• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.72-77
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• 2008

General aspects of deepwater petroleum exploration and production were identified and related technical challenges were addressed. Historical perspectives, insight, processes, and engineering applications are reviewed to enhance the design capability of the domestic offshore industry. The technical challenges and unique aspects of deepwater exploration and production were identified. The assessment of deepwater exploration, drilling, and production systems is a key stage for performing the front end engineering design (FEED). The global trends in deepwater development, including the feasibility for Korea, were reviewed.

• International Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology Speciallssue:Selected Papers
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2000

A new alternative for large deepwater field development is described. This "Oil Box" (aka "Box Spar") is a multifunction vessel capable of floating drilling, production, storage and offloading (FDPSO). It is distinguished from other Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels by its unique hull form and oil storage system. It's main advantages are flexibility derived from the floatover deck option, use of proven top tensioned riser technology, and motion characteristics which make it operable in a wide range of environmental conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.257-264
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• 2011

On April 20, 2010, semi-submersible offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon was exploded and sank, and 4.9 million barrels(about 778 thousand tons) of crude oil was spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. As more than one year has been passed since the incident, a lot of investigation reports and lessons learned have been made public and also a lot more will be released soon. This paper studies the final report of the National Commission on "the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling", which was organized by the executive directive of U.S. President Barack Obama, and the interim report of Joint Investigation team of U.S. Coast Guard and BOEMRE of "Report of Investigation into the Circumstances Surrounding the Explosion, Fire, Sinking and Loss of Eleven Members Aboard the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit Deepwater Horizon". The review is focused on the response to the oil spill. And the paper suggests how to improve national marine pollution response policy. In the paper, the Korean governments is suggested to reinforce the capability for instructing and supervising the responsible party's source control measures, to review how to introduce in-situ burning and vessel of opportunity program into our country, and to continue monitoring on the progress of developments of R&D projects related to oil spill response in the U.S..

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.155-170
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• 2010

Availability of economic and efficient energy resources is crucial to a nation's development. Because of their low cost and advancement in drilling and exploration technologies, oil and gas based energy systems are the most widely used energy source throughout the world. The inexpensive oil and gas based energy systems are used for everything, i.e., from transportation of goods and people to the harvesting of crops for food. As the energy demand continues to rise, there is strong need for inexpensive energy solutions. An offshore platform is a large structure that is used to house workers and machinery needed to drill wells in the ocean bed, extract oil and/or natural gas, process the produced fluids, and ship or pipe them to shore. Depending on the circumstances, the offshore platform can be fixed (to the ocean floor) or can consist of an artificial island or can float. Semi-submersibles are used for various purposes in offshore and marine engineering, e.g. crane vessels, drilling vessels, tourist vessels, production platforms and accommodation facilities, etc. The challenges of deepwater drilling have further motivated the researchers to design optimum choices for semi-submersibles for a chosen operating depth. In our series of eight papers, we discuss the design and production aspects of all the types of offshore platforms. In the present part I, we present an introduction and critical analysis of semi-submersibles.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.110-119
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• 2020

Explosions and fires on offshore drilling units and process plants, which cause loss of life and environmental damage, have been studied extensively. However, research on drilling units increased only after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico. A major reason for explosions and fires on a drilling unit is blowout, which is caused by a failure to control the high temperatures and pressures upstream of the offshore underwater well. The area susceptible to explosion and fire due to blowout is the drill floor, which supports the main drilling system. Structural instability and collapse of the drill floor can threaten the structural integrity of the entire unit. This study simulates the behavior of fire subsequent to blowout and assesses the thermal load. A heat transfer structure analysis of the drill floor was carried out using the assessed thermal load, and the risk was noted. In order to maintain the structural integrity of the drill floor, passive fire protection of certain areas was recommended.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.71-75
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• 2002

