• Journal of Ship and Ocean Technology
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.17-26
• /
• 2006

Spar platforms have been installed as a competitive alternative offshore production structure for deepwater oil field. Since the first spar platform was constructed, its configuration has evolved to the so-called the truss spar and then the cell spar. This paper describes the dynamic analysis and fatigue life assessment of steel catenary riser (SCR) connected to cell spar platform. Two different cell spar platforms are considered herein; the original cell spar and the modified one. The original cell spar was modified by introducing an additional damping plate at its bottom in order to reduce wave-frequency motions. Firstly the wave-frequency motions of cell spar platforms are calculated based on the potential theory. Then, the dynamic responses of SCR induced by platform motions are computed. Finally the fatigue life of SCR is estimated by spectral method and the performance of two spar platforms are compared in terms of the fatigue life. Through the present study, it is found that the fatigue life of the modified cell spar increases only slightly.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
• /
• v.42 no.2 s.140
• /
• pp.124-128
• /
• 2005

This paper describes motion stability of a spar platform with and without a damping plate in regular waves. The heave and pitch motion equation is derived in terms of Mathieu equation and the stability diagram is obtained. It is shown that the spar platform with damping plate has smaller unstable region than that without damping plate in the stability diagram. Model tests are carried out to verify the mathematical analysis. Under the condition that the pitch natural period is approximately double the heave natural period and the heave motion is amplified at heave resonance, unstable pitch motions are evoked. However the unstable motion is stabilized in cases of spar platform with damping plate. Therefore the damping plate is an effective device to stabilize the motion of spar platform.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
• /
• 2006.11a
• /
• pp.245-248
• /
• 2006

The development of offshore structures have been increased spectacularly, especially in oil rig structures. This study concerns with the effects of heave motion of spar platform that attached the helical fin. There are three models, namely, cylinder, cylinder-truss and cylinder-cell with different geometrical dimensions are examined. Finally, the interaction between structure and fluid is closely considered. As the results, it can be seen that the existence of helical fin does not influence on surging but it affects a little on heaving of spar platform.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.267-279
• /
• 2014

Hydrodynamic analyses of classic and truss spar platforms for floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) were performed in the frequency domain, by considering coupling effects of the structure and its mooring system. Based on the Morison equation and Diffraction theory, different wave loads over various frequency ranges and underlying hydrodynamic equations were calculated. Then, Response Amplitude Operators (RAOs) of 6 DOF motions were obtained through the coupled hydrodynamic frequency domain analysis of classic and truss spar-type FOWTs. Truss spar platform had better heave motion performance and less weight than classic spar, while the hydrostatic stability did not show much difference between the two spar platforms.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• v.63 no.1
• /
• pp.37-46
• /
• 2017

This paper is concerned with the numerical study on the resonance response of a rigid spar-type floating platform in coupled heave and pitch motion. Spar-type floating platforms, widely used for supporting the offshore structures, offer an economic advantage but those exhibit the dynamically high sensitivity to external excitations due to their shape at the same time. Hence, the investigation of their dynamic responses, particularly at resonance, is prerequisite for the design of spar-type floating platforms which secure the dynamic stability. Spar-type floating platform in 2-D surface wave is assumed to be a rigid body having 2-DOFs, and its coupled dynamic equations are analytically derived using the geometric and kinematic relations. The motion-variance of the metacentric height and the moment of inertia of floating platform are taken into consideration, and the hydrodynamic interaction between the wave and platform motions is reflected into the hydrodynamic force and moment and the frequency-dependent added masses. The coupled nonlinear equations governing the heave and pitch motions are solved by the RK4 method, and the frequency responses are obtained by the digital Fourier transform. Through the numerical experiments to the wave frequency, the resonance responses and the coupling in resonance between heave and pitch motions are investigated in time and frequency domains.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.19 no.5 s.66
• /
• pp.16-25
• /
• 2005

