Purpose
The design of compliant towers in deep waters is greatly affected by their dynamic response to wave loads as well as by the geometrical and material nonlinearities that appear. In general, a nonlinear time history dynamic analysis is the most appropriate one to be applied to capture the exact response of the structure under wave loading. However, this type of analysis is complex and time-consuming. This paper aims to develop a simplified methodology, which can adequately approximate the maximum response yielded by a dynamic analysis by means of a static analysis.
Design/methodology/approach
Various types of time history dynamic analysis are first applied on a detailed structural model, ranging from linear to fully nonlinear, that are used as reference solutions. In the sequel, a simplified analysis model is formulated, capable of reproducing the response of the entire structure with significantly reduced computational cost. In the next stage, this model is used to obtain the linear and nonlinear response spectra of the structure. Finally, these spectra are used to formulate a simplified design approach, based on equivalent static loads.
Findings
This simplified design approach produces good results in cases that the response is mainly governed by the first eigenmode, which is the case when compliant towers are considered.
Originality/value
The present paper borrows ideas from the area of earthquake engineering, where simplified methodologies can be used for the design of a certain class of structures. However, the development of a simplified methodology for the approximation of the dynamic behavior of offshore structures under wave loading is a much more complex problem, which, to the authors’ knowledge, has not been addressed till now.
The purpose of this work is to highlight the importance of considering the actual nonlinear dynamic response for the analysis and design of fixed deep water platforms. The paper highlights the necessity of applying dynamic analysis through the comparison with the results obtained by the authors by applying static nonlinear analysis on the structure under examination. The example treated in the context of the present paper is a compliant tower, set-up in deep water. Nonlinearities are considered both for the calculation of the wave loadings and the structural analysis. The wave loading is based on linear random wave theory and comparisons are provided with the steady wave theories, Airy and Stokes 5th. The former solution is based on the most probable shape of a large linear wave on a given sea-state; the auto-correlation function of the underlying spectrum. On the other hand, in the field of structural analysis, two cases are considered for comparison, static analysis and time history dynamic analysis. For both types of analysis, two sub-cases are considered, a case in which geometric nonlinearity and nonlinearities related to the modelling of the soil are considered and a case in which the corresponding linear theories are employed (reference cases). The structural calculations were performed using the well-known structural analysis software SAP2000, which was enhanced by a special programming interface that was developed to calculate the wave loading and to directly apply the generated loads on the structural members. The results show that the consideration of the particle velocities associated with the linear random wave theory in the wave loading lead to significant differences with respect to the steady wave theories in terms of the displacements and stresses of the structure. Moreover, irrespectively of the adopted wave theory, the nonlinear analyses lead to significant discrepancies with respect to the linear ones. This is mainly associated with the nonlinear properties of the soil. Another source of discrepancies between the results of static and dynamic analyses stems from the change of the effective natural frequency of the structure when nonlinearities are considered.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.