The Impact of Multi-Body Operations on DP Capability

Abstract

As offshore activities are growing, the marine operations are becoming more complex involving the presence of few or several vessels in proximity to each other which increases the risk associated to those operations. Shuttle tankers, PSVs, floatels are often equipped with DP systems for maintaining position. The capability of these systems is defined during design phase by the DP manufacturer based on the assumption of standalone operation and considering environmental load cases prescribed in Industry standards (ex. wind, wave and current all aligned). During a realistic operational condition, however, the presence of other unities may significantly alter the loads acting on the DP vessel which will affect somehow its station keeping capacity. Furthermore, in some areas of the world, the misalignment between the environmental loads and the presence of several wave trains from different directions (ex. off-shore Brazil) shall be considered in the sake of safety of the operation. In order to provide the clients means to simulate these complex operations (including moored vessels), a DP module has been integrated to Bureau Veritas multi-body mooring software, ARIANE. In this paper, the case of a DP floatel vessel operating close to a turret moored FPSO in Brazilian waters is analyzed and the differences in the DP capacity under realistic conditions with respect to the original DP capability are presented and discussed.