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Offshore platform development. Focus on semisubmersibles design
Article · November 2014
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Ionut Cristian Scurtu
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“Mircea cel Batran” Naval Academy Scientific Bulletin, Volume XVII – 2014 – Issue 2
Published by “Mircea cel Batran” Naval Academy Press, Constanta, Romania // The journal is indexed in:
PROQUEST SciTech Journals, PROQUEST Engineering Journals, PROQUEST Illustrata: Technology, PROQUEST
Technology Journals, PROQUEST Military Collection PROQUEST Advanced Technologies & Aerospace
OFFSHORE PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT. FOCUS ON SEMISUBMERSIBLES DESIGN
Ionut Cristian SCURTU
Principal instructor, Naval Academy, Constanta
Abstract: All available resources lead to economic development. Because advancement in drilling and offshore exploration
technologies, oil and gas energy systems are the common energy source in the world. The semisubmersibles are available for
wind and wave energy extraction and projects like WindFloat are developed to respond to our high energy demand. Wind and
waves are sources of green energy and the EU countries are strongly ask for inexpensive and green energy solutions.
Keywords: Semi-submersible; WindFloat; Wind energy, Ansys mesh.
INTRODUCTION
Offshore platforms are floating or fixed large
marine structures which is used to house machinery
needed to wind and wave energy extraction (WindFloat) or
for drilling /extracting oil or natural gas.
The semisubmersibles are available for any kind
of energy extraction and the present paper is focused on
WindFloat structures.
The offshore platforms can be classified on the
basis of operating water depths:
• shallow water offshore platforms,
• deep water offshore platforms.
Also, the offshore platforms can be classified on
the basis of their energy type:
• Green energy: waves and wind,
Fig.2 Tourist semi-submersible
• Conventional energy: oil or natural gas.
c) An artistic image of a tourist semi-submersible
TYPES OF SEMI-SUBMERSIBLES
catamaran
Tourist semi-submersible
Tourist semi-submersibles are a type of semi-
PARTICULARS
submersible made for marine fauna and flora turism.
Feet Meters
Tourist semi-submersibles compete with tourist
submarines and have the advantage of less costs of Length 44 13.5
production and less equipement required onboard. All Breadth 16 4.9
tourist volumes are low, tourist semi-submersibles are
Draft 5 1.52
preferred to tourist submarines because of the construction
Speed Up to 40
complexity of the latter. All tourist semi-submersibles can
Knots
place its passengers below water and have windows for a
clear view around the semisubmersible.
(a) A typical view of a tourist semi-submersible Deep-sea ocean research semi-submersible
A deep-sea ocean research semi-submersible has been
designed to support a wide range of marine activities and
applications including film making and documentaries.The
design requirement is to form a stable platform in rough
seas.
Fig. 1 Tourist semi-submersible
(b) A typical seating arrangement for tourist semi- Fig. 3 Ocean research semi-submersible
submersible [Source:http://subseaworldnews.com/2012/05/24/uk-
qinetiq-provides-test-facilities-for-innovative-semi-
submersible-msv-explorer/]
Military semi-submersible
A military semi-submersible is used by defense forces.
Semi-SubmersibleVehicles (SSVs) can provide stealth
profile
The small water plane area of small Waterplane Area Twin
Hull -SWATH ships at the design waterline ensures a very
stable vessel for military use and stealth capabilities.
27
“Mircea cel Batran” Naval Academy Scientific Bulletin, Volume XVII – 2014 – Issue 2
Published by “Mircea cel Batran” Naval Academy Press, Constanta, Romania // The journal is indexed in:
PROQUEST SciTech Journals, PROQUEST Engineering Journals, PROQUEST Illustrata: Technology, PROQUEST
Technology Journals, PROQUEST Military Collection PROQUEST Advanced Technologies & Aerospace
.
small, and this has promoted the use of semi-submersible
as a stable platform for exploration drilling for offshore oil
and gas. They can be towed into position by a tugboat
and anchored, or moved by and kept in position by their
own ‘azipod’ propellers with dynamic positioning system.
Semi-submersibles are custom built for specific
requirements for the drilling industry and the critical design
issues for this type of semi-submersible are subsequently
discussed in details.
