Introduction to Power drives in Offshore applications

Passive and Active heave Compensation

Heave Compensation System, Passive

All kind of activities offshore are being done from

moving vessels or platforms. These activities could be
drilling, handling loads in cranes or pipe laying. The
movements of the vessel or platform because of the see
waves cause large load variations in the drill pipe, winch
cable or in the pipes that are being installed. To
compensate for these movements the so called Heave
Compensator Systems are used. In drilling rigs these
kinds of compensators are often used in the so called
Travelling Block, see figure at the right.

Drill String Compensators

A hook mounted compensator on a drill rig / vessel is

basically hanging in the draw works hook. The design
depends on lots of interface details related to the derrick
construction and also the way the drill string is driven
either by a rotary table or a top drive. In modern rig /
vessel design the derrick top mounted or crown block
compensator is more popular, still for specific rig / vessels the hook mounted compensator is
used.

Drill String Compensator of Rexroth Hydraudyne

Curved Sheave Compensators

The curved sheave compensator is a drill string compensators, which means that it
compensates the relative movements of the drillship to the sea bottom. The curved sheave
compensator is a passive hydro pneumatic spring system and most probably the most accurate
passive compensator ever built. The curved sheave unit is a travelling block compensator. The
computer designed curve compensates the adiabatic thermodynamics of the pneumatic spring
and enables rather small air pressure vessels. This is ideal for geo-technical surveys where
noise from the inaccurate compensator turns out to be unacceptable for obtaining the
important sensitive geo-technical data.

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 Introduction to Power drives in Offshore applications
Passive and Active heave Compensation

Example of Curved Compensator ( Rexroth Hydraudyne )

Riser Tensioner Systems

Wire Line Tensioners

Wire line tensioners are, as the

word says, used to keep wire
lines tensioned. In the Offshore
industries many wire lines are
used to hold or hoist a specific
load. Relative movements can
cause a wire line to become slack
and therefore causing dangerous
shock loads. Wire line tensioners
are used in drilling packages as
well as in transport applications
such as offshore cranes. The wire
line tensioners as described are
hydraulic / pneumatic springs
built-up from a combination of
hydraulic cylinders, piston
accumulators, pressure vessels, hydraulic and pneumatic valving and wire line sheavers to run
the wires.

Direct riser tensioner

As the wire line riser tensioners are tensioning the

marine riser via wire lines, the direct riser tensioner is
directly mechanical connected to the riser tension ring
by a shackle or similar connections. The direct riser
cylinders are long stroke (15 m or more) and pulling
their design is very slim. Options such as
accumulators specific installation and safety valving
are project specified. The piston rod coating is
critical, as the cylinder is acting under extreme
environmental conditions.
Production riser tensioners are used for deep water

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Passive and Active heave Compensation
production platforms such as Tension Leg Platforms (TLP’s), deepwater SEP’s and FPSO’s.
On each platform a number of smaller production risers are to be tensioned to cope with the
relatively small rig movements. Production riser tensioners are normally grouped in a cassette
frame carrying 4 tensioner or more cylinders with their related equipment. The system is
redundant, which means that it can stay operational having one tensioner in a cassette out of
operation.
Both tension, system stiffness, stroke, etc. are project specific as the rig specific movements
during normal working conditions, storm, hundred years storm, hurricane, etc. will set the
project specific limits.

Principle of Operation

The most common used Heave Compensator System is the Passive version, see figure below.

ΔF

Accumulator
P1, ΔP
ΔV

Δy V1
A Gas bottles

Principle diagram of a Passive Heave Compensator System

In this example the system is installed onto the wire of a winch. It consists of a hydraulic
cylinder that is provided with a cable sheave on top. The weight of the load is now also
carried by the hydraulic cylinder. The bottom end of the cylinder is connected via a medium
separator= accumulator to a number of gas bottles. In fact this system acts as a mechanical
spring and absorbs high load peaks due to the vessel or platform movements.

The gas bottles are pre-charged with high pressure gas. The need for the back-up gas bottles
depends on the stiffness of the system that is required. In most cases Nitrogen is used as gas.
This is done of because the possibility of an ignition when mineral oil comes in contact with
oxygen at temperatures above the ignition point. In some cases high pressure Air is used in
combination with a non-explosive hydraulic fluid like Erifon or Houghtosafe.

