Numerical analysis of suction embedded plate anchors in structured clay

As offshore energy developments move towards deeper water, moored floating production facilities are increasingly preferred to fixed structures. Anchoring systems are therefore of great interest to engineers working on deep water developments. Suction embedded plate anchors (SEPLAs) are rapidly becoming a popular solution, possessing a more accurate and predictable installation process compared to traditional alternatives. In this paper, finite element analysis has been conducted to evaluate the ultimate pullout capacity of SEPLAs in a range of post-keying configurations. Previous numerical studies of anchor pullout capacity have generally treated the soil as an elastic-perfectly plastic medium. However, the mechanical behaviour of natural clays is affected by inter-particle bonding, or structure, which cannot be accounted for using simple elasto-plastic models. Here, an advanced constitutive model formulated within the kinematic hardening framework is used to accurately predict the degradation of structure as an anchor embedded in a natural soft clay deposit is loaded to its pullout capacity. In comparison with an idealised, non-softening clay, the degradation of clay structure due to plastic strains in the soil mass results in a lower pullout capacity factor, a quantity commonly used in design, and a more complex load–displacement relationship. It can be concluded that clay structure has an important effect on the pullout behaviour of plate anchors.     

南海北部海区无柄蔓足类的分布

于1986－1991年在南海北部对16个海洋结构物上的无柄蔓足类水平分布、垂直分布和个体大小进行调查。研究表明，所采集到的标本隶属于无柄蔓足类的3科7属19种，其中藤壶科5属16种，笠藤壶科1属2种和小藤壶科1属1种。共有17种无柄蔓足类分布在珠江口东南海区；而琼东海区仅发现2种；琼东南海区有8种；莺歌海海区11种和北部湾海区10种。纵肋巨藤壶、美丽藤壶和珠江藤壶为珠江口东南海区特有种。研究无柄蔓足类在南海北部近海海区的分布及其与海流的关系，不仅有助于深入了解该类生物的生活习性和生态特点，也为海洋石油平台的设计及污损生物的防除提供参数。     

The Bremen ocean bottom tiltmeter (OBT) – a technical article on a new instrument to monitor deep sea floor deformation and seismicity level

The Bremen ocean bottom tiltmeter is a new 6000 m-depth deep sea instrument for autonomous observation of sea floor tilt with signal periods longer than 7.5 s. The instrument also records vertical acceleration in the frequency range from DC to 1 Hz. The tiltmeter has an Applied Geomechanics Inc. 756 wide angle biaxial bubble tilt sensor with a resolution of 1.0μ rad (0.2 arc second). A Kistler Corp. MEMS accelerometer of type Servo K-Beam 8330A2.5 with about 10⁻⁵m/s² resolution is used for the acceleration measurements. An Oceanographic Embedded Systems AD24 24 bit Sigma-Delta converter, which is controlled by a low-power Persistor Inc. embedded computer system of type CF 2, samples the data. The duration of tiltmeter operation is more than one year, which is controlled by the battery life. In our design the tiltmeter does not need active leveling devices, i.e., servo motors or other moving components to adjust sensors or frame. We designed the instrument for deployments by means of a remote operated vehicle. Since May 2005 the Bremen ocean bottom tiltmeter has recorded sea floor deformation and seismicity level in the Logatchev hydrothermal vent field, Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The tiltmeter is a part of the monitoring system of project ‘Logatchev Long-Term Environmental Monitoring,’ called LOLEM, of the German research program with the name ‘Schwerpunktprogramm 1144: Vom Mantel zum Ozean.’     

Stability analysis of TLP tethers

Compliant offshore TLPs are essentially meant for deep oil/gas exploration and are usually constructed on the seashore and then towed down to the particular location for anchorage. They are connected to the sea bed by means of pretension cables. The increased use of TLPs in deep waters and necessity of reduction of usually high value of pretension make the effect of variable tension in the tether dynamics more significant. This work presents the dynamic analysis of tethers and TLPs considering the linearly varying tension along the tether length. The modal analysis considers a linear cable equation for tether modeling subjected to tension which varies along its length. A Mathieu stability analysis is then performed for TLPs of different shapes and different water depth vis-à-vis of 527.8, 872, and 1200 m respectively to obtain the amplitudes of tether vibrations. The unstable modes of vibration are also verified. The resultant modal forms for the tether's dynamic model are then obtained in form of Bessel's function. From the numerical studies conducted it is seen that increased tether tension not only leads to a stable platform but also improves the stability due to increased hydrodynamic loading contributing to added mass. From the studies conducted it is also seen that the triangular configuration TLPs with increased initial pretension are more stable compared to four leg TLP in the first mode of vibration.     

Design analysis of a truss pontoon semi-submersible concept in deep water

Truss pontoon semi-submersible (TPS) is a new offshore structure concept in industry, where a truss spar is used to create the added mass by the heave plates. In the present paper, the effect of the heave plates on the vertical motion of the floating structure is demonstrated. A TPS is analyzed by utilizing the linear diffraction theory as well as the linear part of the Morison equation. The close agreement of the analysis results with the experimental results suggests that the simplified Morison equation can be used for the present analysis without sacrificing the quality of the results. However, good engineering judgment is required for estimating the values of the hydrodynamic coefficients as well as the amount of damping introduced in the structure. It is also found that the heave plates indeed introduce large added mass and considerable damping in the system motion in the vertical direction such that the resonant oscillation becomes less of a problem. This suggests that the TSP concept may have merits as a heave-controlled floating production structure in the deepwater development.     

