Numerical Modeling Practice and Verification of the Wind Load Estimation for FPSO and Semi-Submersible

Abstract

This paper summarizes a joint effort, TESK JDP, initiated by TechnipFMC, ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company (EMURC), Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and Korea Research Institute of Ships & Ocean Engineering (KRISO) in order to develop reliable modeling practices for the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to the design of the offshore floating structures. The modeling practice for the wind load on offshore floating structures, which was one of the topics in this JDP, was studied and verified against model test results. The wind load on the offshore floating structures mostly depends on the shape of the wind profile rather than the design wind speed. Much weight is put on the generation and retainment of the wind profile within the computational domain. The modeling practice for generating the wind profile referred to as sustainable atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) or horizontally homogeneous turbulent boundary layer (HHTBL) as well as domain size, mesh strategy, turbulence model are used to perform wind load simulations for a semi-submersible and FPSO respectively as a blind test between JDP members. In order to minimize uncertainties from geometric similarity, special care was taken during the simulation and model test for the FPSO due to the complicated top side modules. Given the modeling practice, the results are compared between JDP members and show consistent tendency. Also, a good agreement was observed for the hydrodynamic coefficients of the wind load for both the FPSO and semi-submersible.