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Octabuoy Concept and Spar Buoys: Non Linear Effects and Analysis

The age of the easy accessible hydrocarbon goes towards the end and new more challenging fields is the future of the oil industry. This is often synonymous with large depths where sea bed mounted platforms are highly uneconomical options. Floating platforms are therefore commonly chosen solutions.In this thesis two types of deep foating platforms are investigated; The spar buoy, a well known, well documented concept and the Octabuoy, a newly developed concept. Both platforms are analysed in two DNV programs, Wasim and Waqum. Wasim is a non linear time domain hydrodynamic program and Waqum is an impulse response function operator with the possibility of adding non linear eects. The spar bouy concept is used as a pilot test in the softwares. A recreation of the experimental results from H.A. Haslum's doctoral thesis from 2000 is attempted. The impact of non linear effects and mooring on both platforms is discussed. The subject of viscous damping is also approached.As has previously been confirmed by many researchers, the spar buoy is susceptible to non linear eects. The triggering of the Mathieu effect is shown in the Wasim analyses. Discussion is also made as to whether the spar might also be susceptible to large excitations due to second order difference frequency interactions between surface waves and body motions. Both these effects happen at low frequencies where radiation damping is low. Viscous damping is therefore of importance. From previous research mooring is found to be important to avoid the Mathieu effect by increasing the damping and moving pitch periods out of the danger zones.After analysing the spar buoy, the Octabuoy's motion characteristics are tested in mild to severe sea states in both softwares. Non linear effects are found to be significant in the vertical rotational degrees of freedom. The heave motion however seems relatively unaffected by non linear effects. Since Wasim models the free surface linearly, what makes the pitch/roll motion affected by non linearities is found to be either non linear hydro statics or non linear Froude-Krylov forces. The Octabuoy is designed to avoid the variation on hydrostatic stiffness. However, the deadrise angle is 10 degrees larger than the ideal angle. Whether this is what leads to non linear pitch/roll motion is not known at this stage.Two softwares are used in the thesis. Wasim has very long CPU time but calculates accurately and detailed information is easily accessed with for instance the Wasim application ForceInspector. Waqum is very quick, with CPU time in the order of minutes. The program requires an experienced user who knows what must be included for a complete analysis. There are uncertainties about the results from Waqum analysis and more verication is needed for the author to feel confident about the software.To conclude, the programs might work well together. Much can be tested quickly in Waqum, and then final configurations can be run more thoroughly in Wasim. It is the experience of the author that at least until the new version of HydroD is finished, running time domain analysis in Wasim should be done through scripting. This gives a larger control over the actual input and might decrease the chance for error.Keywords: Octabuoy, Spar Buoy, Non Linear Effects, Mooring, Wasim, Waqum.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:ntnu-18491
Date January 2012
CreatorsDahl, Line J.C. Haakenaasen
PublisherNorges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet, Institutt for marin teknikk, Institutt for marin teknikk
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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