Author(s): Mihail Popescu; Adrian Simbotin
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Offshore platform; Wind load; Wave load; Hydraulic model; Drag coefficient; Inertia coefficient
Abstract: The paper presents an approach to the problem of wind, wave, and current loads acting on the structure of the fixed offshore platforms, using experimental and theoretical methods. Within the Hydraulics Department of the Hydraulic Engineering Research Institute (ICH Bucharest) -at present Research and Engineering Institute for Environment-, many theoretical and experimental studies were carried out, since 1975, for the offshore platforms built on the Romanian zone of the Black Sea continental shelf. A mathematical model, for computation of wind forces on the above-water superstructure of the offshore platforms, and for computation of wave and current forces on infrastructure, in particularly simplified assumptions, is briefly presented. This model can compute the environmental loads on every structural member and on joints of platform structure. The paper presents also the experimental results obtained in the wind and wave flume for a case study: the fixed offshore platform PFC-III, designed for the Romanian zone of Black Sea continental shelf. A scale model 1: 40 was used for the measurement of wind forces acting on platform superstructure, and a scale model1: 20 was used for wave force tests. Some results of tests are presented in graphical form (for example the drag coefficient C D and the inertia coefficient C M as function of Reynolds number, or as function of Keulegan-Carpenter number). Considering the obtained results, the paper stresses the need to carry out both theoretical and experimental studies. In this way, it is possible to evaluate correctly the wind, wave, and current loads for the design, in safe and optimal conditions, of the offshore platforms.
Year: 1999