The stiffness constant C of a Passive Heave Compensation System can be adjusted by

changing the gas volume. In simplified form the pressure in the gas system is given by the
adiabatic gas law:

P ⋅ V κ = Const {A} with V = gas volume en P = gas pressure and κ (kappa) = gas constant

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Passive and Active heave Compensation
Note: all units are in SI-units , i.e. m3, N/m2

The value of κ changes with temperature and pressure. For operating pressures from 250 to
300 bar and temperatures of 30º C the value of κ is 1,6 to 1,75. For pressures from 200-250
bar the value of κ is 1,5 to 1,6

By differentiating the equation of the gas law to the volume V we obtain:

⎛1 ⎞
⎜ −1 ⎟
dP Const ⋅ V ⎝κ ⎠

= {B}
dV κ
The gas spring can only be compressed if the external load ΔF increases. Because of this the
piston of the cylinder will move down with a displacement Δy. The stiffness C of the spring is
defined by:

ΔF
C= {C} [N/m]
Δy
ΔV
and also: ΔF = A ⋅ ΔP and Δy = we get:
A
⎛1 ⎞ ⎛1 ⎞ ⎛ 1 ⎞
⎜ κ + −1 ⎟
A ⋅ ΔP ΔP dP Const ⋅ V ⎝ κ
⎜ −1 ⎟
⎠
⎜ −1 ⎟
P ⋅V κ ⋅V ⎝κ ⎠
P ⋅V ⎝ κ ⎠ {D} [N/m]
C= = A2 ⋅ = A2 = A2 = A2 = A2
ΔV ΔV dV κ κ κ
A

Note: This formula is only valid for small displacements of the medium separator as the
adiabatic formula itself is not linear. What we may conclude from the formula is that the
stiffness has a linear relation with the load to the system. For higher loads (=pressure) and
using the same gasvolume the stiffness becomes higher.

Practical stiffness calculations:

Suppose we have a passive system as shown below with the following parameters:

Maximum wire tension : 500 [kN]

heave, top-top : 5 [m]
Required stiffness cylinder, full stroke : 120 [kN/m]
Maximum system pressure : 250 [bar]

If we neglect the friction of the sheaves the maximum cylinder force at 50 Ton wire tension
becomes 1000 [kN]. The mechanical stroke of the cylinder shall be >50% of the maximum
heave. In most cases an additional 25 cm is designed for the mechanical stroke. This spare
stroke is often used to install mechanical damping inside the cylinder that can withstand the
impact if the wire shows a larger heave movement than specified. In our case the minimum
cylinder stroke becomes 2.5 [m] plus 2 x 0.25 [m] = 3 [m]

With the specified stiffness of 120 [kN/m] the maximum cylinder force becomes

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Passive and Active heave Compensation

1000 [kN] + 120 [kN/m] * 1.25 [m] = 1150 [kN]

To stay within the maximum specified system pressure the bore size of the cylinder can be
calculated with:

π 1150 * 10 3
D 2 cyl ≥ or Dcyl >= 0.242 [m]
4 250 *10 5

Cylinder tubes come in different standard diameters. In this case we select Dcyl =260 [mm]
The maximum operating pressure at the maximum load then becomes:

1000 * 10 3 1
P1 = * = 188 [bar]
π 2 10 5
* 0.260
4

Due to the stiffness of the system the pressure at the maximum stroke of the cylinder
(completely retracted) becomes:

1150 * 10 3 1
P2 = * = 217 [bar]
π 2 10 5
* 0.260
4

P 2 217
The pressure ratio becomes : = = 1.154 {E}
P1 188
The displacement volume ΔV of the medium separator when the cylinder retracts due to the
operating heave is:

π
ΔV = 0.5 * heave * D2 = 66.3 [dm3]
4

The smaller gasvolume V2 becomes : V2 = V1 – ΔV {F}

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Passive and Active heave Compensation

ΔF

Medium
Separator P1, P2
ΔV

Δy V1, V2
A Gas bottles

Principle diagram of a Passive Heave Compensator System

The movement of the vessel is in short period of 8-10 seconds. Therefore the compression of
the gas is according to an adiabatic process. The pressure in the gas volume can be described
with formula {A}, P ⋅ V κ = Const

This formula can be rewritten as:

P2 V 1κ V 1κ
= = , or with formula {E} : and with κ = 1.6
P1 (V 1 − ΔV )κ V 2 κ

V 1 ⎛ P2 ⎞κ 1.094 {G}
= ⎜ ⎟ = 1.1540.625 =
V 2 ⎝ P1 ⎠

Combining {F} and {G} results in:

V1 = 708 [dm3].

