Adrian Hita

5th EMship cycle: September 2014  February 2016

Master Thesis

Fatigue Analysis of a Tension Leg Platform:

Fatigue Life Improvement

Supervisor: Dr. Maciej Taczala, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin

Internship tutor: Tomasz Msciwujewski, Principal Engineer, Advisory Maritime & Offshore, DNV GL Gdynia
Reviewer: Prof. Patrick Kaeding, University of Rostock

Szczecin, February 2016

DNV GL Internship

• Office in Gdynia
• Advisory Maritime & Offshore Department
• Supervisor: Tomasz Msciwujewski, Principal Engineer

Thank you for supporting me in my time of need

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Wave loads on offshore structures

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Methodologies proposed

• Design details to reduce stress and strain concentrations.

• Avoid welding in areas where low ductility or fracture toughness
steel is (e.g. K areas of wide flange members, corners of hollow
steel sections).
• Provide adequate protection from the environment (e.g. provide
measures to prevent galvanic action between dissimilar
metals).
• Increase the thickness of the critical area.
• Improve surface conditions.
• Improvement of fatigue life by fabrication: Grinding, TIG
dressing and Hammer peening.
• Use of high-performance alloys resistant to corrosion fatigue.
• Etc.

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Objective

Quantify fatigue life improvement of certain structural

modifications for TLP´s

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Motivation

Perform lower number of design iterations

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Agenda

1. Methodology
2. Scope of work
3. Case of study
4. Analysis
5. Results
6. Conclusion
7. Future work

10 June 2016 17th DNV GL Workshop - TUHH –Adrian Hita 7

1. Methodology

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2. Scope of work

• Structural model developed by finite element method

• Global model
• Local model

• Hydrodynamic analysis performed in the frequency domain:

• 3D panel method to evaluate velocity potentials and hydrodynamic coefficients
• First order velocity potential -linear wave loads
• Drag forces are determined using Morison formulation

• Quasi-static analysis of the structural response for the global and the local models
• Stochastic linear fatigue analysis based on S-N data
• Effects of thickness´s increments in critical areas
• Improvement of fatigue life by fabrication: Grinding, TIG dressing and Hammer
peening.

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3. Case of study

• Full-size TLP composed by four columns connecting

pontoons
• Operational area: North Sea, 327.5 m of water depth
• Structure main particulars

Length overall 85 m
Beam 85 m
Depth 54 m
Draught 27.5 m
Gross Tonnage 59517 t

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4. Analysis

• The structure present a symmetry respect the axis X

and Y
• Results are presented in form of usage factor

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4. Analysis

• Critical areas correspond to:

• Hull and deck connections
• Column to deck connections
• Column to pontoon connections
• Considering the most critical area, local model was and
developed

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4. Analysis

• Identification of possible hot spots in the critical area

• Mesh size t x t
• Effective Notch Stress

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5. Results

Increment in the fatigue life for the different thickness of the

critical area.
16

14 S-N curve DNV2010_E-SEACP

13,49
Percentage of increment in the fatigue life

S-N curve DNV2010_F-SEACP

12
10,95
10,40
10

8
7,34
6
5,97
5,58 5,65 5,41
4

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Thickness Increments

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6. Conclusions Future work

Conclusions
• The increment of thickness could be contemplated as a
solution in cases were the TLP design is close to reach
the design fatigue life, expecting increments of the 5 %
range.
• Improvement of F.L by fabrication. Use of these treatment
could look like a fast solution to the design problems, but
should be avoided except for punctual cases where the
area of the hotspot could be easily submitted to grinding
treatment.

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7. Future work

• Validation of results
• Analysis of more TLP structures
• Use of Non-linear models to represent the wave forces
• Performance of High and Low frequency analysis
• Springing and Ringing

• Consideration of further methodologies

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 Thank for your attention
Adrian Hita

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