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### Research Papers: Offshore Technology

J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 2017;139(3):031301-031301-11. doi:10.1115/1.4035475.

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based numerical wave tank (NWT) is developed and verified to study wave load effects on fixed and free floating offshore structures. The model is based on solving Navier–Stokes equations on a structured grid, level set method for tracking the free surface, and an immersed boundary method for studying wave–structure interaction. This paper deals with establishing and verifying a CFD-based NWT. Various concerns that arise during this establishment are discussed, namely effects of wave reflection which might affect the structure response, damping of waves in downstream, and three-dimensional (3D) effects of the waves. A method is described and verified to predict the time when incoming waves from wave generator are affected by reflecting waves from the structure which can help in better designing the dimensions of NWT. The model is then used to study sway, heave, and roll responses of a floating barge which is nonuniform in density and limited in sway direction by a spring and damper. Also, it is used to study wave loads on a fixed, large diameter, surface piercing circular cylinder. The numerical results are compared with the experimental and other numerical results, and in general very good agreement is observed in all range of studied wave frequencies. It is shown that for the studied fixed cylinder, the Morison equation leads to promising results for wavelength to diameter ratio larger than $2π$ (kD < 1), while for shorter wavelengths results in considerable over prediction of wave loads, due to simplification of wave diffraction effects.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster

### Research Papers: Materials Technology

J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 2017;139(3):031401-031401-6. doi:10.1115/1.4035385.

Very few studies have been conducted concerning fatigue in steel line pipe and fewer using full-scale testing. Further, at the time of this study, no research on full-scale testing was available in open literature regarding fatigue behavior of line pipe with longitudinal cracks, despite being considered more critical than the line pipe with cracks oriented in the circumferential direction. In the current research work, fatigue crack growth was investigated in NPS 20, API 5L X-70 grade, electrical resistance welding (ERW) straight-seam steel line pipes in the base metal and at the weld seam for various orientations. It was found that there was no significant difference between fatigue crack growth in the base metal and at the weld seam for the tested stress ratio. Increasing the angle of inclination of the crack with respect to the weld line was found to decrease the rate of fatigue crack growth due to a decrease in the mode I stress component. Finally, it was observed that despite the difference in fatigue crack growth rates, the crack aspect ratios were nearly identical for all cracks at the same crack depth.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster
J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 2017;139(3):031402-031402-10. doi:10.1115/1.4035769.

Although novel techniques and high performance material open the way for generation of high-performance welded joints, the welding operations are inherently quite complex and expensive. This has been the case, especially for super duplex stainless steel (SDSS) welding. If inappropriate parameter combinations are selected, then the welding process degrades the strength and corrosion resistance because of an unbalanced ferrite/austenite content in an SDSS welded joint. Therefore, it is vital to determine the optimal combination of parameters such as welding process, rate of shielding gas, heat input, and weld geometry. In addition, the optimal combination of parameter levels plays an important role in maintaining the microstructural and mechanical properties in the weld's metal region. This paper illustrates an expert knowledge based methodology for designing the optimal parameter combination, using an engineering robust design approach (ERDA) and related experimentation results. The experiments were performed to investigate the effect of welding factors (i.e., gap geometry, different welding techniques, material transfer and welding processes) on the material properties in the weld and heat affected zone (HAZ). The optimal parameter combination, results of the verification experiment, and the metallographic examination results of selected regions of the butt welded joints are presented.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster

### Research Papers: Structures and Safety Reliability

J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 2017;139(3):031601-031601-11. doi:10.1115/1.4035304.

The oil and gas industry is pushing toward new unexplored remote areas, potentially rich in resources but with limited industry presence, infrastructure, and emergency preparedness. Maintenance support is very important and challenging in such remote areas. A platform supply vessel (PSV) is an essential part of maintenance support. Hence, the acceptable level of its availability performance is high. Identification of critical components of the PSV provides essential information for optimizing maintenance management, defining a spare parts strategy, estimating competence needs for PSV operation, and achieving the acceptable level of availability performance. Currently, there are no standards or guidelines for the criticality analysis of PSVs for maintenance purposes. In this paper, a methodology for the identification of the critical components of PSVs has been developed, based on the available standard. It is a systematic screening process. The method considers functional redundancy and the consequences of loss of function as criticality criteria at the main and subfunction levels. Furthermore, at the component level, risk tools such as failure modes, effects and criticality analysis (FMECA), and fault tree analysis (FTA) will be applied in order to identify the most critical components. Moreover, the application of the proposed approach will be illustrated by a real case study.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster
J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 2017;139(3):031602-031602-9. doi:10.1115/1.4035996.