This volume V1 includes the volume of the medium separator at half stroke Plus the volume
of the gas piping plus the volume of the additional gas bottles.

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Passive and Active heave Compensation

Example of installation:

Travelling Shown is a semi-submersible platform equipped

Block with a new design of a drilling tower. The travelling
block of the hoist gear carries the load of the drill
Drill Pipe pipe. The vessel moves up and down because of the
sea waves. As the drill pipe is connected to the sea
bottom the force on the drill bit changes because of
these vessel movements. Inside of the drilling tower
two passive heave compensator systems are installed
in parallel toe ach other. This is done because of
redundancy. If one compensator system fails the
drilling process may still continue depending on the
sea state.

This system has been designed for a wire pull of 100 Tons and a maximum vessel heave of 4
meter.
WINCH A WINCH B

Travelling Block

Safety Manifold

Hydraulic Cylinder

Accumulator

Gas valve

High Pressure Supply Bottle

Gas Bottles

The compensator cylinders are now being used in a pulling mode. At a wire load of 100 Tons
the cylinder pulling force becomes 200 Tons. If both cylinders are in operation the cylinder
stroke becomes 4 meter. The maximum stroke for the cylinders is 6 meter.

The total gas volume reaches 4 bottles of 1200 dm3. Depending on the required stiffness of
the system the bottles can be connected to the accumulator with 2” Gas valves ( ball valves ).

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Passive and Active heave Compensation
The central high pressure supply bottle is pre-charged with 200 bar gas. From this bottle the
other gas bottles can be charged to the required gas load.

The maximum oil flow in this system reaches a value of 1500 lpm.

View at the rod end of the cylinder with the Safety Manifold

The Safety manifold provides a very important function. In case of a wire break the cylinder
will loose its external load and the gas pressure will move the cylinder piston down like a
rocket. The amount of energy that is released is tremendous. Special sensors are used to sense
such a wire break. If it occurs a large cartridge valve in the Safety manifold closes
immediately and blocks the accumulator from the hydraulic cylinder.

A Passive Compensator System is widely being used because of its simplicity and reliability.
The fact that it is a Passive system without the need for a running Hydraulic Power Unit is
very important. Nevertheless a passive system has also some disadvantages:

• In a hoisting application the load is lowered to the sea bottom. By lowering the load
the length and thus the weight of the wire also increases. The wire weight has to be
added to the weight of mass on the wire hook. The weight of a wire for 200 Ton
reaches 40 kg.mtr. At a water depth of 2000 mtrs the total load increases with a mass
of 80 Tons. In fact the capacity of the hoisting system is reduced to a net weight of
120 Tons.
• If the load is lowered the load will increase due to the wire weight. This means that the
gas pressure has to be increased while the load is lowered. This can be done a central
high pressure gas bottle, see diagram.
• The wire has e certain elasticity. Together with the mass and depending on the drag in
the water this will cause that the mass/wire behaves like a mass spring system. The
cable forces may reach then very high values. Although a Passive heave
Compensation System reduces the “activation” of this mass-spring system, the
remaining force variation may still cause unwanted load movements.

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Passive and Active heave Compensation
Typical Design Values:

Pressure: Maximum 3000 psi or 210 bar , reasons for this limited value are:
the oil business is very conservative and the 3000 psi limit has always been
the maximum state of the art, compressors for high pressure air or nitrogen are
more or less standard for pressures up to 200 bar.

