medium enterprises） in shipbuilding and shiprepairing sector, has faced major problem for its survivability. In this article, a new approach is presented. Green offshore structures are expected to create competitive advantages in the zone and be a way to utilize available facilities and recover from the existing situation. International experience through case studies is presented followed by economic and technical feasibility for offshore windturbines construction and wave energy devices in shipyards. Finally, a general model shows that sustainable development is possible and shipyards have the adaptability and resources required tbr the production of renewable energy offshore structures.

Multi-criteria assessment of offshore wind turbine support structures based on dynamic property optimization

Increasing size of wind turbine and deep water deployment have raised the issue of appropriate selection of the most suitable support structure to make offshore wind energy cost competitive.The paper presents an optimization methodology for decision making process of bottom mounted supports of offshore wind turbines （OWTs） through reasonable engineering attributes derivation.Mathematic models of support structures are reduced by the generalized single-degree-of-freedom theory with relatively fewer structural parameters.Soft-stiff design optimization based on dynamic properties of OWTs is performed for monopile and lattice supports with different wind turbines,water depth and hub height.Attributes of support structures,wind turbines and environment conditions are applied in the multi-criteria decision making method——TOPSIS for benchmarking of those options.The results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed optimazation methodology combined with economical and environmental attributes together.

Dynamic Analysis of Tension Leg Platform for Offshore Wind Turbine Support as Fluid-Structure Interaction

Tension leg platform （TLP） for offshore wind turbine support is a new type structure in wind energy utilization. The strong-interaction method is used in analyzing the coupled model, and the dynamic characteristics of the TLP for offshore wind turbine support are recognized. As shown by the calculated results： for the lower modes, the shapes are water＇s vibration, and the vibration of water induces the structure＇s swing; the mode shapes of the structure are complex, and can largely change among different members; the mode shapes of the platform are related to the tower＇s. The frequencies of the structure do not change much after adjusting the length of the tension cables and the depth of the platform; the TLP has good adaptability for the water depths and the environment loads. The change of the size and parameters of TLP can improve the dynamic characteristics, which can reduce the vibration of the TLP caused by the loads. Through the vibration analysis, the natural vibration frequencies of TLP can be distinguished from the frequencies of condition loads, and thus the resonance vibration can be avoided, therefore the offshore wind turbine can work normally in the complex conditions.

Structural characteristics of central depression belt in deep-water area of the Qiongdongnan Basin and the hydrocarbon discovery of Songnan low bulge

The Qiongdongnan Basin has the first proprietary high-yield gas field in deep-water areas of China and makes the significant breakthroughs in oil and gas exploration.The central depression belt of deep-water area in the Qiongdongnan Basin is constituted by five sags,i.e.Ledong Sag,Lingshui Sag,Songnan Sag,Baodao Sag and Changchang Sag.It is a Cenozoic extensional basin with the basement of pre-Paleogene as a whole.The structural research in central depression belt of deep-water area in the Qiongdongnan Basin has the important meaning in solving the basic geological problems,and improving the exploration of oil and gas of this basin.The seismic interpretation and structural analysis in this article was operated with the 3D seismic of about 1.5×104 km2 and the 2D seismic of about 1×104 km.Eighteen sampling points were selected to calculate the fault activity rates of the No.2 Fault.The deposition rate was calculated by the ratio of residual formation thickness to deposition time scale.The paleo-geomorphic restoration was obtained by residual thickness method and impression method.The faults in the central depression belt of deep-water area of this basin were mainly developed during Paleogene,and chiefly trend in NE–SW,E–W and NW–SE directions.The architectures of these sags change regularly from east to west:the asymmetric grabens are developed in the Ledong Sag,western Lingshui Sag,eastern Baodao Sag,and western Changchang Sag;half-grabens are developed in the Songnan Sag,eastern Lingshui Sag,and eastern Changchang Sag.The tectonic evolution history in deep-water area of this basin can be divided into three stages,i.e.faulted-depression stage,thermal subsidence stage,and neotectonic stage.The Ledong-Lingshui sags,near the Red River Fault,developed large-scale sedimentary and subsidence by the uplift of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau during neotectonic stage.The Baodao-Changchang sags,near the northwest oceanic sub-basin,developed the large-scale magmatic activities and the transition of stress direction by the expansion of the South China Sea.The east sag belt and west sag belt of the deep-water area in the Qiongdongnan Basin,separated by the ancient Songnan bulge,present prominent differences in deposition filling,diaper genesis,and sag connectivity.The west sag belt has the advantages in high maturity,well-developed fluid diapirs and channel sand bodies,thus it has superior conditions for oil and gas migration and accumulation.The east sag belt is qualified by the abundant resources of oil and gas.The Paleogene of Songnan low bulge,located between the west sag belt and the east sag belt,is the exploration potential.The YL 8 area,located in the southwestern high part of the Songnan low bulge,is a favorable target for the future gas exploration.The Well 8-1-1 was drilled in August 2018 and obtained potential business discovery,and the Well YL8-3-1 was drilled in July 2019 and obtained the business discovery.

Surge Response of a Compliant Offshore Structure by Time Domain Simulation

A single-degree-of-freedom equation of motion was used for modeling a compliant offshore structure exposed to viscous hydrodynamic loads. The equation of motion contains nonlinearities in the forms of both Duffing stiffness and Morison drag force with current. The water particle velocity and acceleration for calculating the Morison inertia and drag forces are modeled as Gaussian processes based on a Pierson-Moskowitz (P-M) elevation spectrum. The single-degree-of-freedom equation of motion containing different ocean current values are then numerically integrated via a fourth-order Runge-Kutta scheme. Time trajectories of the surge response displacements of the offshore structure and the response probability density curves are obtained. Furthermore, the ocean current influences on the response central moments up to the fourth order are studied. A literature review reveals that this is the first treatment of such a pair of nonlinearities in time domain. The simulation results are analyzed, and some conclusions valuable for engineering design are pointed out.