Forced vibration analysis of an offshore tower carrying an eccentric tip mass with rotary inertia due to support excitation

Dynamic responses of structures due to earthquake excitation are the important problems in engineering, thus, the information concerned is plenty. However, most of the literature is relating to the discrete methods, particularly to the finite element method (FEM), and the one relating to the method combining both the “continuous” and “discrete” models is rare. The objective of this paper is to provide some information in this respect. First, the analytical solution for the natural frequencies and normal mode shapes of a “continuous” tower, without contacting water (or “dry” tower), carrying an eccentric tip mass possessing rotary inertia is determined. Next, the partial differential equation of motion for the forced vibration of the tower, contacting water (or “wet” tower), subjected to support excitation is transformed into a matrix equation by using the last natural frequencies and normal modes shape of the freely vibrating dry tower. Finally, the numerical integration method is used to solve the matrix equation to yield the seismic response of the wet tower. In theory, the mode superposition method is correct only if the total number of modes considered approaches infinity, however, numerical results of this paper reveal that superposition of only the lowest six modes will yield excellent results to be very close to the corresponding ones obtained from the conventional FEM. For this reason, the CPU time required by the presented approach is less than 5% of that required by the conventional FEM.     

Derivation of statistical properties of wave-induced offshore structural response by principal component technique

According to linear random wave theory, water particle kinematics at different nodes of an offshore structure form a set of correlated jointly Gaussian random variables. Thus, using principal component analysis, all the foregoing kinematics can be expressed as linear combinations of a few independent Gaussian random variables. This technique can be used to generate statistically independent hydrodynamic load and response values, as opposed to time simulation technique that leads to correlated response values. The sampling variability of the statistics generated from a set of independent data points is considerably smaller than that of a set (of the same size) of correlated values. Therefore, a much smaller number of simulated data points are necessary for accurate prediction of the statistical properties of response. Furthermore, simulating N data points by principal component technique (PCT) has proved to be at least two times faster than simulating the same number of data points by the time simulation technique (TST). As a result, PCT is considerably more efficient (about 25 times) than TST. The forgoing conclusions have been verified by applying both techniques to two test structures under different environmental conditions.     

Physical impact on the reclamation area resulting from offshore dredging at the Changhwa coast, Taiwan

The physical impact of offshore dredging on the reclamation area at the Changhwa coast, Taiwan, is investigated using a three-dimensional movable-bed model test. A distorted modeling law consisting of maintaining similarity of the equilibrium beach profile between the model and prototype is proposed. The geometric distortion was verified through a series of preliminary experiments conducted in a wave flume. Experimental results show that the distorted modeling is able to reproduce the beach-face slope in nature. An appropriate long-term morphological time-scale was determined based on a comparison of model longshore littoral transport rates and equivalent prototype values. Seabed topographical changes before and after offshore dredging are evaluated in model tests. A suitable countermeasure to prevent beach erosion from wave attack along the reclamation area is suggested from the experimental results.     

Effect of offshore troughs on the South India erratic summer monsoon rainfall in June 2017

The onset and advance of southwest monsoon are accompanied by the appearance of the offshore trough along the southwest coast of India. This offshore trough escorts a deluge of rainfall to the southwest coast, and sometimes rainfall band moves eastward further into south India. These broad observations were noticed during the summer monsoon of June 2017. Meteorological agencies and media had reported a huge amount of rainfall over the southwest coast of India during the month. But, in the far interior of south India, rainfall was less. Due to the less rainfall, water resources depleted, which affected local farmers and common man of south India. The confused views of the common man on southwest coast rainfall could be due to lack of understanding related to various factors affecting rainfall over the same region. This article is an endeavor to address the preliminary understanding of the southwest coast rainfall during June 2017, with more stress on offshore troughs. The study begins with area-averaged rainfall statistics over south, southwest, and southeast India by employing satellite and rain gauge merged rainfall datasets. Area averaged analysis revealed offshore trough contributed 80 % of rainfall over the South West India, 68 % over South East India, contributing to an overall 75 % over south India in 2017. To identify offshore trough position and strength in the reanalysis and model simulations, a new method called VSV (Vertical Shear of Vorticity) method was introduced. The computed offshore troughs were categorized into Active, Normal, and Feeble based on the strength of meridional gradient of mean sea level pressure and 850 hPa horizontal winds. The contribution due to each category of the offshore trough over different sub-regions was investigated to find out the effect of the offshore trough to total rainfall. Dynamic and thermodynamic features of these categories of the offshore trough were investigated by using proxies like equivalent potential temperature and moisture flux convergence. We found that during active offshore trough an eastward propagation of rain bands persists, which was explained by using moisture flux convergence and equivalent potential temperature at different levels of the atmosphere.     

Trace metals in sediments near offshore oil exploration and production sites in the Alaskan Arctic

Increased offshore development in the Alaskan Arctic has stimulated interest in assessing potential impacts to the environment before the onset of any adverse effects. Concentrations of trace metals in sediments are used in this paper to provide one sensitive indicator of anthropogenic inputs from offshore activity over the past several decades. Sediments in coastal waters of the western Beaufort Sea are patchy with respect to sediment granulometry, organic carbon content, and concentrations of trace metals. However, results for surface sediments and age-dated cores show that nearly all samples contain natural concentrations of Ag, Ba, Be, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Sb, Tl, V and Zn, with metal/Al ratios that have been constant for many decades. Metal concentrations for incoming river-suspended matter compare well with sediment metal values and, along with vertical distributions in sediments, show no discernible diagenetic impacts that distort the sedimentary record for metals, except for Mn, As and possibly Cd. Slightly elevated concentrations of Ba, Hg, Ag, Sb and Zn were observed in a total of eight instances or in only 0.7% of the 1,222 data points for metals in surface sediments.