Accumulator: Most commonly used are piston type accumulators. This

because of the need for high ( = low stiffness ) volumes. For applications with
low loads and or reduced heave motions bladder type accumulators may be
possible. Volumes for the accumulator vary from 200 to 1200 dm3. It is not
possible to install accumulators in parallel to each other as the position of the
individual pistons can not be controlled. The position of the accumulator
piston must be in “accordance” with the position of the main cylinder as the
accumulator piston in other situations may slam its end covers. In some cases
the accumulator is provided with piston position sensors ( an ultrasonic sensor
in the liquid phase and a wire type sensor in the gas phase ). The ultrasonic
sensor is reliable but less accurate whereas the wire type sensor is very
accurate but sensitive to failure.

Gas bottles: The required size of the gas bottles depends on the required
stiffness for the system. The volume can be obtained by a few high volume
bottles or by many standard 50 dm3 bottles with intermediate piping. From
experience it may be concluded that the large sized bottle have long delivery times ( 5-6
months ) and that the overall investment costs for large or small bottles is nearly the same.

Design Rules: Mostly used is LROS, DNV or ABS ( ABS if the vessel or platform is
under American flag). Experience showed also that ABS rules require larger tube thickness.
In a particular case the end user could be convinced that the application of Deutsche AD-
Merkblatter rules instead of ABS could save 30% of weight and therefore also costs. Deutsche
AD-Merkblatter rules where then allowed.

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Passive and Active heave Compensation

Heave Compensation System, Active

Disadvantage of a Passive heave Compensation System is that the wire tension always varies
because of the pressure variations in the gas system and also because of friction in the cable
sheaves. These tension variations reach 15-20% which is too much to lower the loads to the
seabed. Another problem might be that with a passive system the natural frequency of the
mass/wire system becomes equal to the frequency of the vessels movements.

In the system as shown below an additional hydraulic system has been added. The system is
called an Active Heave Compensation System.

Description of the system

The Passive part of the system has been described before. Two additional smaller cylinders
have been added to the main cylinder. These smaller cylinders can be controlled into position
by means of a variable closed loop hydraulic pump.
The control system for the Active system receives information from a so called Motion
reference Unit (MRU). This sensor provides information on the vertical acceleration, velocity
and heave of the vessel or platform. The active cylinders are now being controlled in an exact
opposite direction and position of the vessels actual vertical heave (position). If this position
control system acts alright the position of the wire-hook will be neutral. Instead of the closed
loop pump also a proportional valve or servovalve can be used.
The Active Valve set is necessary to enable or disable the use of the Active part of the system.
For instance, if there is a power failure the Active Valve set must immediately cross connect
the both cylinder ports of the active cylinders. The Active Valve set is also used to gradually
take the active part of the system into operation.

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Passive and Active heave Compensation

Dynamic behaviour of an active system

In the figure below some velocity responses are presented of a hydraulic system that is
controlled by a proportional directional control valve. In these examples the behavior of the
system is very much depending on the stiffness of the oil hydraulic system. A hydraulic
cylinder that is connected with a mass shows the behavior of a second order mass-spring
system. in the examples 3 different input signal are being applied.

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Passive and Active heave Compensation

Quasi static behavior

In an active heave compensating system the active cylinders are being controlled in a position
feedback system. If we observe the signals in the block diagram below we have the hydraulic
valve that provides a flow to the cylinder with the control signal as input signal. The cylinder
moves out with a velocity. After some time the cylinder obtains a new position. The position
of the cylinder is measured with a position transducer. Its signal is used as feedback signal
and compared with the set point signal from the MRU.

K1 K2 Cylinder, are A
r
+ amplifier valve Q y

-
Δy
pos
transducer
K4

Calculating the different signal within the block diagram :

Q.Δt = ΔV = A.Δy

Δy dy
Q = A. = A.
Δt dt

The new position of the cylinder is obtained by integration of the velocity of the cylinder. In a
block diagram this can be described with

Piston area Integration

.
Q y y
1
⌠ dt
A

Hydraulic cylinder

Q y
1
⌠ dt
A

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Passive and Active heave Compensation
dy
De differential operator may also be described with the Laplace-operator s
dt
1
The integral operator ∫ dt may then be described with
s
The former simplified block diagram can be rewritten in an even more simplified form with
K3 = 1/A

Hydraulic cylinder

Q y
K3
s

If we replace the hydraulic cylinder by this block diagram we get:

y, position
[m]
r K3
+ Amplifier Proportional
e K1 valve , K2 S
-
valve signal
in Volt Volume fow
m3/s
Position
measured Transducer, K4
position Volt

