| Considering the existing issues in the early production of small oilfields, an innovative tension leg platform for oil storing and processing is presented in this paper, which is particularly adapted to shallow sea areas. The platform consists of oil storage tank, buoyancy tank, suction anchor, mooring chain and deck structure and it has the capability of oil storing and processing. Utilizing the nonlinear time domain coupled analysis, this paper studies the effects of significant wave height, mean wave period and water depth on platform motion response and mooring chain tension. The numerical results show that the platform dynamic response is significantly affected by wave height. A 0.4 m increase in wave height results in a 0.408 m enhancement in platform horizontal deviation and consequently leads to a quasi-linear increase in mooring chain tension. The mean wave period has an obvious effect on the platform horizontal deviation. The maximum horizontal deviation gradually rises from 3.760 m to 5.467 m while the mean wave period changes from 6.5 s to 8.5 s, but the mooring chain tension almost keeps unchanged with the wave period and its change rate is less than 10%. The new platform has good dynamic characteristics for shallow water areas with the depth of more than 20 m, while it becomes abnormal for that with the depth of less than 20 m. Therefore, the innovative tension leg platform can meet the requirements in early production for the oilfield in shallow sea area whose depth is over 20 m. |