A method is presented that enables the analysis of weather window assessments for the installation and retrieval phases of a self-elevating unit (SEU). The method takes site-specific parameters, defined as soil type and water depth, into account in addition to vessel-specific and environmental parameters. The inclusion of site-specific parameters is the novel contribution compared to assessment methodologies used today. A simulation model is presented that incorporates a coupled nonlinear time-domain analysis of vessel motion and soil–structure interaction. Soil deformation behavior during impact is described by resistance curves based on a bearing capacity theory. A structural evaluation criterion against which impact forces are compared is used for weather window assessments. The simulation model is applied on a case study utilizing different soil types to study impact forces and the capacity of the structure for withstanding such impacts and eventually performing a weather window assessment. The results show that the jacking operation can be divided into two phases when it comes to loads on the spudcan: a phase dominated by vertical forces followed by a phase dominated by horizontal forces. It is found that including soil deformation behavior is of paramount importance to the magnitude of the resulting impact forces and that class-recommended practice does indeed produce rather large force estimates. Thus, assessments where site-specific parameters are incorporated could definitely increase the operable weather window for SEUs, and, consequently, increase the economic competitiveness of, for example, the offshore wind industry.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster

### Research Papers: Piper and Riser Technology

J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 2017;139(3):031701-031701-8. doi:10.1115/1.4035303.

In order to assess the effects of vortex-induced vibration (VIV) and to ensure riser integrity, field monitoring campaigns are often conducted wherein the riser response is recorded by a few data sensors distributed along the length of the riser. In this study, two empirical techniques–proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and weighted waveform analysis (WWA)–are sequentially applied to the data; together, they offer a novel empirical procedure for fatigue damage estimation in an instrumented riser. The procedures are briefly described as follows: first, POD is used to extract the most energetic spatial modes of the riser response from the measurements, which are defined only at the available sensor locations. Accordingly, a second step uses WWA to express each dominant POD mode as a series of riser natural modes that are continuous spatial functions defined over the entire riser length. Based on the above empirically identified modal information, the riser response over the entire length is reconstructed in reverse–i.e., compose identified natural modes into the POD modes and, then, assemble all these dominant POD modal response components into the derived riser response. The POD procedure empirically extracts the energetic dynamic response characteristics without any assumptions and effectively cleans the data of noisy or less important features; this fundamental application of WWA is used to identify dominant riser natural modes–all this is possible using the limited number of available measurements from sensor locations. Application of the procedure is demonstrated using experimental data from the Norwegian Deepwater Programme (NDP) model riser.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster
J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 2017;139(3):031702-031702-15. doi:10.1115/1.4035995.

The local buckling response and post-buckling mechanical performance of high strength linepipe subject to combined loading state was evaluated using the finite element (FE) simulator abaqus/standard v6.12. The constitutive model parameters were established through laboratory tests and the numerical modeling procedures were verified with large-scale experiments investigating the local buckling response of high strength linepipe. The numerical predictions demonstrated a high level of consistency and correspondence with the measured experimental behavior with respect to the peak moment, strain capacity, deformation mechanism, and local buckling response well into the postyield range. A parametric study on the local buckling response of high strength plain and girth weld pipelines was conducted. The loading conditions included internal pressure and end rotation. The pipe mechanical response parameters examined included moment–curvature, ovalization, local strain, and modal response. The magnitude and distribution of the characteristic geometric imperfections and the end constraint, associated with the boundary conditions and pipe length, had a significant influence on the predicted local buckling response. The importance of material parameters on the local buckling response, including the yield strength (YS), yield strength to tensile strength ratio (Y/T), and anisotropy, was also established through the numerical parameter study. For girth weld linepipe, the study demonstrated the importance of the local high/low misalignment, associated with the circumferential girth weld, on the local buckling response.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster

### Research Papers: CFD and VIV

J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 2017;139(3):031801-031801-7. doi:10.1115/1.4035306.

To achieve a reliable structural model for vortex-induced vibration (VIV) the prediction of flexible risers, this paper employs structural systems with different geometrical nonlinearities (including a linear structure, a nonlinear one, a coupled cross-flow, and axial nonlinear one) and a classical oscillator to simulate cross-flow VIV. By comparing the experimental and simulation results, it is found that when the drag coefficient is assumed to be a fixed constant along the cylinder (i.e., the damping model is linear function of current velocity), it can affect the vibration amplitude considerably and may alter the dominant modes. When the excited mode of VIV is bending-stiffness dominant, the cross-flow structural nonlinearities can have a profound stiffening effect on vibration response. Although the introduction of axial deformation can reduce this function, the coupled cross-flow and axial nonlinearities still have the effect of decreasing the VIV amplitude.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster
J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 2017;139(3):031802-031802-6. doi:10.1115/1.4035384.