This block diagram may be rewritten as a one-to-one feedback system.

r r* K3
1 + K4 Amplifier Proportional
e K1 valve , K2 S
K4 -

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Passive and Active heave Compensation
The transformation y/r* may be written as:

K3
With y = K1 × K 2 × × K4×ε and ε = r *−y
S

K3 K3
We get: y = K1 × K 2 × × K 4 × r * − K1 × K 2 × × K4× y
S S

K3 KV
K1 × K 2 × × K4 0
y H KV 1
Or: = S = = S = =
r* ⎛ K3 ⎞ 0
K S + K V τS + 1
⎜1 + K 1 × K 2 × × K 4⎟ 1 + H 1 + V
⎝ S ⎠ S

With this formula we have proven something very important: A position feedback cylinder
shows the behavior of a first order system. All individual gain parameters may be combined
into one single “gain” Kv.

Step response:

In the previous section we have showed that a position feedback controlled cylinder may be
written as a first order system

r + e KV y r KV y
- S τS+1
y
With the consent that the Laplace operator s may be rewritten as dy/dt, we get the simple
differential equation:

KV
y KV 1 1
= S = = , with : τ =
r 1 + KV S + KV τS + 1 KV
S
or : (τS + 1). y = r
dy
or : τ . + y = r
dt

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Passive and Active heave Compensation
The step response of a first order system can simply be found by first having a look at the
velocity of the system at the condition at time t=0 and y=0

dy
τ. + y = r , with : y = 0
dt
dy
τ. = r
dt
dy r
of : startvelocity =
dt τ

We may also have a look at the static condition where the velocity dy/dt=0

dy dy
τ. + y = r , with : = 0
dt dt
y=r
With these simple results we may draw the graphic response of a hydraulic cylinder with a
step-input signal as follows. The output signal (y) obtains a level of 63% after a time equal to
t= τ.

r
1 time y
y 1τ 0,63
2τ 0,86
3τ 0,95
tim
1τ 2τ 3τ
e

The description of the hydraulic cylinder has to be extended with a part that describes the
behavior of a second order mass-spring system.

The real dynamic behavior of a hydraulic linear drive may again easy be deducted with block
diagrams. The external forces that have influence on the position of the cylinder are mainly to
be described with (= m x S2) acceleration forces and with (= w x S) friction forces. In the
model we also have defined the parameter Co = oil stiffness. The oil stiffness Co defines the
displacement of the cylinder piston under influence of all external and internal forces.

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Passive and Active heave Compensation

1 ms2 + ws
Co
-
r K3 y* y
+ K1 +
e s
-

This block diagram can be transformed with simple rules into:

y 1 1 1
= = = 2
y * 1 + ms + ws m s 2 + w s + 1 s + 2β s + 1
2

C0 C0 C0 ω02 ω0

C0 w
with ω0 = [rad/s] (natural frequency) en β = (damping coefficient)
m 2 mC 0

The damping coefficient ß is a parameter for all friction in the system. For complete friction
less cylinders with hydrostatic bearings β = 0,10 .
For most practical systems ß has a value of 0,15 – 0,35.

With the parameters ω and β we may look again at the previous block diagram:

r K3 1 y
+ K1 2
s s
e s + 2b + 1
- w0 2 w0

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Passive and Active heave Compensation

The dynamic behavior of a hydraulic driven mass can be written as a first order system and a
second order system in series. Te stability of a feedback system can be observed with the help
of a so called Polar diagram of the open loop structure, see figure below.

For low frequencies the polar diagram of

an open loop system shows a phase lag
of -90°. For higher frequencies the phase
lag increases with the frequency. For a
frequency equal to ωo the phase lag is
equal to -180° and the polar figure
crosses the negative real axes. For
sufficient stability of a closed loop
system this crossing should be on the
right hand side of the minus -1 point and
for even more stability have a certain
minimum distance of the minus -1 point.
A good result is obtained if the polar
curve stays out of the dashed M=1.3
circle.

This stability criterium may also be

written in a requirement for the total
gain Kv of the system:

Kv
≤ 0,5 or K v ≤ βω o
2βω o

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