Experimental investigation on wave run-up characteristics along columns and air gap response of semi-submersible platform

Abstract

This article mainly concentrates on a large-volume drilling semi-submersible platform, aiming to reveal wave run-up characteristics along square columns and give the relationship between air gap distributions and wave parameters. The tests with fixed model were conducted firstly on its encountering a series of monochromatic waves. A wide range of wave slope ( H/ L) were selected to investigate the air gap response in detail. As can be seen, larger wave steepness will generally cause smaller air gap in the same wave period, which indicates nonlinear effects of incoming wave can amplify wave elevation. Model tests with mooring condition were also conducted in the same wave conditions. As was expected, the maximum relative wave elevation reduces obviously compared with the fixed one. However, wave shape close to columns show higher harmonic characteristics due to interaction between waves and the columns of semi-submersible platform. Meaningful conclusions from the model tests are drawn in this article, which is helpful in air gap design of floating offshore platform to a certain extent. In addition, the experimental results will provide an important reference for further research on validation and update of theoretical models of air gap.