With the ice cap diminishing rapidly on the Arctic Sea, the opportunity of using the Northern Sea Route (NSR) increases correspondingly. However, the climate and presence of ice on the NSR sets additional requirements, which represent an additional investment cost for the ship owner who’s potentially willing to use the NSR. These additional investment costs, mainly represented by the ice classification, may be up to 12 % higher on total ship cost, depending on ice class, see Polach, Janardanan, and Ehlers (2012). These estimates are however uncertain, as are many other specifics of operating on the NSR; the degree of ice presence, the future fee cost on the NSR, insurance and additional maintenance cost together with varying operational time on the NSR. Numerous of assessments to determine the potential cost advantage of using the NSR as a transit route have been conducted throughout the recent years. These are, however conflicting in their conclusions and a final answer to the question is therefore lacking. Therefore, this thesis presents a decision support model (DSM) that can be used to support and assess the question of using the NSR or not based on own costs and available information. The DSM takes into account amongst others; ice conditions, the vessels parameters and its performance in ice, the operational window on the NSR, the initial investment cost of the vessel, and finally the operational and voyage costs. All these variables are changeable, and therefore the potential user of the DSM can alter them and see its effect on the calculated output, which are, amongst others: the ship merit factor (SMF), the life cycle cost (LCC) and the required freight rate (RFR).In addition to the developed DSM, a scenario where investing in a new ice classed vessel for use on the NSR in the summer season when there is less ice, and navigating the Suez Canal Route (SCR) the remaining annual operational time is presented. Through a brief assessment on the cargo flow between East-Asia and Europe, it was decided to implement the DSM for container shipping, as this is the main traffic on the route which could benefit from the shorter distance provided by the NSR. Based on this decision, how to combine the fixed schedule of liner shipping with the uncertainty of the NSR has been discussed. Here it has been concluded that the best way to combine the two routes for liner shipping is to slow steam the NSR when the ice conditions are favourable. Furthermore, the design requirements for ships navigating on the NSR have been reviewed in addition to the limiting parameters and constraints of the route. These and other special requirements for NSR navigation have been summarized and compared versus the open water requirements of the SCR. In order to implement performance in ice and open water into the DSM, prediction methods for brash ice resistance, net thrust and open water resistance have been studied. These formulas, in addition to schedule, fuel, operational and voyage costs, cargo amounts and other calculations have been implemented in the DSM. With the DSM developed, it has been evaluated through sensitivity calculations to ensure that it behaves reasonable when input parameters are altered. Moreover, two case studies have been conducted, both using the established scenario of using the NSR in addition to the SCR. In the first case study, the performance of a SCR vessel fitted with an ice class and the other requirements needed is assessed for the different ice classes of the Finnish Swedish Ice Class Rules (FISCR). In the second case study, the possibility of optimizing the design of the first case study to fit the schedule and route better, and thus yield more profit, is investigated through the DSM.Under the given assumptions and input used, all the FSICR classed vessels are found to be more profitable using the NSR in the summer season than the same vessel without ice class navigating only the SCR. However, with the profitability declining as the ice extent and thickness grows, the dictating element on NSR profitability is the ice conditions. The 1A ice classed vessel have been found to be the best alternative of the FSICR vessels, when also taking into consideration the ice capabilities of the 1A ice class with respect to ice thickness. Results of the second case study show that having an optimized vessel for the specific route and schedule is important in order to maximize profit as the optimized 1A ice classed vessel show better performance in all calculated results and ice scenarios.The economic advantage of using the NSR under the given scenario is however marginal. And the potential user of the NSR must therefore take into account the additional risk and uncertainty in terms of ice navigation and unforeseen expenses of using the NSR, before making the final decision. With increasing traffic over the recent years, it is well established that using the NSR is technically feasible. Nevertheless, in order to have shipping on the NSR on a regular basis, one must first and foremost have ice conditions that permit safe, economic and consistent navigation. Secondly, there must be a consistent fee system, which does not take away the benefit of the shorter distance in addition to shorter lead-time for booking NSR assistance. With these prerequisites in place, use of the NSR can be beneficial financially and in terms of reduced emissions.

