• Geotechnical Engineering
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.47-60
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• 1989

Soft offshore sediments quite frequently contain undissolved gas, probably methane pro- duced biogenically. The presence of gas bubbles can have a significant effect on the engineering behaviours of the seabed. One of the main difference between saturated and gassy soils is that the undrained response is not incompressible, and without volume change, may be assumed for a fully saturated soil. This paper describes the basic experimental work to further understanding of a gassy soil. The test has been performed for a gassy soil under undrained and drained conditions. It was confirmed that the gas inclusions deformed due to changes in the total stress on the sample and also the pore gas pressure response to change in total stress. but not directly to those in pore water pressure. And the test which applied the repeated load under undrained state also showed the similar behaviour as the simple load.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.109-123
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• 2015

In the present study, the coupled dynamic response of a Submerged Floating Tunnel (SFT) and mooring lines under regular waves is solved by using two independent numerical simulation methods, OrcaFlex and CHARM3D, in time domain. Variations of Buoyancy to Weight Ratio (BWR), wave steepness/period, and water/submergence depth are considered as design and environmental parameters in the study. Two different mooring-line configurations, vertical and inclined, are studied to find an optimum design in terms of limiting tunnel motions and minimizing mooring-line tension. The numerical results are successfully validated by direct comparison against published experimental data. The results show that tunnel motions and tether tensions grow with wave height and period and decrease with submergence depth. The inclined mooring system is more effective in restricting tunnel motions compared to the vertical mooring system. Overall, the present study demonstrates the feasibility of this type of structure as an alternative to traditional bridges or under-seabed tunnels.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.53-74
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• 2017

Ship shaped FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) units are the most commonly used floating production units to extract hydrocarbons from reservoirs under the seabed. These structures are usually much larger than general cargo ships and have their natural frequency outside the wave frequency range. This results in the response to first order wave forces acting on the hull to be negligible. However, second order difference frequency forces start to significantly impact the motions of the structure. When the difference frequency between wave components matches the roll natural frequency, the structure experiences a significant roll motion which is also termed as second order roll. This paper describes the theory and numerical implementation behind the calculation of second order forces and motions of any general floating structure subjected to waves. The numerical implementation is validated in zero speed case against the commercial code OrcaFlex. The paper also describes in detail the popular approximations used to simplify the computation of second order forces and provides a discussion on the limitations of each approximation.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.108-118
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• 1996

This paper presents automatic reentry of a deepsea reser by adaptive control. Reentry is one of the major pro blems regarding a deepsea riser. In the reentry operation, the lower end of riser must be accurately positioned over the tarket point on the seabed. But the deepsea riser shows complex elastic response due to flexibility and nonlinearity of the riser dynamics and the required positioning accuracy is high. Moreover, elastic deformation must by controlled for securing structural integrity. In adaptive control, uncertainly known parameters like added mass and drag coefficient in the riser dynamics are identified and control forces at the floating body and the riser are calculated simultaneously. An Adaptive algorithm for MIMO linear discrete time system without requiring a persistent excitation is adopted in this study. The effectiveness of adaptive control logic is tested by numerical simulation and model experiment. The designed control system shows good overall performances, so that the present study can be applied to the control of the deepsea riser.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.257-282
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• 2015

In this study, the authors present a coupled fluid-structures-seabed interaction analysis of a monopile type of wind turbine foundations in liquefiable soils. A two dimensional analysis is performed with a nonlinear stiffness degradation model incorporated in the finite difference program Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua (FLAC), which captured the fundamental mechanisms of the monopiles in saturated granular soil. The effects of inertia and the kinematic flow of soil are investigated separately, to highlight the importance of considering the combined effect of these phenomena on the seismic design of offshore monopiles. Different seismic loads, such as those experienced in the Kobe, Santa Cruz, Loma Prieta, Kocaeli, and Morgan Hill earthquakes, are analyzed. The pore water pressure development, relative displacements, soil skeleton deformation and monopile bending moment are obtained for different predominant frequencies and peak accelerations. The findings are verified with results in the liter.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.243-266
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• 2020

In-place analysis for offshore platforms is required to make proper design for new structures and true assessment for existing structures. In addition, ensure the structural integrity of platforms components under the maximum and minimum operating loads and environmental conditions. In-place analysis was carried out to verify the robustness and capability of structural members with all appurtenances to support the applied loads in either operating condition or storm conditions. A nonlinear finite element analysis is adopted for the platform structure above the seabed and the pile-soil interaction to estimate the in-place behavior of a typical fixed offshore platform. The SACS software is utilized to calculate the natural frequencies of the model and to obtain the response of platform joints according to in-place analysis then the stresses at selected members, as well as their nodal displacements. The directions of environmental loads and water depth variations have an important effect on the results of the in-place analysis behavior. The influence of the soil-structure interaction on the response of the jacket foundation predicts is necessary to estimate the loads of the offshore platform well and real simulation of offshore foundation for the in-place analysis. The result of the study shows that the in-place response investigation is quite crucial for safe design and operation of offshore platform against the variation of environmental loads.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.407-421
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• 2020

