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MARINE & OFFSHORE ENGINEERING Lloyd’s Register and A*STAR to jointly promote innovation in the energy and marine sectors At the signing ceremony are, from left, Mr John Wishart, Lloyd’s Register’s Global Energy Director; Dr Raj Thampuran, Managing Director of A*STAR; Dr Claus Myllerup, Managing Director, Singapore Group Technology Centre, Lloyd’s Register; and Mr Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman, A*STAR. Leading classification society Lloyd’s Register has established a world-class Group Technology Centre (GTC) in Singapore to deliver innovation and solutions to the energy and maritime sectors. It has also reached an agreement with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) to collaborate on R&D projects as a key part of the centre’s activities. The intent is to establish a Joint Lab facility with A*STAR’s Institute for High Performance Computing (IHPC) to co-develop applications and solutions in the marine and offshore sectors. This arrangement will promote R&D activities in modelling and simulation, and provide bespoke technical solutions for companies in these sectors. To encourage the development of technical expertise and young <strong>engineer</strong>s, PhD students will be trained at the GTC during the programme’s initial five-year period. These students will be working on R&D projects between the technology centre and Singapore’s institutes of higher learning such as the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University. “Our investment in the new Lloyd’s Register Group Technology Centre in Singapore, coupled with the agreement with A*STAR, represents a shared vision to create a long-term centre of excellence for technology, innovation and research that will benefit Singapore, industry and society at large”, said Mr Richard Sadler, Chief Executive Officer of Lloyd’s Register. “It underlines our global commitment to understanding the sciences and technologies that help to ensure that people are safe, and that essential assets perform as required”, he added. “The collaboration between Lloyd’s Register and A*STAR demonstrates common interest to develop technologies to 18 THE SINGAPORE ENGINEER October 2012 boost developments for the energy and maritime sectors. This partnership marks an important milestone in driving innovation and technology solutions for these key sectors”, said Dr Raj Thampuran, Managing Director of A*STAR. “Exciting areas of research include modelling and simulation; designing floating offshore structures, deep sea drilling equipment and transportation, maritime safety and environment, and marine energy harvesting. This relationship will grow stronger over time and contribute significantly to the growth of these sectors. I am confident that outcomes from our research collaboration will be keenly watched by key industry players”, he added. ‘Along with our Group Technology Centre at the University of Southampton in the UK, the Singapore GTC will serve as a cornerstone for our global research and development network, which currently includes 48 academic and technical institutions sponsored by The Lloyd’s Register Educational Trust”, Mr Sadler said. The capabilities and resources of the new centre will be scaled up over five years to work on projects mutually identified by Lloyd’s Register and A*STAR under the new research agreement. Investment in this new centre is expected to reach US$ 35 million. By year five, up to 150 full-time <strong>engineer</strong>s, researchers and doctoral students will be jointly employed and working together with industry on projects of mutual interest. “This strategic initiative will further strengthen the technological readiness of our organisation”, said Mr John Wishart, Lloyd’s Register’s Global Energy Director. “It will help to ensure that our energy and marine clients receive innovative technical solutions to maintain their competitive edge and sustain their leadership positions going forward”, he added.
MARINE & OFFSHORE ENGINEERING Heave and VIM suppressed ‘HVS’ semi-submersible design for Southeast Asian environments by Qi Xu and Jim Ermon, Technip The new design for oil production platforms is said to offer significant benefits. Glossary of acronyms CFD - Computational Fluid Dynamics CG - Centre of Gravity DTA - Dry Tree Application DVA - Direct Vertical Access GM - Distance between CG and metacentre GoM - Gulf of Mexico RAO - Response Amplitude Operator SCR - Steel Catenary Riser TLP - Tension Leg Platform TTR - Top Tensioned Riser VIM - Vortex Induced Motion BACKGROUND In offshore oil & gas production, with the trend towards implementing deeper, larger, and more complex offshore development projects, and moving into regions requiring more flexibility, there is a greater need to meet both the technical and cost challenges associated with this new frontier. Although, over the last several years, deep-draft semisubmersible concepts have been developed in the Gulf of Mexico as wet-tree floating production systems, it is envisioned that the production semi solution will be used in other parts of the world, as well (most notably in Southeast Asia), to address these challenges. The wet-tree floater market has been growing, largely due to: • Reservoirs favouring non-directional wells which lead to subsea production • Increased water depth (making SCR design easier and TTR design more difficult) • Choices of mature floater concepts Current wet-tree floater concepts include semi-submersibles, Spars, TLPs and ship-shaped vessels with and without turrets. Of these choices, the semisubmersible has become a favourite, primarily because of the key advantage of quayside integration of the ever increasing size and weight of topsides, a large deck area, ability to support a large number of risers, and overall costeffectiveness. However, conventional semi-submersibles continue to face challenges in supporting SCRs, particularly large ones, and the associated strength and fatigue issues as a result of relatively high heave motion. This is particularly true for semis operating in harsh environments and relatively shallow water. Heave motion increases the loading on the SCR near the riser touchdown zone. In an effort to improve the heave motion, the draft of the semi-submersibles has been increased. Unfortunately, as a result of increasing the draft, another challenge has been introduced - high VIM as a result of wind, loop, and tidal currents. The high VIM of a deep draft semi-submersible is mainly due to the increased VIM excitation from the longer columns and reduced damping from the smaller pontoons, compared to conventional semis. An SCR’s fatigue life at the touchdown point can be greatly compromised by the high VIM. Other factors also come into play as a result of VIM. For instance, VIM can make it difficult to meet mooring fatigue design criteria. INTRODUCTION Though VIM has been experienced by shallow draft semisubmersibles in the presence of strong surface current, it never became a driving design issue. With increasing draft, however, it has now become a fatigue design issue for risers and mooring, with no simple solution. Technip has long been recognised for its quality and reliable hull designs, such as the Spar hull. Specifically developed as a riser-friendly floater, suitable for both dry-tree and wet-tree applications, the Spar is a proven concept with excellent motion performance. Earlier Spars were primarily used as dry-tree units, while the recent few Spars are wet-tree applications. However, in the coming years, in order to meet evolving technical challenges of deeper and more complex field developments and increasing market needs, Technip is expanding its existing floater product portfolio by introducing to the market a new semi-submersible design - the heave and VIM suppressed ‘HVS’ semi-submersible. The HVS semi-submersible was developed at Technip as a wettree floater which achieves significantly improved heave motion and VIM performance through hull form optimisation while maintaining the simplicity of a conventional semi-submersible design. Future enhancements of this design will also include direct vertical access and dry tree applications. This article explores the design of the new HVS semisubmersible, points out its many features, quantifies its performance, explains why it responds accordingly, and highlights its many advantages and benefits. October 2012 THE SINGAPORE ENGINEER 19
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