NATIONAL PROGRAM ON TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING (NPTEL) IIT MADRAS

Offshore structures under special environmental loads including fire-resistance

Tutorial-3- Key
Part - A
1. Level ice, broken ice, ice ridges, and iceberg.
2. Space and time.
3. Local and Global (Total) loads
4. Frequency of interaction between ice and structure.
5. Kaimal, Harris, Davenport, and API.
6. Lift force and Drag force.
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7. VZ = V10 (10)
8. Maximum response of a single linear degree of an oscillator under the action of
environmental loads.
9. Kanai-Tajimi spectrum.
10. Displacements, forces.

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Part – B

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1. Various complexities present in estimating wind loads arise from spatial distribution,
gust component, duration of the record, return period, etc. Equivalent static analysis is
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an alternative to address these issues, which uses aerodynamic admittance function
(AAF) in estimating wind loads. Aerodynamic admittance function is used to find the
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equivalent total load on the members caused by wind. Reasons for using this function
are namely:
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(i) To bypass the rigorous random process.

(ii) This function can be measured experimentally using the wind tunnel
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experiments and hence can be easily quantified.

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Considering wind as a sum of mean component and gust component, the following
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statements hold good:

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Fw (t) = 2 × 𝜌𝑎 × 𝐶𝑤 × 𝑣 2 × A
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= 2 × 𝜌𝑎 × 𝐶𝑤 × (𝑣̅ + 𝑣(𝑡))2 × A

1 2 2
= 2 × 𝜌𝑎 × 𝐶𝑤 × A × [𝑣̅ 2 + (𝑣(𝑡)) + 2 × 𝑣̅ × 𝑣(𝑡)]

By neglecting higher powers of gust component,

Fw (t) ≅ 𝐹̅𝑤 (𝑡) + 𝜌𝑎 × 𝐶𝑤 × A × ̅𝑣 × 𝑣(𝑡)

In the above equation, the first term gives the steady mean drag force, and the second
term gives the fluctuating zero mean drag force. v(t) is handled as a random process,
and for simplification, this can be modeled as a deterministic process. Considering wind
as ergodic, the power spectral density function of wind is given by

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 NATIONAL PROGRAM ON TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING (NPTEL) IIT MADRAS
Offshore structures under special environmental loads including fire-resistance

After simplification,

Commonly used spectra for offshore structural analysis are as follows:

a) Davenport spectrum
The high-frequency content of wind data is focused on this spectrum and is given by:

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b) Harris spectrum /II
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Spatial correlation of mean wind velocity variation and the gust effects are considered in Harris
spectrum and are given by:
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Where Lu is an integral length scale (=1200 m for Davenport and 1800 m for Harris spectrum),
and d is the surface drag coefficient (=0.001 for offshore locations).

c) Kaimal spectrum

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NATIONAL PROGRAM ON TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING (NPTEL) IIT MADRAS
Offshore structures under special environmental loads including fire-resistance

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Fig. 1. Various wind spectrum
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2. Various wave spectrums

a) API (2000) spectrum

b) Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum

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 NATIONAL PROGRAM ON TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING (NPTEL) IIT MADRAS
Offshore structures under special environmental loads including fire-resistance

It is a one-parameter spectrum used for fully developed sea conditions. It includes only the
peak frequency and is given by:

Where α is Phillips constant ≈ 0.0081.

c) Modified P-M spectrum

This modified form of PM spectrum accounts for the wave height as well. It is used for
describing the tropical storm waves generated by hurricanes. Governing equation is given by:

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d) ISSC (International Ship Structure Congress) spectrum
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This spectrum is a modified form of the Bretschneider spectrum used for fully developed sea
conditions. Governing equation of the sea state is given by:
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e) JONSWAP (Joint North Wave Sea Project) spectrum

It is a modified form of PM spectrum recommended for reliability analysis. It is used for
describing the winter storm waves in the North Sea. Governing equation of the sea state is
given by:

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NATIONAL PROGRAM ON TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING (NPTEL) IIT MADRAS
Offshore structures under special environmental loads including fire-resistance

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3. Various failure modes of ice.
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Level ice, broken ice, ice ridges, and icebergs. Ice loads can cause, irrespective of any
form, creep, cracking, buckling spaling, and crushing. Ice loads can even change modes
of failure from cracking to crushing. Ice loads exhibit high randomness both in space
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and time. They are classified as total load (global ice load) and local load or pressure.
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4. Deck of TLP is supported by pontoons and columns, which in turn are connected to the
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seabed by the taut-mooring system. Columns and pontoons are tubular members, which
ensure large displacement volume for smaller weight. Excess buoyancy, implicitly
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induced in the geometric design, is counteracted by considerable initial pretension in

tethers. Tethers have a sizeable axial stiffness to sustain this pretension magnitude,
unlike Articulated towers TLPs do not have universal joints and thus, fatigue failure of
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the joint is avoided. The platform is commissioned by ballasting the platform at the site,
which is relatively more comfortable and less expensive as it does not involve
expensive crane and other construction equipment. TLPs are flexible in the horizontal
plane and rigid in a vertical plane, thus making TLP as a hybrid platform.
The novelty of the platform lies in the development of both stiff and flexible degrees of
freedom in a single structure; this is termed as a hybrid design concept. One of the
significant difficulties in the hybrid design concept is the clear band separation of
frequencies. It makes the platform sensitive to both wind and waves as the former is a
low-frequency phenomenon, and the latter is a high frequency. It shall sometimes
induce undesirable transfer of response to the hull from pontoons/columns. Under the
wave action, the platform moves laterally. This horizontal displacement of the platform
is called offset, which will also result in a proportional vertical displacement, known as
set-down. When the platform displaces from its original position, change in the
pretension in the tendons occurs. While a vertical component of the change in
pretension adds to the weight of the structure and increases stability, the horizontal
component will resist the action of wave loads. Merits of the platform are reusability,

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NATIONAL PROGRAM ON TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING (NPTEL) IIT MADRAS
Offshore structures under special environmental loads including fire-resistance

stability, low cost with the increase in water depth, deep water capability, and easy
installation. Demerits are high initial cost and fatigue failure of tethers under dynamic
tether tension variation.

5. High-frequency vibration of offshore platforms, which is referred to as springing and

ringing, challenged structural designers during the commissioning of compliant
offshore structures. Significance of ringing and springing is accounted for in the current
design codes for designing tethers. A study is carried out to investigate the ringing
response of offshore triceratops under distinctly high sea waves. The ringing response
is observed during the Heidrun TLP model tests. It is named after the similarity of time
history with that of a church bell being struck. There is a fast buildup of amplified
oscillations as the bell is being struck, which is followed by a slow decay as the bell
transients to its tone; oscillations occur at the resonant frequency. Ringing is a strong

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transient response of the structure observed in bending modes under severe loading
conditions. It is triggered by the passage of a high steep wave in an irregular wave train.

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Ringing occurs due to the strong asymmetric waves that are generated in the transient
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wave mode. As data is short of interpreting in the statistical analysis of the response to
a random sea containing such strong asymmetric waves, developed a method to
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generate the same from the JONSWAP spectrum by varying the parameters like
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significant wave height, wave period, and vertical asymmetric factor. The ringing
phenomenon was evidently due to the strongly asymmetric transient waves. Offshore
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triceratops, when subjected to impact waves due to strong asymmetrical wave, shall
result in the ringing, which is of broader interest to offshore structural engineers for
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designing tethers and fatigue life of the structure A ringing event involves excitation of
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transient structural deflections, closer to the natural frequency of the platform arising
at third harmonic of the incident wave field. In this study, numerical analysis is carried
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out to obtain the structural response.

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Fig. 1. Springing and ringing response