Abstract
The installation of subsea equipment is a critical step in offshore oil and gas development. A dynamic model to evaluate the lowering process is proposed. The cable–payload system is discretized as a series of spring dampers with the lumped-mass method. For the first time, not only the lowering velocity but also the rope’s structural damping and the nonlinear loads, such as drag force and snap load, are considered. The lowering velocity of the cable is considered through a variable-domain technique. Snap loads are considered by setting the internal forces in the elements to be zero when the cable slacks. A series of simulations reveals that the lowering velocity has great effects on the dynamic force in the cable. However, the structural damping of the cable has little effect on the system response. The snap load may occur in the cable when subjected to rapid downward heave motion, and decreases with the lowered depth increasing. The cable stiffness affects the system’s resonance depth, but has little effect on the peak dynamic force. The present work should be a valuable reference for future subsea equipment installation analysis.
Highlights
The lifting installation method (LIM) is widely used to install subsea equipment in deep-sea oil and gas development [1,2]
The present model is believed to provide a valuable tool for the subsea equipment installation analysis
With the lifting installation method, the subsea equipment is usually lowered through a crane mounted on the dedicated vessel
Summary
The lifting installation method (LIM) is widely used to install subsea equipment in deep-sea oil and gas development [1,2]. The installation with drilling strings may have some limitations of equipment size by the moonpool dimension, and is usually expensive, due to the high day rate of drilling platforms By overcoming these disadvantages, the LIM method is much more cost-effective and versatile [3,4]. Sci. 2020, 10, x FOR PEER REVIEW damping and nonlinear effects, such as snap loads and drag forces. For the modeling and analysis of offshore operations, and has the modeling and analysis of offshore operations, and has been widely adopted for subsea structure been widely adopted for subsea structure lowering operations [13,14,15,16] This method does not lowering operations [13,14,15,16].
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