Numerical Investigation of Residual Strength of Steel Stiffened Panel Exposed to Hydrocarbon Fire

Abstract

Current industrial practices and approaches are simplified and do not describe the actual behavior of plated elements of offshore topside structures for safety design due to fires. Therefore, it is better to make up for the defective methods with integrated fire safety design methods based on fire resistance characteristics such as residual strength capacity. This study numerically investigates the residual strength of steel stiffened panels exposed to hydrocarbon jet fire. A series of nonlinear finite element analyses (FEAs) were carried out with varying probabilistic selected exposures in terms of the jet fire location, side, area, and duration. These were used to assess the effects of exposed fire on the residual strength of a steel stiffened panel on a ship-shaped offshore structure. A probabilistic approach with a feasible fire location was used to determine credible fire scenarios in association with thermal structural responses. Heat transfer analysis was performed to obtain the steel temperature, and then the residual strength was obtained for the credible fire scenarios under compressive axial loading using nonlinear FEA code. The results were used to derive closed-form expressions to predict the residual strength of steel stiffened panels with various exposure to jet fire characteristics. The results could be used to assess the sustainability of structures at risk of exposure to fire accidents in offshore installations.

Collision Characteristics According to Contact Conditions Between Drifting Objects and Fixed Structures in the Coastal Zone

“…The LS-DYNA system used in this study is a Finite Element Method (FEM) model based on an explicit method that specializes in the dynamic behavior analysis of structures. As LS-DYNA incorporates various contact theories and powerful features that help resolve complex and realistic problems, it is widely used in complex coastal and ocean engineering problems (Hwang et al, 2021;Kim, Baeg, and Seo, 2021;Seo et al, 2022).…”

Numerical Simulation of Tsunami Generation and Propagation Due to Viscous Debris Flow Impact Using LS-DYNA

“…LS-DYNA is positioned as a tool for solving complex coastal and ocean engineering problems (Hwang et al, 2021;Kim, Baeg, and Seo, 2021). In this study, the wave generation and propagation process due to the impact of viscous debris flow are analyzed through LS-DYNA.…”

Fire Protection of Steel Structures of Oil and Gas Facilities: Multilayer, Removable, Non-Combustible Covers

“…Buildings and structures located at the poles are Arctic stations and plants for oil and gas production, processing and transportation. Steel bearing and enclosing structures of such facilities should be protected with special materials; in particular, fire protection means increasing their fire resistance limits [1][2][3]. There are precedents for offshore platform fires, such as the world's largest offshore platform disaster, Piper Alpha, in the North Sea, which led to a series of explosions on major oil and gas pipelines [4][5][6].…”