Operations research has proven itself to be advantageous in several areas of the industry for many years, but is operations research a good approach to operational maritime planning? Expressions used to calculate the initial stability of a vessel are often non-linear. Optimisation models demand linearity, and approximated linearisations of the proven stability formulas needed to be developed. This was arguably found to be the biggest challenge when modelling the cargo stowage optimisation model. The characteristics of the RoRo shipping industry have been examined to gain a better understand of the segment. Further, some methods for calculating the initial stability of floating bodies have been presented for the readers that are not already familiar with this area of science.The thesis has used a published optimisation model as a foundation for further expansions. The model is a mathematical formulation of a cargo stowage problem in the RoRo shipping segment, where a predetermined vessel ships mandatory and optional cargoes from fixed loading ports to unloading ports. The reference model controls the vertical and transverse stability of the vessel by imposing constraints that are linear approximations of stability formulas. The model was expanded to ensure the longitudinal stability of the vessel as well. Additionally, the definitions of the existing vertical and transverse stability constraints were altered to provide more accurate co-ordinates for the expanded optimisation model.The computational study showed that the original model was able to find the optimal solution faster than the expanded model. The stowage flexibility was also better than for the expanded model, and the revenue generated was equal or higher in the original model for all scenarios. This was because the expanded model is of a greater size than the original, and is much more constrained in terms of stowage on the various decks. The expanded model divides the decks on the vessel not only into lanes, as the original model does, but also into slots. It can therefore ensure the longitudinal stability of the vessel as well. In addition to this, the lanes and slots in the expanded model are subject to lower and upper bounds for width and length, respectively. The original model allows the width of a lane to take values from zero up to the total width of the deck. In the original model, the size of the set of lanes therefore does not dictate the division of decks into lanes. This was found good for stowage flexibility, but is problematic to defend from a stability and safety perspective.

Increasing demand for clean and effective energy production turns interests of the world on floating offshore wind technology. To establish floating wind farms, a wind turbine have to be mound on a floating structure. The floating structure has to be carefully design according to sea environmental condition and kept in precise position. Different types of floating structure and stationkeeping systems have been proposed for floating wind turbines. This project deals with design a spar floater with tension leg mooring system, where the vertical fairlead position located between center of buoyancy and center of gravity. In this project a details study about floater design and tension leg concept was presented. Further, a model was established in computer program RIFLEX and static and dynamic analysis was carried out for two different environmental conditions, one for an operation condition to understand the model behaviour in normal sea state. The second one was for extreme condition to estimate the extreme tether forces and find out slacking possibility.

During this Master Thesis, leg-segments of jacket platforms subjected to supply vessel impacts have been considered. Finite element analyses (FEA) have been conducted using the explicit solver LS DYNA. The FEA results have been discussed and compared against simplified calculation methods and basic theory. In order to investigate the effect of the surrounding structure, two sets of boundary conditions have been considered for the columns:-Perfectly clamed boundary conditions-Axial flexible boundary conditions. The results have shown that the effect of the surrounding structure should be included. The effect is most important of the strength of the column is small relative to the striking ship. Parameter studies of the column-design with respect to column diameter and thickness have been performed. Three column diameters have been considered, namely 1.0 m, 1.5 m and 2.0 m. The thickness has been varied from 30 mm – 70 mm. Force-deformation relationships for the different columns have been compared and discussed. Based on the available amount of impact-energy, the different column-designs have been categorised as strength-designed, ductile-designed or shared-energy designed. The parameter study shows that if strength-design is aimed for, a column thickness of 70 mm in the case where the diameter = 1.5 m is required. If the column diameter is 2.0 m, strength design is achieved with a column thickness of 60 mm. Strength design was not achieved for the column with diameter = 1.0 m. However, based on the results, strength design of the 1.0 m column would probably require a thickness above 70 mm. The resistance against local indentation for the different columns have been considered and compared against resistance curves recommended by NORSOK N-004. The NORSOK-curves give a reasonable estimation of the strength for the weakest columns but becomes quite conservative compared to the strongest columns. An empirical design curve which takes the gradual increasing contact area into account was suggested based on the results. The resistance against global deformations have been compared against a simplified collapse mechanism. The results show that the accuracy of the simplified model is very dependent on the load definition and whether or not effects of reduced capacity due to local indentations are included. Two impact-scenarios have been considered: beam impacts and stern impacts. The beam impacts scenario proved to be the critical case in most cases. Finally, the effect of ring stiffeners applied in the collision-zone of the platform leg has been considered. 4 different designs have been evaluated. However, it was found that the effect on the column strength is larger if the column thickness is increased.

