Fabrício Nogueira Corrêa

Towards the Integration of Analysis and Design of Mooring Systems and Risers: Part I — Studies on a Semisubmersible Platform

The objective of this paper is to study different analysis methodologies for the design of floating production systems. The main issues are the use of uncoupled and coupled analysis methods, and the integration in the analysis and design of the mooring system and the risers. This paper is a companion to another paper also presented in the OMAE2002 Conference [1] The present paper begins describing a “basic” classic, uncoupled methodology, and proceeds with comments on some refinements in the representation of the behavior of the lines in the motion analysis of the vessel. Comments regarding the introduction of some level of integration between mooring line and riser behavior are also presented. These issues are illustrated with studies applying some of the considered design methodologies to the P-18 semi-submersible platform in Campos basin. The companion paper [1] proceeds describing a fully coupled methodology, and some hybrid methodologies that combine coupled and uncoupled analysis tools, and illustrates their application to a DICAS system for deepwater applications in Campos basin.Copyright

Towards the Integration of Analysis and Design of Mooring Systems and Risers: Part II — Studies on a DICAS System

The objective of this paper is to study different analysis methodologies for the design of floating production systems. The main issues are the use of uncoupled and coupled analysis methods, and the integration in the analysis and design of the mooring system and the risers. This paper is a companion to another paper also presented in the OMAE2002 Conference [1]. That paper describes a “basic” classic, uncoupled methodology, and comments on some refinements in the representation of the behavior of the lines in the motion analysis of the vessel. Comments regarding the introduction of some level of integration between mooring line and riser behavior are also presented in the companion paper [1], and these issues are illustrated with studies applying some of the considered design methodologies to the P-18 semi-submersible platform in Campos basin. The present paper proceeds describing some hybrid methodologies that combine coupled and uncoupled analysis tools, and illustrates their application to a DICAS system for deepwater applications in Campos basin.© 2002 ASME

Semi-Coupled Scheme for the Analysis of Floating Production Systems

Traditionally, the design practice of floating production systems (FPS) employed uncoupled numerical tools where firstly the hydrodynamic analysis of the hull is performed with the lines represented by scalar models (leading to the hull motions); subsequently, these motions are prescribed at Finite Element (FE) models of the lines. Nowadays, it is widely acknowledged that coupled analysis tools should be employed for deep-water applications, considering that the overall behavior is dictated by the interaction between the hydrodynamic behavior of the hull and the structural behavior of the lines.In this context, considering that in some situations the use of coupled formulations can lead to excessive computing times, this work presents a formulation for the analysis of FPS, referred here as the semi-coupled (S-C) strategy. Its goal is to attain faster simulations than a coupled formulation, with better accuracy than usually provided by the classical uncoupled scheme. In this strategy, for each load case a coupled static simulation is performed. From this simulation a global 6-DOF stiffness matrix that represents the array of lines is automatically calculated and added to the global matrix for the subsequent dynamic analysis to solve the equations of motion of the hull. Therefore, this dynamic analysis will adequately consider the nonlinear stiffness contribution of the lines, as well as the effect of the current profile acting on them, all evaluated at the static mean position for each load case. Case studies are presented to compare the computational costs and accuracy of this S-C strategy with coupled formulations.Copyright

Evaluation of Safe and Failure Zones of Risers and Mooring Lines of Floating Production Systems

In recent years, the design procedures of risers and mooring system for floating production systems (FPS) have had more feedback. In this way mooring and risers designers can identify, even in an early stage, the constraints imposed by one system over the other.This work presents an evaluation of the crossing of the information obtained from the analyses of risers and mooring system. Different riser and mooring analysis procedures are applied to a typical FPS for deep water applications. First, failure zones of the riser system are identified, so a safe operating limit zone can be defined. Then, the excursions of the platform are calculated taking into account the global response of the coupled system (hull, mooring lines and risers). Finally, the results are crossed in order to verify if the excursions of the platform are within the safe operating area.The evaluation presented here shows the important of correctly defining the safe operational zones and how the crossing of information can be conservative or not within the design process of mooring lines and risers.Copyright

An Integrated Methodology for the Design of Mooring Systems and Risers of Floating Production Platforms

