Condition Assessment Techniques for Aged Fixed-Type Offshore Platforms Considering Decommissioning:a Historical Review

In this study,the technical papers on structural condition assessment of aged fixed-type offshore platforms reported over the past few decades are presented.Other ancillary related works are also discussed.Large numbers of researches are available in the area of requalification for life extension of offshore jacket platforms.Many of these studies involve reassessment of existing platforms by means of conducting pushover analysis,a static nonlinear collapse analysis method to evaluate the structure nonlinear behaviour and capacity beyond the elastic limit.From here,the failure mechanism and inherent reserve strength/capacity of the overall truss structure are determined.This method of doing reassessment is described clearly in the industry-adopted codes and standards such the API,ISO,PTS and NORSOK codes.This may help understand the structural behaviour of aged fixed offshore jacket structures for maintenance or decommissioning.

A useful guide of effective mesh-size decision in predicting the ultimate strength of flat-and curved plates in compression

The present study aims to determine the appropriate size of mesh or the number of the element(NoE)for flat-and curved plates,which is suggested to assess its safety subjected to axial compression based on the ultimate limit state(ULS)design and analysis concept.The unstiffened panel(=plate)and stiff-ened panel,considered primary members of ships and ship-shaped offshore structures,are subjected to repeated axial compression and tension caused by continued vertical bending moments applied to the hull girder.Plates are attached with stiffeners by welding,and 6,8 or 10 elements are generally rec-ommended to allocate in flat-plate’s breadth direction in between stiffeners for finite-element(FE)mod-elling,which enables the presentation of the shape of initial deflection applied to the plate.In the case of the load-shorting curve for curved plate,it is reported that the nonlinear behaviour characteristics,i.e.,snap-through,snap-back,secondary buckling and others,appear in typical flank angle.To take this into account,we investigated the preferred number of elements(6,8 or 10)generally applied to the flat plate whether it is an appropriate or more fine-sized element(or mesh)that should be considered.A useful guide is documented based on obtained outcomes which may help structural engineers select optimised mesh-size to predict ultimate strength and understand its characteristic of the flat and curved plates.