Many offshore constructions and operations involve water impact problems such as water slamming onto a structure or free fall of objects with subsequent water entry and emergence. Wave slamming on semisubmersibles, vertical members of jacket structures, crane operation of a diving bell, and dropping of free fall lifeboats are some notable examples. The slamming and water entry problems lead to large instantaneous impact pressures on the structure, accompanied with complex free surface deformations. These need to be studied in detail in order to obtain a better understanding of the fluid physics involved and develop safe and economical design. Numerical modeling of a free falling body into water involves several complex hydrodynamic features after its free fall such as water entry, submergence into water and resurfacing. The water entry and submergence lead to formation of water jets and air cavities in the water resulting in large impact forces on the object. In order to evaluate the forces and hydrodynamics involved, the numerical model should be able to account for the complex free surface features and the instantaneous pressure changes. The water entry of a free falling wedge into water is studied in this paper using the open source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model REEF3D. The vertical velocity of the wedge during the process of free fall and water impact are calculated for different cases and the free surface deformations are captured in detail. Numerical results are compared with experimental data and a good agreement is seen.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster
J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 2017;139(3):031803-031803-9. doi:10.1115/1.4035768.

This paper investigates the phase angles of the vibrations and hydrodynamic forces by the model testing of a flexible riser's vortex-induced vibration (VIV) under uniform flow. The VIV displacement of the riser is derived from the measured strains in the cross-flow (CF) and inline (IL) directions. Then, the hydrodynamic forces are obtained by the dynamic equation of an Euler–Bernoulli beam based on the results of VIV displacement. The characteristics of the phase angle of displacement and the hydrodynamic forces are analyzed. The results show that the phase angles of displacement and the hydrodynamic forces are almost identical at different cross sections of the riser under uniform flow. Moreover, within two adjacent vibration nodes in IL direction, the phase angle almost kept constant, while had a 180 deg change at the two sides of each vibration node. When the reduced velocity varies from 5.25 to 7.5, the phase angles of displacement derived from the flexible riser's VIV are 45 deg larger than those from the rigid cylinder's self-excited vibration.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster
J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 2017;139(3):031804-031804-9. doi:10.1115/1.4035957.

Predictions are reported of the two-dimensional turbulent flow around a square cylinder with rounded corners at high Reynolds numbers. The effects of rounded corners have proved difficult to predict with conventional turbulence closures, and hence, the adoption in this study of a two-equation closure that has been specifically adapted to account for the interactions between the organized mean-flow motions due to vortex shedding and the random motions due to turbulence. The computations were performed using openfoam and were validated against the data from flows past cylinders with sharp corners. For the case of rounded corners, only the modified turbulence closure succeeded in capturing the consequences of the delayed flow separation manifested mainly in the reduction of the magnitude of the lift and drag forces relative to the sharp-edged case. These and other results presented here argue in favor of the use of the computationally more efficient unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes approach to this important class of flows provided that the effects of vortex shedding are properly accounted for in the turbulence closure.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster

### Research Papers: Ocean Renewable Energy

J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 2017;139(3):031901-031901-17. doi:10.1115/1.4035305.

Offshore wind turbines (OWTs) might be subjected to seismic loads with different peak accelerations during operation in the actively seismic regions. The earthquakes might be a potential risk for the OWTs due to its stochastic nature. Earthquake with wind and wave loads could act on OWT at the same time; thus, the structural responses of such OWTs should be analyzed taking into consideration the reasonable load combinations. Based on the hydro-elastic similarity, an integrated model of the combined National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 5 MW wind turbine and a practical pentapod substructure is designed for testing. The governing equations of motion of the integrated OWT are established. The dynamic tests and numerical analysis of the OWT model are performed under different combinations of seismic, wind, and sea load conditions. The El Centro and American Petroleum Institute (API)-based synthesized seismic waves with different peak ground accelerations (PGAs) are considered in this study. The numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental ones. The coupling effect of the OWT structure under the combined load conditions is demonstrated from the experimental and numerical results. The results indicate that the interaction of earthquake, wind, wave, and current should be taken into account in order to obtain proper structural response, especially with small PGA.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster

### Research Papers: Offshore Geotechnics

J. Offshore Mech. Arct. Eng. 2017;139(3):032001-032001-7. doi:10.1115/1.4035476.

A combination of the moisture content, dynamic energy produced by the waves and the vessel engines along with the characteristics of the bulk cargo itself may lead the mixture to liquefy. When the liquefaction of the granular bulk cargo occurs, it may behave like a fluid and can cause the vessel to list or even capsize. In this study, based on a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver, a numerical model was developed to simulate the sloshing problem for nickel ore slurries with three different moisture contents. The volume of fluid (VOF) method is adopted to capture the movement of the fluid interface. To validate the present model, the simulation results were compared with experimental data. The numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental results. Finally, the present model was used to investigate the dynamic behavior of nickel ore slurries with different moisture contents combined with non-Newtonian Herschel–Bulkley and Bingham constitutive equations. After taking the grid and time step independence study, the dynamic moment impacted on the cargo hold model boundaries was calculated. The effects of different moisture contents, the excitation amplitude, and the frequency on the sloshing-induced moment and the free surface deformation were discussed extensively. The results confirm that the proposed model can be used to predict the movement of the nickel ore slurry and analyze its impact moment on the cargo hold model when it takes a roll motion.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster