For operations dominated by waves, operational limits are normally expressed in terms of allowable sea state parameters, such as the significant wave height (Hs) and spectral peak period (Tp). The allowable sea states need to be assessed in the planning phase of the operations. Different sources of uncertainties (including weather forecasts, wave spectral model and numerical models) should be accounted

This paper presents a strategy specialized for modal energy (ME) based methods, including modal strain energy (MSE) and modal kinetic energy (MKE), to select the best mode subset prior to damage identification. The damages due to the changes in stiffness and mass of structural members are both considered. In order to apply the proposed scheme to a more general situation, the cross modal energy (CME)

Sandwich pipe (SP) combining high-strength performance and thermal insulation has been considered an effective solution for oil and gas transportation in ultra-deepwater. Strain hardening cementitious composite (SHCC) is well known for its capacity to withstand both tensile load and external hydrostatic pressure. The sandwich pipe considered in the research is constituted of concentric steel pipes

Cable–sheave systems are commonly used on marine vessels for lifting and towing applications. As a result of the motion of the vessel, the cable can detach from the surface of the sheave. This paper presents a finite element model of a towed cable system based on the Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation. The model includes the interaction of the cable with the sheave surface in order to examine variations

Stiffened plates are the basic units of ships, aircraft and other structures. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic response of stiffened plates under internal blast loading. A combined experimental and numerical investigation was carried out on the cabin structures with unstiffened, single-stiffened and double-stiffened plates. The characteristics of internal blast wave, the effects

Fatigue damage is one of the governing factors for the design of offshore wind turbines. However, the full fatigue assessment is a time-consuming task. During the design process, the site-specific environmental parameters are usually condensed by a lumping process to reduce the computational effort. Preservation of fatigue damage during lumping requires an accurate consideration of the met-ocean climate

In this paper, the procedure for flaw acceptability assessment is examined through a case study of a semi-elliptical surface crack in an offshore monopile as it grows till it forms a through thickness crack. Using the procedure prescribed in an industrial standard (BS 7910), the fracture ratio, Kr is shown to increase monotonically with increasing crack depth. The load ratio, Lr, is initially insensitive

Metallic strip flexible pipes (MSFP), a relatively new style of unbonded flexible pipes, are considered as an attractive alternative to traditional submarine pipes. During its reeling operation, it will inevitably confront various complicated loads, which may affect the integrity and safety of MSFP's utilization. In this paper, the tension-extension and moment-curvature relation of MSFP were obtained

The viscoelastic energy dissipated by the bend stiffener when subjected to cyclic loading increases the polyurethane temperature and may affect the system curvature distribution in a coupled manner. The steady-state thermo-mechanical mathematical formulation and material experimental characterization has been presented in a companion paper (Part I). In this work (Part II), the rate of viscoelastic

Today, an important challenge for offshore wind energy is to design efficient and reliable offshore wind turbines (OWTs). The overall damping of OWTs plays an important role in the design process as it limits the amplitude of the OWT dynamic response at frequencies near resonance. Therefore, an accurate estimation of OWTs damping is necessary for the efficient design of these systems. The foundation

Grouted connections are intensively used in offshore rigs, platforms as well as jacket and monopile offshore wind turbine structures. Being located in remote offshore conditions, these connections can experience considerable adverse loading during their lifetimes. Degradation was reported inside similar connections, which were installed in the last three decades. Grouting in the offshore sites may

Vibration control is gaining focuses in the field of offshore wind turbines (OWTs) in recent years as the turbine tower becomes taller and more slender. Although a number of research works have been carried out to control the OWT vibrations, using tuned mass damper (TMD) and multiple tuned mass dampers (MTMDs) to control the jacket–type OWT vibrations is rarely reported, especially for the MTMDs, of

Bend stiffeners are subjected to cyclic loading during offshore operation or when subjected to a controlled full-scale qualification test. Due to the viscoelastic nature of the polyurethane, energy is dissipated within the material volume and the structure may experience a temperature increase, a phenomenon known as self-heating. The top connection is a flexible riser critical region in terms of fatigue

In the present paper, the Local Joint Flexibility (LJF) of tubular T/Y-joints retrofitted with Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) under IPB moment is studied and discussed. For this aim, a finite element (FE) model was generated and verified with the results of available experimental data and parametric formulas. Afterward, a set of 158 finite element (FE) models was created to evaluate the efficacy

The real-time monitoring of underwater risers, cables, and mooring lines by multiple sensors is in great demand but still very challenging. In this study, a new real-time riser monitoring method based on an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is proposed. It estimates the overall shape of riser in real-time utilizing the measured signals from multiple bi-axial (inclination and heading) inclinometers along

Long-term operation of mooring systems is one of the challenging issues of floating structures such as floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs). For integrity assessment, fatigue and its affecting factors have generated considerable recent research interest as the occurrence of a large number of mooring chain failures at a high rate has been reported. By contrast, only few studies on the effect of nonuniform

The Floating Production Storage and Offloading Unit (FPSO) is an offshore vessel that produces and stores crude oil prior to tanker transport. Robust prediction of extreme hawser tensions during Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) operation is an important safety concern. Excessive hawser tension may occur during offloading operations, posing an operational risk. In this paper, AQWA has

This work reports the results of a numerical investigation aiming at assessing the structural safety of an actual offshore topside steel structure exposed to accidental localised fire conditions. Particularly, the paper explores the nonlinear thermomechanical and ultimate strength behaviours obtained by means of two fire approaches: sophisticated CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and “LF-ESF” (Localised

Corrosion defect is considered to be one of the major critical damages of subsea pipelines, which can result in a considerable loss in the collapse capacity of thick-walled pipes in deep waters. In this paper, collapse experiments on 13 small-scale seamless steel tubes with varying sizes of elliptical and rectangular corrosion defects were carried out in a sealed hyperbaric chamber. The collapse pressure

Floating structures oscillate in waves, where these wave-induced motions may be critical for various marine operations. An important consideration is thereby given to the sea states at the planning and operating stages for an offshore project. The most important information extracted from a sea state is the directional wave spectrum, indicating wave direction, significant wave height, and wave spectrum

In this paper, a theoretical calculation method that can be generally applied to responses analysis of irregular bridge span pontoon connected by elastic hinges was proposed based on the elastic foundation beam theory. This method can solve the displacements, rotation angles, bending moments and shear forces of pontoon bridge under vertical static loads. By comparing with the experimental and numerical

An alternative option to the traditional grouted joint for wind turbines is a direct steel-to-steel connection, also known as slip joint. In a recently published work, a proof of concept of a vibration-assisted installation and decommissioning technique of a slip joint was illustrated. Leveraging on the obtained results, the current study shows for the first time a decommissioning campaign carried

This study targets to develop a computational procedure to predict the structural response of a ship voyaging through irregular seaways taking into account the relevant uncertainties from probability perspective. To achieve the goal, ship structural response under random wave excitation was assumed to be linear one and represented by linear Volterra series, which is expanded by linear combination of

In this paper, the effects of underwater-chain-stopper (UCS) bearing friction at fairlead connection and time-varying interlink EI (bending stiffness) at the UCS exit on the OPB-fatigue-induced chain failure are investigated. To demonstrate their effects through numerical simulations, three different approaches, such as only considering time-varying EI, considering both time-varying EI and fairlead

A numerical model was developed in this study to simulate the wave diffraction caused by an arbitrarily shaped structure in the presence of bi-directional incident waves based on a higher-order boundary element method (HOBEM). Based on the developed model, the wave elevation quadratic transfer function (QTF) in bi-directional waves, which is defined as the second-order wave elevation caused by two

Dynamic compression of risers can play an important role in the structural stability of submerged pipes in catenary-like configuration. In this paper, the analytical formulation for the buckling critical load, developed in the early 2000's, is revisited and extended to cover a wider range of practical cases. A purely algebraic expression for the critical load is provided, eliminating the original formulation

The present paper proposes a novel approach for the representation of the imperfect plate geometry of ships structures and assess its impact on the probabilistic ultimate strength of plates and hull-girders. The description of the imperfect geometry is basically implemented using the theory of random fields. Evidence for the selection and robustness of the proposed model is documented from literature

The objective of this study is to categorize the failure modes; moment and rotation capacities; ductility; stiffness; joint classification; strain behaviour; and load transfer mechanism of steel beam through CFST column connections. Eight one-third scale composite joints were tested under static load up to failure. The key parameters comprise two ηStrength ratios; the effect of beam flange and web

Even in relatively calm waters, low amplitude wave-induced motions of an LNG carrier may induce large amplitude liquid sloshing inside the ship's partially filled tanks, and the interaction between ship motions and sloshing may affect the ship's seekeeping properties. A computational procedure, here referred to as the RANS-RANS method, was developed to account for this interaction, and this method

Strain gauges are commonly used for the instrumentation of ship structures to measure ice loads on the basis of shear strain differences. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is used to determine the load–strain relation of the instrumented area by calculating an Influence Coefficient Matrix (ICM). However, the accuracy of the measurement method and the influence of the load location and load length on the

Loads from storm waves can in some cases be dimensioning for offshore wind turbine substructures. Accurate determination of nonlinear wave loads is therefore important for a safe, yet economic design. In this paper, the fully nonlinear waves, realized by a fully nonlinear potential wave solver OceanWave3D, are incorporated into coupled aero-servo-hydro-elastic simulations for a reduced set of wave-sensitive

Stress concentration factors (SCFs) in steel tubular T/Y-connections strengthened with fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) are investigated. In the first step, a finite element (FE) model was developed and verified using data of several available experimental tests and empirical formulas. After that, 134 FE models of T/Y-joints with and without FRP were created and analyzed under in-plane bending (IPB) load

The present paper addresses the circular armour wire lateral buckling in umbilicals. An asymmetric non-linear finite element model is developed to analyze a single armour wire subjected to combined constant axial compression and uniform cyclic curvatures. A parametric case study is performed for an armour wire from a nine-hose umbilical cable, where the armour wire pitch number, applied axial compressive

The dynamic characteristics of offshore wind turbines are heavily affected by environmental loads from wave and wind action and nonlinear soil behaviour. In the design of the monopile structures, the fatigue load due to wind and wave loading is one of the most important problems to consider. Since the fatigue damage is sensitive to the foundation stiffness and damping, increasing the accuracy of analysis

Controlled lateral buckling is triggered by distributed buoyancy section at predesigned sites to release the axial force induced by high temperature and high pressure in subsea pipelines. Due to the larger diameter and smaller submerged weight of distributed buoyancy section, compared to the normal pipe section, imperfections are more easily introduced at the location of distributed buoyancy section

Fatigue assessment is a critical design aspect for many offshore structures. Soil-foundation interaction has a direct impact on the system dynamic response of these structures. While the stiffness of the soil-foundation interaction influences the system's natural frequency, the damping influences the amplification of the structural response to environmental excitations. This paper presents a simplified

The integrity of mooring chains is essential to the safety of a range of offshore platforms. However, mooring line failures are occurring earlier than their design lives, with a high number of these failures occurring due to fatigue. Early in the fatigue life of the component fatigue initiation processes occur, where the fatigue hotspot is sensitive to the mean load and there is plastic strain accumulation

Fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) materials are recently widely applied in the marine industry. The high popularity of composites and safety requirements results in the development of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems. One of the sensors types that can be permanently integrated with a composite structure and used as a part of SHM system are fibre Bragg grating (FBG) sensors. Among FBG sensors

Flow around two cylinders with different diameters undergoing Flow-Induced Vibrations (FIV) in the subcritical flow regime is investigated using two-dimensional Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) approach. Physical parameters of the system are chosen to represent the free spanning pipelines laid in proximity. The two cylinders are initially placed at various tandem and staggered positions

Steel catenary riser is a long-established option for subsea projects in deep-water regions. Sustained pulling force of steel catenary risers on subsea flowlines in combination with cyclic thermal load throughout the system lifetime may lead to progressive global axial displacement of subsea pipelines which has been termed as ‘walking’. One of the challenges in the deep-water industry is long-term

Collecting structural information by inspection or monitoring is important means to reduce uncertainty and improve the qualities of maintenance decisions in structural integrity management. However, information collecting inevitably involves some costs. When information collecting brings added value and to what extent uncertainty reduction suffices are questions that are often not fully accounted for

The exposure temperature significantly affects the diffusion of chloride ions in concrete, and, as such, it must be taken into consideration in the development of service-life prediction models for structures exposed to chloride-bearing environments. Most of the earlier studies have used cement paste to assess the effect of exposure temperature on chloride diffusion. In the reported study, chloride

Ship structures may be subjected to repeated random patch loads at different locations. Under these circumstances, ship plates will have large accumulated permanent deformations, which will result in some serious negative effects on their work and safety performance. Therefore, the elasto-plastic response of ship structure under repeated patch loads at different locations are studied by using finite

A conceptual design framework for collision and grounding analysis is proposed to evaluate the crashworthiness of double-hull structures. This work attempts to simplify the input parameters needed for the analysis, which can be considered as a step towards a design-oriented procedure against collision and grounding. Four typical collision and grounding scenarios are considered: (1) side structure struck

Service environment of tube and casing in deep and ultra-deep well is getting more and more complicated, and the internal pressure applied to tube and casing is higher, so that the high-grade steel tube and casing (HGTC) made of ductile material is widely used. Obviously, the calculation of ductile burst pressure for HGTC is one of the key factors in design and important to safe and efficient development

There are many offshore applications that incorporate vertical cylindrical-shaped structural elements such as marine risers, TLP tendons and near shore pier designs. A better understanding of complex wake flows on the drag dominated force predictions is very much of interest for offshore design problems. This study investigates the Huse-Muren analytical wake model, whose mathematical formulation was

The problem of interaction between a floating ice cover and an engineering structure is considered, in which the ice–structure contact forces are caused by an increase in ice temperature due to solar radiation in situations, when the lateral thermal expansion of ice is constrained. The focus is on the determination of the maximum thermally-induced horizontal force exerted on a structure wall, assuming

Multiple side-by-side cylinders are widely employed in many engineering applications. Consequently, flow-induced vibrations (FIV), which have a significant influence on structural reliability, have drawn considerable concern from many investigators. Due to the complicated wake interactions behind the cylinders, the hydrodynamic characteristics of multiple side-by-side cylinders subject to FIV are obviously

This work describes an enhanced mooring optimization procedure, oriented towards recent floating production systems (FPS) for oil & gas exploitation in ultra-deep-water scenarios, which may present a large number of risers in an asymmetric layout. Acknowledging that the risers are the key component of an FPS, the optimization procedure is associated to an integrated mooring-riser design methodology;

Seabed in regions, such as the Gulf of Guinea and North West Shelf of Australia, may exhibit a crust layer where the undrained shear strength can be an order of magnitude higher than that of the immediately underlying sediment. This can complicate design of steel catenary risers, where fatigue depends on the cyclic vertical stiffness of the pipe-soil interaction. Potential punch-through of the riser

A strain-based fatigue reliability assessment of welded ship structural joints is presented. To obtain a complete description of the fatigue stress acting on a butt-welded joint in a ship, a probabilistic distribution for the low cycle fatigue stress range is developed considering the uncertainty in the static and dynamic stresses. A model considering the effect of a secondary notch embedded into the

In this paper, the ultimate strength of unstiffened steel plates under uniaxial in-plane compression is numerically studied considering the local lateral impact of a rigid-body impactor. The plates are made of mild steel, where its behaviour is modelled by using the Johnson-Cook material model. The material parameters of the Johnson-Cook material model calibrated by the authors were employed for predicting

Ship construction involves the assembly of several blocks on a dock. When a block is lifted using a crane, it undergoes deformation. Until now, structural analysis has been applied in a few cases to evaluate the stress on such blocks. Therefore, this study proposes an evaluation method for time-domain stress using 2D flexible multibody dynamics. We adopt the discrete Euler-Lagrange equation to achieve

Analysis of the dynamic response of ships in accident scenarios requires a realistic idealisation of environmental and operational conditions by multi-physics models. This paper presents a procedure that simulates the influence of strongly coupled FSI effects on the dynamic response of ships involved in typical collision and grounding events. Our method couples an explicit 6-DoF structural dynamic

Analysis of flexible marine propellers in terms of their structural response and stress is the key to accurate fatigue prediction. At present, finite element method (FEM) analyses of flexible propellers have been performed as a part of the fluid–structure interaction (FSI) analysis using a numerical method for the flexible structures, which is identical to that used for their rigid counterparts. In

In this study, Submerged Floating Tunnel (SFT)-mooring-train coupled dynamics is solved in the time domain to investigate their dynamic and hydro-elastic interactions under wave and earthquake excitations. The SFT is modeled by the rod-FE (finite element) theory, and it is connected to mooring lines through dummy-connection-mass and linear and rotational springs. A 3D rigid-multi-body dynamic model

In this study corrosion-fatigue tests have been conducted on fracture mechanics specimens extracted from an S355 G10+M structural steel welded plate. The tests have been performed on compact tension specimens with the crack tip located in the heat affected zone. The corrosion-fatigue test results from this study have been compared with the data available on the base metal as well as air tests on the

Floating glacial ice features of various sizes pose a substantial threat to the structural integrity of offshore structures in ice-prone regions. Relatively small ice feathers, e.g., bergy bits and growlers, are a major concern because they are more difficult to detect by marine radars and perform concurrent ice management operations, especially in extreme sea states. This two-part companion paper

The fatigue performance is key to the design of water intake risers (WIRs), which is a novel concept used to convey cooling water for liquefaction of natural gas at sea. To estimate the fatigue life, it is crucial to accurately predict the response amplitude of the WIRs, which is dominated by hydrodynamic damping. In operational conditions, the motion amplitudes of WIRs are usually smaller than their