In-place analysis for offshore platforms is essentially required to make proper design for new structures and true assessment for existing structures, in addition to the structural integrity of platforms components under the maximum and minimum operating loads when subjected to the environmental conditions. In-place analysis have been executed to check that the structural member with all appurtenance's robustness have the capability to support the applied loads in either storm or operating conditions. A nonlinear finite element analysis is adopted for the platform structure above the seabed and pile-soil interaction to estimate the in-place behavior of a typical fixed offshore platform. The SACS software is utilized to calculate the dynamic characteristics of the platform model and the response of platform joints then the stresses at selected members, as well as their nodal displacements. The directions of environmental loads and water depth variations have significant effects in the results of the in-place analysis behavior. The most of bending moment responses of the piles are in the first fourth of pile penetration depth from pile head level. The axial deformations of piles in all load combinations cases of all piles are inversely proportional with penetration depth. The largest values of axial soil reaction are shown at the pile tips levels (the maximum penetration level). The most of lateral soil reactions resultant are in the first third of pile penetration depth from pile head level and approximately vanished after that penetration. The influence of the soil-structure interaction on the response of the jacket foundation predicts that the flexible foundation model is necessary to estimate the force responses demands of the offshore platform with a piled jacket-support structure well.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2017

This paper presents the numerical simulation results for the dynamic responses of two types of submerged floating tunnels (SFT) under wave and/or seismic excitations. Time domain simulations are conducted by the commercial program OrcaFlex (OF) and in-house CHARM3D program (CP). The dynamic performances of a short/rigid/free-end SFT section with vertical and inclined mooring lines are evaluated. The SFT numerical models were validated against Oh et al.'s (2013) model test results under regular wave conditions. Then the numerical models were further applied to the cases of irregular waves or seismic motions. The main results presented are SFT surge/heave motions and mooring tensions. The general trends and magnitudes obtained by the two different software packages reasonably agree to each other along with experimental results. When seabed seismic motions are applied to the SFT system, the dynamic responses of SFTs are small but dynamic mooring tension can significantly be amplified. In particular, horizontal earthquakes greatly increase the dynamic tension of the inclined mooring system, while vertical earthquakes cause similar effect on vertical mooring system.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.433-454
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• 2020

In-place analysis for offshore platforms is essentially required to make proper design for new structures and true assessment for existing structures. The structural integrity of platform components under the maximum and minimum operating loads of environmental conditions is required for risk assessment and inspection plan development. In-place analyses have been executed to check that the structural member with all appurtenances robustness and capability to support the applied loads in either storm condition or operating condition. A nonlinear finite element analysis is adopted for the platform structure above the seabed and the pile-soil interaction to estimate the in-place behavior of a typical fixed offshore platform. The analysis includes interpretation of dynamic design parameters based on the available site-specific data, together with foundation design recommendations for in-place loading conditions. The SACS software is utilized to calculate the natural frequencies of the model and to obtain the response of platform joints according to in-place analysis then the stresses at selected members, as well as their nodal displacements. The directions of environmental loads and water depth variations have important effects on the results of the in-place analysis behavior. The result shows that the in-place analysis is quite crucial for safe design and operation of offshore platform and assessment for existing offshore structures.

• Proceedings of the Earthquake Engineering Society of Korea Conference
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• 1998.04a
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• pp.81-88
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• 1998

During an earthquake, there are three main components of excitation : horizontal excitation of the ground, vertical excitation of the pile due to superstructure feedback produced by vertical excitation of the ground, and the seawater excitation induced by the vertical ground shaking, that is, "the seaquake." These excitations could have effects on the soil plugs in open-ended pipe piles installed at offshore sites. In this study, seaquake excitation induced by the vertical ground shaking was simulated by pulsing the water pressure at the seabed. During a seaquake, due to induced excess porewater pressure and pressure gradients in the soil, the capacity of open-ended pipe piles installed in a simulated sea depth of greater than 220 m was reduced serevely and the soil plugging resistance was degraded by more than 80%. The soil plug was failed because of the upward seepage forces that developed in the soil plug due to excess pore water pressure produced in the bottom of the soil plug during the seaquake. The compressive capacity of an open-ended pile in a simulated sea depth of less than 220m was reduced only by about 10%, and the soil plug resistance was degraded by less than 5%.s than 5%.