Wave-induced vibration control of offshore jacket platforms through SMA dampers

Abstract

Since permanent wave-induced vibrations of offshore jacket platforms reduce the service life of the jacket structure and deck equipment and increase the fatigue failure of the welded connections, this research has used SMA (shape memory alloy) dampers to control the jacket platform oscillations. Superelasticity, high durability, and energy dissipation capability make SMA elements good nominees for the design of vibration control devices. In this research, to model the force-displacement hysteretic behavior of SMA elements their idealized multi-linear constitutive model has been implemented and the time history responses of vibration equations have been evaluated by direct integration method. To analyze the SMA damper effects on the vibration suppression of the jacket platforms, a 90 (m) high jacket located 80 (m) deep in water has been selected as a case study. Numerical results have shown that optimized SMA dampers with constant-geometry SMA bars will improve the dynamic behavior of the jacket platform under the action of an extreme regular wave. However, under the action of two irregular waves, SMA dampers with varying-geometry SMA bars will cause significant reduction in the dynamic responses of the jacket platform. The power spectral density function of the deck displacements have shown that the previously mentioned SMA dampers avoid resonance by shifting the natural frequencies of the jacket structure away from the excitation frequencies.