대형 시추구조물의 건조는 보통 드라이도크에서 하거나, 해양에서 선체와 데크를 접합하는 방법을 사용한다. 그러나 적당한 해양 접합장소가 없거나 드라이도크의 공간부족으로 현대중공업에서는 드라이도크나 해양에서의 접합건조 대신 부유식 시추구조물을 지상에서 조립하는 방법을 채택하게 되었다. 현대중공업에서는 세 가지 단계를 통해 지상 데크조립을 수행하였다. 첫 번째는 네 개의 철골구조 리프팅타워 상에서 유압리프팅시스템을 이용하여 데크를 지상으로부터 38m 들어올린다. 두 번째는 마찰을 줄이기 위해 윤활제가 칠해진 합성 플라스틱으로 싸인 미끄럼틀(Skidway)을 이용하여 두 개의 6000톤 짜리 하부구조를 데크 아래로 끌어 들인다. 마지막 단계로 데크와 하부구조를 단단히 결합시킨다. 이 과정에 2주일이 소요되었으며 일련의 작업을 거쳐 중량 25,500톤급의 Deepwater Nautilus (RBS-8M) 시추선을 무사히 바다 위로 인도하였다. RBS-8M의 데크결합에 Super Lift를 적용하여 성공시킨 사례를 통해 현대중공업의 초대형 시추구조물 건조방식이 이상적이고, 작업 공기나 원가 측면에서 우위가 있음을 시사하고 있으며 이렇게 건조작업의 대부분을 지상에서 수행한 과정을 통해 작업관리, 품질관리, 일정관리에도 좋은 결과를 가져올 수 있었다.

• Transactions of the KSME C: Technology and Education
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2013

Offshore drilling refers to a mechanical process where a wellbore is drilled through a seabed. It is typically carried out in order to explore for and subsequently extract petroleum which lies in rock formations beneath the seabed. There are many different type of facilities from which offshore drilling operations take place. These include bottom founded drilling rigs, combined drilling and production facilities either bottom founded or floating platforms, and deepwater mobile offshore drilling units including semi-submersibles and drillships. These are capable of operating in water depths up to 3,000 m. In this paper, we introduce the drilling system, which is mounted on the offshore drilling facilities.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.288-300
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• 2015

Since the first jack-up was built, jackups have become the most popular type of mobile offshore drilling unit (MODU) for offshore exploration and development purposes in shallow water. The most pivotal component of the jack-up unit is the leg, which can directly affect the global performance of the unit. In this paper, an investigation into extending the length of the jack up leg is carried out in order to study the enhancement of the rig capability to drill in deeper water approaching the range of the Semisubmersible Drilling Unit (SSDU) (300-1000ft). A study of the performance of a deep-water jack-up unit is performed with different leg lengths. Typical leg scantling dimensions and identical external loads are assigned, and then a detailed Finite Element Analysis (FEA) model is created in order to simulate the jack-up leg unit's structural behavior. A Multi-point Constraint (MPC) element together with the spring element is used to deal with the boundary conditions. Finally, a comparative analysis for five leg lengths is carried out to illustrate their performance, including the ultimate static strength, and weight.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.241-259
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• 2019

This paper presents a fully three-dimensional numerical approach for analyzing deepwater drilling riser-conductor system vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) including nonlinear soil-structure interactions (SSI). The drilling riser-conductor system is modeled as a tensioned beam with linearly distributed tension and is solved by a fully implicit discretization scheme. The fluid field around the riser-conductor system is obtained by Finite-Analytic Navier-Stokes (FANS) code, which numerically solves the unsteady Navier-Stokes equations. The SSI is considered by modeling the lateral soil resistance force according to nonlinear p-y curves. Overset grid method is adopted to mesh the fluid domain. A partitioned fluid-structure interaction (FSI) method is achieved by communication between the fluid solver and riser motion solver. A riser-conductor system VIV simulation without SSI is firstly presented and served as a benchmark case for the subsequent simulations. Two SSI models based on a nonlinear p-y curve are then applied to the VIV simulations. Also, the effects of two key soil properties on the VIV simulations of riser-conductor systems are studied.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.300-308
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• 2015

With the increases in oil and gas prices, and energy consumption, drillship construction has increased during the last decade. A drillship using a dynamic positioning (DP) system to maintain its position and heading angle during drilling operations. In addition, a drillship is equipped with a moonpool structure to allow its drilling systems to be operated in the midship section. A drillship for the North Sea is specially designed to endure harsh environmental loads. For safe operation in the North Sea, the drillship should have good motion response and robust hull strength. A break water should be considered on the bow and side deck to prevent the green water on deck phenomenon from incoming waves. In addition, the moonpool should be designed to reduce the speed loss and resonance motion. In this study, the hydrodynamic characteristics of a drillship for the North Sea were examined in relation to the motion, wave loads, green water, and moonpool resonance in the initial design stage.