Den globale etterspørselen etter petroleum er økende, og produksjon av olje-og gassressurser flyttes til stadig nye lokasjoner. Dette har ført til et økt fokus på mulighetene for å utvinne petroleum i nordområdene, også i den norske delen av Barentshavet. Det er allerede felt som er åpnet for oljeutvinning i Barentshavet Sør, Snøhvit produserer allerede gass og Goliat-feltet vil begynne å produsere olje i 2014. I tillegg er en konsekvensutredning utført for åpningen av et nytt mulig felt i Barentshavet Sørøst. Å utvikle nye oljefelt så langt nord er utfordrende. Det er flere metocean-relaterte utfordringer som lave temperaturer, havis, ising, polare lavtrykk og lav sikt. Dette tvinger petroleumsbransjen til å finne nye tekniske løsninger og myndighetene tvinges til å utvikle nye standarder og forskrifter som gjelder for det utfordrende miljøet i Arktis. Men de mest fremtredende utfordringene er de lange avstandene og mangelen på infrastruktur. Dette gjør det vanskelig å utvikle petroleumsløsninger som både ivaretar sikkerheten og er økonomisk gjennomførbare. For å redusere sikkerheten og logistiske hull forårsaket av mangler i infrastrukturen, kan en Offshore Supply Base (OSB) plasseres i Barentshavet. Den norske delen av Barentshavet kan deles inn i to deler, hvor Barentshavet Sør er generelt isfritt hele året og Barentshavet Nord har isdekket farvann hver vinter.Denne oppgaven har sett på to OSB-konsepter, hvor ett er plassert i den sørlige delen av Barentshavet og det andre er plassert i nord. De viktigste betingelsene som er satt for de to konseptene er at OSBen skal kunne-Forbedre SAR-dekning-Forbedre oljevernberedskapen i Barentshavet-Tilby logistikktjenesterDet er for øyeblikket ingen planer om å utvikle oljefelt i Barentshavet Nord. I tillegg er det tekniske begrensninger vedrørende valg av mulige offshore installasjoner for OSBen på grunn av tilstedeværelsen av havis. Derfor er et konsept der en OSB er plassert i Barentshavet Sør ansett å være den beste løsningen. Det resulterende konseptet er et multipurpose skip plassert på ca. 73.1N 27.1E. OSBen vil ha et SAR-helikopter permanent plassert på innretningen og vil kunne tilby utvidet sykehusfunksjonalitet. Den vil også være i stand til å fungere som en NOFO-tankskip under oljevernaksjoner. Logistikktjenestene som har blitt foreslått er verksted og lagringsmuligheter. Hastigheten til fartøyet skal være minimum 15 knop. Den foreslåtte plasseringen til OSBen gjør at et SAR-helikopter plassert på innretning vil ha en 3 timers radius som dekker hele det nye foreslåtte oljefeltet i Barentshavet Sørøst. OSBen vil også være i stand til å dekke hele den norske delen av Barentshavet innen 24 timer i tilfelle en oljevernberedskap.Å basere OSBen på et skipsformet enkeltskrog gjør det mulig å konvertere et eksisterende fartøy, som kan være et billigere alternativ enn et nybygg. Den nøyaktige størrelsen på fartøyet skal være basert på mengden av oljeutslipp OSBen vil kunne motta og de utvidede logistikktjenester OSBen er i stand til å gi. Disse betingelsene bør etableres ved å utføre en konseptuell forretningsplan og risikoanalyse vedrørende mengde oljesøl den bør kunne motta.

