The nowadays frequent use of FPSOs for offshore oil production in areas prone to green water events has increased the industrys focus on wave-induced impact loads as an important design parameter. This is a complex hydrodynamic problem where simplified engineering methods are often used in connection with model testing. Various efforts have been presented during the recent 10–15 years to establish reasonably good industry design tools, while the use of fully nonlinear methods and CFD is still in its development. The main focus of this paper is to investigate the potential of a simplified coupled method between a potential theory based Green Water engineer tool (Kinema3) and the commercial CFD tool Star-CCM+ based on its Navier-Stokes Solver (NS) and the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method. Results from a case study application on a large FPSO are validated against model test data. The case study contains analyses of the FPSO in long crested regular seas, both in fixed and in moored conditions. Three different heading directions are included. The approach for modeling green water events uses a Finite-Volume-VOF method with a complex velocity inlet boundary condition. Thus the Kinema3 engineering tool is used to generate simplified spatio-temporal inlet conditions from the relative wave elevation and wave kinematics at the bulwark, based on linear potential theory combined with nonlinear random wave kinematics. The VOF method is then used to model the detailed flow on deck, including impact forces on deck structures. Kinema3 can also generate simplified estimates for the peak water height, velocity as well as impact force values assuming an extended dam-break approach together with a simplified, local 2D deck layout, and comparisons to the CFD results show an overall fairly good agreement although flow details on deck can of course not be expected to be modeled that well. Comparisons of the above results to model test data show good agreement both for the relative wave height, water height and impact force level, in regular and irregular waves. Detailed time histories, including force rise time, from the coupled Kinema3 - Star-CCM+ CFD simulation analysis are quite similar to the measured ones. The CPU time consumption for the coupled simulation is moderate compared to a full CFD simulation of the FPSO in waves. Hence the achieved calculation time and the simplicity of the simulation setup of the numerical simulation makes this method an interesting candidate for industrial use. This work is a part of the research project “Green Water and Wave Impact on FPSO” carried out for and in cooperation with PETROBRAS.

This paper presents numerical simulations of Green Water events and wave impact on a FPSO. The simulations are performed at model scale and the results are compared against experimental model test results. The commercial Star-CCM+ CFD software is used in the simulations. The incoming waves are modeled using 5th order Stokes theory, as implemented in the CFD software. Both fixed and free floating FPSO are considered. The moving FPSO are modeled using Chimera overset mesh technology. The vessels is free to move in heave and pitch at 180 (head sea), roll and heave at 270 (beam sea), while roll, pitch and heave is released at 225 (quartering sea). The computed water height on the deck and the relative wave height in vicinity the vessel are compared against model test results at several positions. Also the impact force on load cells blocks located at the deck of the vessel is computed and compared against model test results. The comparison of the time histories of the water elevation and load histories are in reasonable agreement with the measured time series. The number of grid cells range from 7M for the simulations at head sea, where flow is assumed to be symmetric, to 21M for the simulations at quartering sea. Total wall clock simulation time was about 10days for the most computationally demanding cases, which are the quartering sea simulations. This includes simulation of 12 wave periods with the ship fixed, and thereafter 8 wave periods of the free floating vessel. The computations show that CFD tools can be used as a research tool when studying the physics of green water and wave impact events. However, due to time CPU demanding simulations, this type of CFD analysis are not yet a practical tool for parametric design studies and deck structure optimizations. This work is a part of the research project “Green Water and Wave Impact on FPSO” carried out for and in cooperation with PETROBRAS.

This paper presents a series of numerical analyses performed with the potential theory-based Green Water engineer tool KINEMA3. KINEMA3 was designed to predict wave-induced impact loads on FPSOs in steep irregular waves, and for use in design load analysis. The purpose of the study presented herein is to validate KINEMA3 green water (deck overtopping) predictions in nonlinear irregular waves with results from model tests performed at the TPN (Tanque de Provas Numérico) laboratory at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Comparisons are made for a selection of irregular wave cases, for two choices of anchoring conditions (free floating vessel and fixed vessel) and for three wave headings (180°, 225° and 270°: head, quartering and beam seas, respectively). KINEMA3 statistical green water predictions present a general good agreement with observations from the TPN model tests for all wave cases, headings and mooring conditions. Overall, observed trends for occurrence of green water and standard deviation/maximum of relative wave height are successfully reproduced by KINEMA3. In agreement with model test results, it is predicted that green water occurs more frequently for a free floating vessel and for beam seas. Additional comparisons between KINEMA3 predictions using different FPSO panel models (low-order and high-order models) present negligible differences with respect to green water estimates. The results presented herein demonstrate the robustness of the tool towards the prediction of green water for variable wave headings and sea states, and highlight the capability of KINEMA3 to be employed as an engineering-like tool for fast and multiple estimates of green water in early design studies. This work is a part of the research project “Green Water and Wave Impact on FPSO” carried out for and in cooperation with PETROBRAS.

No abstract

No abstract