The effect of vertical riser support system on the dynamic behaviour of a classical spar platform is investigated. Spar platform generally uses buoyancy-can riser support system, but as water depth gets deeper the alternative riser support system is required due to safety and cost issues. The alternative riser support system is to hang risers off the spar platform using pneumatic cylinders rather than the buoyancy-can. The existing numerical model for hull/mooring/riser coupled dynamics analysis treats riser as an elastic rod truncated at the keel (truncated riser model), thus, in this model, the effect of riser support system can not be modeled correctly. Due to this reason, the truncated riser model tends to overestimate the spar pitch and heave motion. To evaluate more realistic global spar motion, mechanical coupling among risers, guide frames and support cylinders inside of spar moon-pool should be modeled. In the newly developed model, the risers are extended through the moon-pool by using nonlinear finite element methods with realistic boundary condition at multiple guide frames. In the simulation, the vertical tension from pneumatic cylinders is modeled by using ideal-gas equation and the vertical tension from buoyancy-cans is modeled as constant top tension. The different dynamic characteristics between buoyancy-can riser support system and pneumatic riser support system are extensively studied. The alternative riser support system tends to increase spar heave motion and needs damper system to reduce the spar heave motion.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
• /
• v.1 no.4
• /
• pp.285-296
• /
• 2011

Spar platforms have several advantages for deploying wind turbines in offshore for depth beyond 120 m. The merit of spar platform is large range of topside payloads, favourable motions compared to other floating structures and minimum hull/deck interface. The main objective of this paper is to present the response analysis of the slack moored spar platform supporting 5MW wind turbine with bottom keel plates in regular and random waves, studied experimentally and numerically. A 1:100 scale model of the spar with sparD, sparCD and sparSD configuration was studied in the wave basin ($30{\times}30{\times}3m$) in Ocean engineering department in IIT Madras. In present study the effect of wind loading, blade dynamics and control, and tower elasticity are not considered. This paper presents the details of the studies carried out on a 16 m diameter and 100 m long spar buoy supporting a 90 m tall 5 MW wind turbine with 3600 kN weight of Nacelle and Rotor and 3500 kN weight of tower. The weight of the ballast and the draft of the spar are adjusted in such a way to keep the centre of gravity below the centre of buoyancy. The mooring lines are divided into four groups, each of which has four lines. The studies were carried out in regular and random waves. The operational significant wave height of 2.5 m and 10 s wave period and survival significant wave height of 6 m and 18 s wave period in 300 m water depth are considered. The wind speed corresponding to the operational wave height is about 22 knots and this wind speed is considered to be operating wind speed for turbines. The heave and surge accelerations at the top of spar platform were measured and are used for calculating the response. The geometric modeling of spar was carried out using Multisurf and this was directly exported to WAMIT for subsequent hydrodynamic and mooring system analysis. The numerical results were compared with experimental results and the comparison was found to be good. Parametric study was carried out to find out the effect of shape, size and spacing of keel plate and from the results obtained from present work ,it is recommended to use circular keel plate instead of square plate.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
• /
• 2004.05a
• /
• pp.167-171
• /
• 2004

The Spar platform with deep draft is characterized as effective structure in extreme wave condition, which has larger natural period than that of waves in sea. In this paper, the time simulation of motion responses of Spar with catenary mooring line is presented in irregular waves. The memory effect is modeled by added mass at infinite frequency and convolution integrals in terms of wave damping coefficients. The added mass, wave damping coefficients and wave exciting forces are obtained from three-dimensional panel method in the frequency domain. The motion equations are consisted of forces for inetia, memory effect, hydrostatic restoring, wave exciting and mooring line. The forces of mooring line are modeled as quasi-static catenary cable.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
• /
• v.41 no.5
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2004

The Spar platform with deep draft is characterized as effective structure in extreme wave condition, which has larger natural period than that of waves in sea. In this paper, the time domain simulation of motion responses of Spar with catenary mooring line is presented in irregular waves. The memory effect is modeled by added mass at infinite frequency and convolution integrals in terms of wave damping coefficients. The added mass, wave damping coefficients and wave exciting forces are obtained from three-dimensional panel method in the frequency domain. The motion equations are consisted of forces for inertia, memory effect, hydrostatic restoring, wave exciting and mooring line. The forces of mooring line are modeled as quasi-static catenary cable.

• Wind and Structures
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.525-541
• /
• 2016

An offshore wind turbine supported by a spar buoy floating platform is the subject of this study on tower and rotor extreme loads. The platform, with a 120-meter draft and assumed to be sited in 320 meters of water, supports a 5 MW wind turbine. A baseline model for this turbine developed at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is employed in stochastic response simulations. The support platform, along with the mooring system consisting of three catenary lines, chosen for loads modeling, is based on the "Hywind" floating wind turbine concept. Our interest lies in gaining an understanding of the dynamic coupling between the support platform motion and the turbine loads. We first investigate short-term response statistics using stochastic simulation for a range of different environmental wind and wave conditions. From this study, we identify a few "controlling" environmental conditions for which long-term turbine load statistics and probability distributions are established.