Pervious concrete is a material with a high degree of permeability but generally low strength. The material is primarily used for paving applications but has shown promise in many other areas of usage. This thesis investigates the properties of pervious concrete using normal Norwegian aggregates and practices. An overview of important factors when it comes to designing and producing pervious concrete is the result of this investigation. Several experiments have been performed in the concrete research facility at NTNU, Trondheim.The importance of the void content of pervious concrete cannot be overstated. Too much void content leads to low strength while not enough void and permeability suffers and the concrete can hardly be called pervious. Proper design of pervious concrete is therefore largely dependent on finding the balance between strength and water permeability. The large interconnected voids in the material is achieved by using a near single sized aggregate of relatively large grains. The packing of this coarse aggregate leads to large voids due to the similar sizes of the grains. The amount of void left in the final concrete is then determined by how much binder is allowed to be mixed into the aggregates.Ten different batches of mortar has been produced with the intention of investigating the application of said mortars as the binder in pervious concrete. Six different batches of pervious concrete has been produced and tested for such properties as strength, permeability, density and void content. The goal of the experiments is to find and evaluate methods of determining the properties of pervious concrete. Mixing method of the material in addition to varying theoretical void content has been the focus of the experimental work.

Rapporten tar for seg prosjektering av en spennarmert betongbjelkebru, og gjennomføre be-regninger og dimensjoneringen i henhold til det Europeiske regelverket. Brua som er skal dimensjoneres og bli gjort kapasitetskontroll for er Sagbakken bru, brua ligger langs riksveg 23 i Buskerud. Sagbakken bru er en to felts trafikkert bru som har fem delspenn, ble prosjektert på slutten av 1990-tallet etter da tidens standard, NS 3473. Brua er ei 140 meter lang spennarmert betong bjelkebru, med klotoide formet horisontalkurvatur, med største delspenn på 35 meter og lengste knekklengde på søylene i underkant av 24 meter.Det er blitt laget en modell av brua i beregningsprogrammet NovaFrame, hvor dimensjonerende lastvirkninger på konstruksjonen er basert på analysen som er blitt hentet ut fra programmet. Brua har blitt belastet med laster fra aktuelle europeiske standarder og håndbok 185 fra Statens Vegvesen.

Rapporten omhandler modellering og analyse av trespenns horisontalkurverte bjelke-/platebruer av betong etter bjelke- og skallteori, med følgende problemstilling: Hvilke ulikheter i lastvirkninger gir valget av beregningsmetode for bjelke-/platebruer av betong når effekter av horisontalkurvatur, forspenning og trafikklast betraktes?Det etableres beregningsmodeller etter bjelke- og skall(/plate)teori i henholdsvis beregningsprogrammene NovaFrame og Diana. Gjennom rapporten presenteres teorigrunnlaget, forutsetninger og ulikhetene mellom de to beregningsmetodene. Videre presenteres hovedprinsippene bak beregningsmodellene, samt respektive modelleringsprosesser i beregningsprogrammene. Ut fra resultatene de to beregningsteoriene gir, etableres dessuten en metode for beregning og sammenlikning av armeringsbehov.De ulike beregningsmodellene analyseres og det etableres et sammenlikningsgrunnlag mellom lastvirkningene torsjons- og bøyemoment. Sammenlikningen og drøftingen avdekker betydningsfulle forskjeller mellom de to beregningsmetodene. Dette fremgår spesielt av avvikene mellom torsjonsmomentene, og det bevises blant annet at bjelkeberegningene (utført i NovaFrame) gjør betydningsfulle forenklinger. Det konkluderes til slutt med at de to beregningsmetodene gir vesentlige forskjeller i lastvirkningene. Dette gjelder i særskilt grad for torsjonsmomentene, som avviker i svært stor grad. Når det gjelder ulikheter i bøyemomenter, anses disse som moderate. Forskjeller i lastvirkninger gjenspeiles i beregnet armeringsbehov. Analysene viser dessuten at effekten av horisontalkurveradien er svært tydelig ved betraktning av ulikhetene i torsjonsmomentene.