Nowadays, coupled analysis tools that allow the simultaneous modelling of the hydrodynamic behaviour of the hull and the structural behaviour of the lines of floating production platforms have been increasingly used.The use of such tools is gradually allowing the introduction of some feedback between the design of risers and mooring systems. In the current practice, that comprises the so-called “hybrid” methodologies, mooring designers have been using these tools to consider the influence of the risers on the platform motions. On the other hand, riser designers can use motions that result from coupled simulations for the analysis of each riser. Such integration is already being implemented in the design practice of Petrobras; however, elsewhere the design of risers and mooring systems may still be performed separately, by different teams, therefore not fully exploiting the benefits that the coupled analysis tools can provide.In this context, this work describes an innovative, fully integrated methodology for the design of mooring systems and risers of floating production systems (FPS). This methodology considers different design stages (from preliminary to advanced), integrating the design activities of mooring lines and risers in a single spiral, allowing gains in efficiency and cost reduction. The initial design stages already include a feedback between riser and mooring analyses. The integrity of the risers can be considered in the mooring design by determining their safe operational zones, and therefore, mooring line pretensions can be modified to improve its structural performance. Then, in advanced stages critical design cases for both mooring and risers systems can be identified and rigorously verified by using fully coupled models.The application of the proposed methodology is illustrated with a case study of a typical FPS, representative of the platforms that have been recently considered for deepwater applications.It should be stressed that the methodology described here does not reflect the current design practice of Petrobras. Presently it is merely a proposal that is being studied and assessed; this work comprises the first draft of the methodology, which will be enhanced and consolidated as the result of current and future studies.© 2012 ASME

A semi-coupled methodology for the motion analysis of floating production systems

ABSTRACT This work describes a hybrid, semi-coupled methodology for motion analyses of Floating Production Systems, combining coupled and uncoupled models. The goal is to overcome the high computational costs associated with fully coupled analyses, allowing its use in preliminary design stages where the focus is on the main parameters associated with the design of the mooring system (hull motions and line tensions). Its main characteristic is the ability, with minimal user interference, to represent all nonlinear effects associated to the mooring lines and risers, and consider their influence on the dynamic behaviour of the hull. Results of a case study indicate that this methodology presents an adequate accuracy, with striking reductions of computational costs.

Development of Operational Limit Diagrams for Offshore Lifting Procedures

Lifting operations with offshore cranes are fundamental for proper functioning of a platform. Despite the great technological development, offshore cranes load charts only consider the significant wave height as parameter of environmental load, neglecting wave period, which may lead to unsafe or overestimated lifting operations. This paper aims to develop a method to design offshore crane operational limit diagrams for lifting of personnel and usual loads, in function of significant wave height and wave peak period, using time domain dynamic analysis, for a crane installed on a floating unit. The lifting of personnel with crane to transfer between a floating unit and a support vessel is a very used option in offshore operations, and this is in many cases, the only alternative beyond the helicopter. Due to recent fatal accidents with lifting operations in offshore platforms, it is essential the study about this subject, contributing to the increase of safety. The sea states for analysis were chosen covering usual significant wave heights and peak periods limits for lifting operations. The methodology used the SITUA / Prosim software to obtain the dynamic responses of the personnel transfer basket lifting and container loads on a typical FPSO. Through program developed by the author, it was implemented the automatic generation of diagrams as a function of operational limits. It is concluded that using this methodology, it is possible to achieve greater efficiency in the design and execution of personnel and routine load lifting, increasing safety and a wider weather window available.Copyright

An Evaluation of the Semi-Coupled Scheme for the Analysis of Floating Production Systems

Analysis techniques and numerical formulations are available in a variety for mooring and riser designers. They are applied in the different stages of the design processes of floating production systems (FPS) by taking advantage of both the accuracy of results and the computational costs. In early design stages, the low computational cost is more valued with the aim of obtaining fast results and taking decisions. So in these stages it is common to use uncoupled analysis. On the other hand, in more advanced design stages, the accuracy of results is more valued, for which the use of coupled analysis is adequate. However, it can lead to excessive computing times.To overcome such high computational costs, new formulations have been proposed with the aim of obtaining results similar to a coupled analysis, but with low computational costs. One of these formulations is referred as the semi-coupled scheme (S-C). Its main characteristic is that it combines the advantages of uncoupled and coupled analysis techniques. In this way, analyses can be performed with very fast execution times and results are superior to those obtained by the classical uncoupled analysis.This work presents an evaluation of the S-C scheme. The evaluation is made by comparing their results with the results of coupled analyses. Both type of analysis were applied in a representative deep water platform. The results show that the S-C scheme have the potentially to provide results with appropriate precision with very low computational times. In this way, the S-C scheme represents an attractive procedure to be applied in early and intermediate stages of the design process of FPS.© 2014 ASME

Application of Parametric Surfaces in Contact Assessment Between Two Floaters in Side by Side Operations

In front of the growing demand for natural gas, alternative solutions have been adopted to export the production to the several available markets. Conventional gas carriers have been converted to regasification units to operate close to the shore, treating the gas and delivering it to carriers which take the product to the shore. Side by side configurations for the gas transference by loading arms are common, and the reduce distance between the ships is the main challenge.For such application a time domain simulation is demanded. Due to the close proximity between the ships, at each time step, their distance has to be calculated in order to predict eventual ship to ship or ship to fenders collisions.When the ships are modeled by conventional meshes the interference analysis every time step is excessively time consuming, the use of parametric surfaces reduces the number of elements to be checked against each other and saves computational cost. The precision is also improved since the hull shapes are fully represented in comparison to the panel approximation provided by the meshing approach.The contact verification plays a fundamental role for that type of analysis and the gains obtained by the parametric surfaces appliance are significant.Copyright