Fluctuating wind and wave simulations and its application in structural analysis of a semi-submersible offshore platform

Abstract

A semi-submersible offshore platform always operates under complex weather conditions, especially wind and waves. It is vital to analyze the structural dynamic responses of the platform in short-term sea states under the combined wind and wave loads, which touches upon three following work. Firstly, a derived relationship between wind and waves reveals a correlation of wind velocity and significant wave height. Then, an Improved Mixture Simulation (IMS) method is proposed to simulate the time series of wind/waves accurately and efficiently. Thus, a wind-wave scatter diagram is expanded from the traditional wave scatter diagram. Finally, the time series of wind/wave pressures on the platform in the short-term sea states are converted by Workbench-AQWA. The numerical results demonstrate that the proposed numerical methods are validated to be applicable for wind and wave simulations in structural analyses. The structural dynamic responses of the platform members increase with the wind and wave strength. In the up-wind and wave state, the stresses on the deck, the connections between deck and columns, and the connection between columns and pontoons are relatively larger under the vertical bending moment. These numerical methods and results are wished to provide some references for structural design and health monitoring of several offshore platforms.