The oil price continues to increase while oil companies search for oil in new areas. There is assumed that 25% of the world’s hydrocarbons are located in the arctic area. Operating in these areas will be a huge challenge due to extreme low temperatures and ice condition Today one can predict with good accuracy how a ship will manage in different ice condition. Research on ship operating in ice the last decades has resulted in many different formulas for predicting ice resistance on a ship hull. Analytical and numerical methods are developed to estimate the resistance working on the ship hull under different ice conditions. Model test will still be the most accurate prediction, but the other methods may give you some guidelines on what to expect. This thesis contain a theoretically study of ice physics and mechanics. The formation and development of sea ice has been reviewed. The Ice Load Monitoring system tested on the Norwegian coast guard vessel KV Svalbard is described. Three different analytical ice resistance calculation methods are described. The three methods are Lindqvist (1989), Keinonen et al. (1996) and Riska et al. (1997). Data obtained from the Ice Load Monitoring system are used to estimate the full scale ice resistance on KV Svalbard. The three analytical methods are calculated with KV Svalbard as a reference ship to be able to compare with the full scale measurements. MATLAB is used for the calculations.

This master thesis addresses the maritime fleet size and mix problem (MFSMP). Finding the optimal fleet size and mix of ships for future needs is arguably the single most important decision of a ship owner. This thesis has examined the accuracy with which a developed mathematical formulation of the problem is at predicting fleet demand under various conditions. The FSM model that has been studied is an extension of a model already established by the MARFLIX project. Because of the thesis link to the MARFLIX project, the considered shipping segment is deep-sea Ro-Ro. For testing how accurate the FSM model is at creating a fleet that can handle complex routing constraints a deployment model has been developed. The consistency of the model under different time frames, varying bunker costs and effects of using continuous instead of integer variables in the FSM model was also tested.The major findings of the work was that the fleet proposed by the the FSM model, in its current form, often is undersized. The fleet size and mix problem is usually considered a strategic problem, with time horizons up to several years. However, this particular model performed better for shorter time frames. Using continuous variables on the different trips undertaken by the fleet proved to have little impact on the fleet composition, but the loss of a vessel could occur. The method proved, however, to be significantly faster than the using integer variables. Changes in the cost of fuel had immense impact on the fleet composition, and one should always be clear on the effects of fluctuations in fuel costs have on a fleet. In general, when the price increased the fleet got larger and slow steamed a larger portion of the fleet.Further work should be made on improving the routing capabilities of the FSM model. In its present form the model cannot be relied upon as the only means for establishing the actual optimal fleet. It can, however, be used as a guidance

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between measured rheology and proportioning properties with particular attention to maximum packing fraction, thickness of fiber lubricating matrix and fiber rotational overlap.This is done by conducting experiments on fresh concrete where the amount of matrix and fibres are varied, and comparing the rheological results with the proportioning parameters.The importance of an accurate grading curve is also evaluated.The hypothesis is that it is possible to find a correlation between calculated proportioning parameters and resulting rheology that will enable prediction of rheological properties.The results show that the variation in grading curve for the same aggregate is not very relevant to the proportioning parameters.The air content is shown to be of great importance regarding the correlation between matrix volume and packing fraction. Also it is found that it can be possible to predict the air volume based on matrix volume and fiber content.