The Impact of Extreme Wave Events on a Fixed Multicolumn Offshore Platform

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation into the magnitude and distribution of the hydrodynamic loads affecting a fixed multicolumn offshore platform (rigidly mounted tension leg platform) when subjected to extreme wave events. All wave load components, including wave-in-deck slamming pressures, were predicted using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code STAR-CCM+ and compared against experimental measurements. Slamming pressures were calculated using both data obtained locally at discrete points and globally averaged over the whole exposed area of the deck. In all simulated cases, the deck area exposed to a wave-slamming event was found to be in contact with a water–air mixture with a significant proportion of air phase. It was concluded that the slamming pressure data for the exposed area provided better insights into the pressure changes due to air compressibility and its content.