Fig. 4 Military semi-submersible
[Source: http://gcaptain.com/wp-
content/uploads/2011/10/snorkle-class-usv.jpg]
PARTICULARS
Feet Meters
Length 22 7
Breadth 9 3
Draft 7 2.3
Speed Up to 15
Knots
Heavy-lift semi-submersible
A heavy-lift semi-submersible, presented below, can be Fig. 6 Drilling industry semi-submersible
used for salvage of large vessels, carrying of damaged [Source: http://www.offshoreenergytoday.com/wp-
vessels and transportation of offshore steel structures, content/uploads/2011/10/COSL-Takes-Delivery-of-New-
platforms and so on. Semi-Submersible-Drilling-Rig.jpg]
PARTICULARS
Feet Meters
Length 383 117
Breadth 344 105
Draft 65 20
Speed Up to 10
Knots
Crane semi-submersible
The greater column spacing allows the crane
semisubmersible to achieve higher stability and thus lift
extreme high loads. A crane semi-submersible can moor
the hub facilities at water depth of up to 2500m. The
recent designs have been able to install flow line at around
2800m of water depth.
Fig. 5 Heavy-lift semi-submersible
[Source http://worldmaritimenews.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/01/China-CMHI-Delivers-Semi-
submersible-Heavy-Lift-Vessel-HUAHAILONG.jpg]
Offshore drilling semi-submersible
An offshore drilling semi-submersible is used for
drilling at deeper sea depths. Initial early designs of
offshore drilling semi-submersibles were with jack-up rigs
and four columns submersibles. The weight of columns
and rigs is high, but without sufficient buoyancy in
themselves. The extra buoyancy support is provided by
pontoons (flatbottomed boat or the floats). Additionally,
pontoons are used as buoyancy tanks which can be
ballasted or de-ballasted. The pontoons and columns that
constitute the hull are of sufficient weight proper weight
distribution to cause the structure to float and also remain
upright. Because of high weight of the columns, pontoons,
rig and its consumables, the offshore drilling submersible
is towed from one location to another at a draft mid way
Fig. 7 Crane semi-submersible
between the top of the pontoons and the underside of the
[Source: http://gcaptain.com/wp-
deck. The hydrodynamic motions at this draft are very
content/uploads/2014/03/Huisman.jpg]
28
“Mircea cel Batran” Naval Academy Scientific Bulletin, Volume XVII – 2014 – Issue 2
Published by “Mircea cel Batran” Naval Academy Press, Constanta, Romania // The journal is indexed in:
PROQUEST SciTech Journals, PROQUEST Engineering Journals, PROQUEST Illustrata: Technology, PROQUEST
Technology Journals, PROQUEST Military Collection PROQUEST Advanced Technologies & Aerospace
Floating dry dock semi-submersible
A floating dry dock semi-submersible is used to repair and Flotation OPTIMAL
maintain ships. The design of a floating dry dock SEMISUBMERS
semisubmersible is simple, and consists of either pontoon IBLE DESIGN
or barge for dry docking ships.
Furthermore, it possesses floodable buoyancy chambers (ABS standards,
and a "U or Open Box" shaped cross-section. The box API standards
walls provide stability to the dry dock when the Deck and DNV
pontoon/barge is below the water level. On ballasting the
buoyancy chambers, the dry dock sinks to the required standards)
draft and allows the vessel to be moved on to the
pontoon/barge. The dry dock is raised and the deck is
cleared of water by de-ballasting the buoyancy chambers, Motion
thus allowing the underside of the hull to be accessible for
repair and maintenance.
The basic advantage of floating dry dock semisubmersible
is that it can be moved from one location to another Fig. 10 Design process for semisubmersibles
throughout the world and also it has a good resale value.
The typical design parameters are (for a barge design): L Windfloat project is a project built to extract wind energy in
=80~125m, B =25~39m, and Height=21~38 m. offshore farms and it does not require deck space or a
heavy semisubmersible to carry the wind turbine. The
process of optimized design process is based on factors
shown in fig 10.