The design process used in most vessel design approaches can be described as sequential and iterative, where the initial design is subject to constant improvements. The process development is thereby constrained by the decisions made in early stages of design. It becomes apparent that the more design knowledge which can be generated and evaluated in these stages, the better foundation the designer has to make the best decisions. System Based Ship design (SBSD) has introduced a bottom-up approach which generates a functional description based on the vessel missions for use in early stages of design. SBSD focuses on enabling creativity and innovation in vessel design by being able to evaluate alternative solutions. The increase and availability of computational processing capacity these days is a contributor to enabling more design aspects included in earlier design stages.This thesis focuses on development of a system that is able to efficiently develop and evaluate Offshore Support Vessel designs and alternative designs in concept- and preliminary stages of design. Based on the functional description of OSVs from the SBSD methodology are modules related to vessels missions systematically identified and generated. Modular Product Platforms (MPPs) which contains rules for how these OSV modules can be combined have been developed to efficiently develop design alternatives for consideration. The main focuses have been to enable creativity, innovation and alternative solutions in an efficient manner in early stages of design. Due to the physical similarities that the OSVs share, MPPs have provided a good tool for efficient development of these vessels. The parametric ship description within the MPPs enables concept exploration and improvement with low effort and facilitates design evaluation and improvement. Automated 3D modelling based on the OSV MPPs provides a more intuitive design process and facilitates design evaluation to multiple vessel alternatives. The responsiveness and flexibility of the MPP and automated 3D modelling is believed to have benefits in a sales situation to efficiently develop design alternatives based on customer demands and providing a visual representation for discussion. This has the potential of reducing the time and resources involved in tendering/sales projects. MPPs can be used by design companies to more easily communicate which designs they can offer, and to explore vessel design parameters influence on performance. Due to vessels complex hull shape, the modules’ shapes and quantity positioned within the hull influence the performance of the output design form the MPPs. Control and manipulation of hull shape is found to be essential due to vessel characteristics. Sectioning of the hull shapes within the MPPs has provided a good method of enabling control and evaluation of the hull shape with minimum compromise to other design performances. Databases containing vessel statistics have provided a good method of comparing key performance criteria of output design from the MPPs to existing vessels and thereby contribute to validation of the design. These vessel statistics will also support the designer in providing good initial input values for parameters that are found by iterations and design development. Search- and optimization algorithms can be used to find good configurations of the MPP parameters and support the designer with parameter options in future developments. The developed MPPs can be further developed to incorporate more aspects to OSV design, and by supporting and incorporating analysis and simulations from other software applications, based in the generated 3D model, a solid tool for OSV design can be established. Re-configuration related to OSV operations can become a solution in competition for the most favourable contracts and to account for the fluctuating and seasonal market. Re-configuration alternatives can efficiently be launched and evaluated by the use of MPPs. Although the developed system seems to efficiently develop design alternatives with good performance, it has yet to prove its applicability as a tool for use in the industry.

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.

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 lattice Boltzmann method has become a valuable tool in computational fluid dynamics, one of the reasons is due to the simplicity of its coding. In order to maximize the performance potential of today’s computers, code has to be optimized for parallel execution. In order to achieve parallel execution of the lattice Boltzmann method, the data dependency has to be solved. And to get good performance, the memory has to be organized for unit stride access. Here we investigate the most known algorithms for lattice Boltzmann, and implement a code which runs on a parallel graphics processor, using a library for parallelization called C++ AMP. Furthermore, we show how the code compares to known solutions of fluid flows to verify the numerical results. The optimized parallel code achieves a speed up of 650 times the un-optimized code, on a current generation high-end graphics card.

As the worlds demand for energy is increasing mostly due to the increase in population, and coal, oil and gas deposits are limited, it is desirable to gather energy from renewable energy sources. Wind energy is a form of renewable energy. Wind turbines have been common on land and near shores for some time, but now one wants to take advantage of the wind resources further away from the coast. As the length from the coast increases, so does the water depth making it necessary to use other foundations than the well-known monopile. In this thesis the “Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency” in Germany, also known as Bundesamt für Schifffarth und Hydrographie requires in the standard “Design of Offshore Wind Turbines” that an offshore wind turbine needs to be risk evaluated against a ship tanker of more than 500 MJ in collision energy in order to be classified as collision energy. This is to prevent environmental pollution in form of oil spill. Whether the offshore wind turbine models used in this thesis are collision friendly or not relies on different factors. When the given soil properties are used the analyses show in all cases except one that the offshore wind turbine models can be called collision friendly. The case were it could not be called collision friendly was a case with the small jacket at a water depth of 27 m getting hit by a loaded ship at a column of the jacket, but installing a horizontal brace on this jacket would make it also collision friendly. The effects of soil, water depth and a horizontal x-brace are looked further into in this thesis. If the soil had been stronger it is not certain that the outcome would be the same. When the jackets were fixed to the sea bed, several of the models could collapse in the dangerous direction over the ship. A horizontal brace was seen to have a positive effect when installed on the different jacket models. It seems also that it is more favorable to use jackets at deeper water.