Launching platform semi-submersible
Triangle Square
shape shape
Fig. 8 Floating dry dock semi-submersible
A launching platform semi-submersible is used to provide
a launching pad for rocket launches. This is a selfpropelled
semi-submersible, which is normally converted from a
drilling rig and rebuilt as a mobile spacecraft launch
platform. During transit operations, the rockets are stored
in a large, weather controlled hangar.
Fig. 11 The geometric shape for semi-submersibles.
ANSYS FLUENT MESH CHECK FOR HEAVE AND
PITCH.
Computation has been performed with the ANSYS
FLUENT solver available in the “Mircea cel Batran” Naval
Academy. Turbulent flow is simulated by solving the
incompressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes
Fig. 9 Launching platform semi-submersible equations (RANS). The Fluent flow solver is based on
finite volume method.
DESIGN CHOOSING AND SOFTWARE ANALYSYS FOR The solver can be updated to certain situations via
SEMISUBMERSIBLES UDF files written in C++. In this case the solver settings
A adequate design is generated based on design are set to simulate SST model around the hull.
parameters (material handling equipments, deck space,
motion, stability, operational characteristics, and flotation NUMERICAL CONVERGENCE ACCORDING TO
and safety, ABS standards, API standards and DNV MESH
standards). All calculations are set as convergence criterion the
reduction of the maximum difference between consecutive
iterations of the three velocity components and of the
pressure to 10-3 . The mesh shown below will interfere in
the solution calculus. The solver will exit calculations at the
step where we will obtain numerical convergence.
29
“Mircea cel Batran” Naval Academy Scientific Bulletin, Volume XVII – 2014 – Issue 2
Published by “Mircea cel Batran” Naval Academy Press, Constanta, Romania // The journal is indexed in:
PROQUEST SciTech Journals, PROQUEST Engineering Journals, PROQUEST Illustrata: Technology, PROQUEST
Technology Journals, PROQUEST Military Collection PROQUEST Advanced Technologies & Aerospace
proccesor and 4Gb of memory. The results are shown
below and this will not interfere with a good result.
Fig.14. Building section mesh for ANSYS Fluent
Fig. 12. 3D CAD drawing for ANSYS FLUENT
analisys
Ansys Fluent is a part of the Workbench platform and
a single setup is shown below for heave and pitch
analysis.
.
Fig.15. Building geometry and mesh for ANSYS
Fluent
Fig.13. ANSYS FLUENT module
As described before the paper is intended to obtain a
mesh for ANSYS Fluent for a computer based on I3
CONCLUSIONS
This work has reviewed and reported the state of art in 2014 on the semi-submersible design. In this analysis we have shown
that tsemisubmersible design is an evolutionary processed on design parameters and strong software analysis.
This work has presented an mesh analysis that can help in software simulations in ANSYS Fluent and helping to tale a more
informed decision in the offshore industry. The analysis reported in this paper can be further explored to develop
semisubmerisible related aided design for better understanding and development of the offshore structures.
REFERENCES
1. ABS, 2001. Rules for building and classing steel vessels - Part 4. ABS, USA, pp. 135-137.
2. DNV, 1996. Rules for classification of mobile offshore units. POSMOOR Booklet, version - Jan. 1996, pp. 35-45.
3. Scurtu I, DUMITRU D. - Semisubmersible Designs Compared According to RAO Criterion 5th European Conference of
Mechanical Engineering (ECME' 14) Florence, Italy, November 22-24, 2014
4. Scurtu I. C, A survey of developments in wave energy, Constanta Maritime University Annals, Year XIV, Vol.20,ISSN
1582-3601, Constanta 2013.
5. Scurtu I.., Factor of safety in offshore structures design according to environmental loads, The International Conference
NAV-MAR-EDU 2013, ISSN 1843-6749
6. Sharma, R., Kim, T.W., Sha, O.P., and Misra S.C., 2009b. Semisubmersible design faces challenges. Offshore Marine
Technology (OMT), 3rd Quarter 2009, pp. 22 - 30.
7. Issues in offshore platform research - Part 1: Semi-submersibles Web source: http://ocean.kisti.re.kr/downfile/
volume/snak/E1JSE6/2010/v2n3/E1JSE6_2010_v2n3_155.pdf
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