Sharif Digital Repository

Tension leg platforms (TLPs) are well-known structures for oil exploitation in deep water. One of the current issues in compliant structures in the sea is variation in frequency and structural response due to a nonlinear parameter in the equation of motion. Variation of frequency is important in fatigue life study of tethers. A perturbation method is used in contrast to the traditional methods. This method does not require a small parameter for finding surge motion of TLP. In this paper, homotopy perturbation method (HPM) is used to solve a highly nonlinear differential equation of surge motion. Calculated responses by HPM are compared with those obtained from both linear and nonlinear... 

Conceptual discussion on highly nonlinear Duffing type equation of surge motion of TLP gives a deep view on structural response under environmental loads with some simplifications. Such analytical response is a simple form that clarifies important points in behavior of the structure. This paper presents the dynamic motion responses of a TLP in regular sea waves obtained by applying three methods in time domain using MATLAB software. Surge motion equation of TLP is highly nonlinear because of large displacement and it should be solved with large perturbation parameter in time domain. In this paper, homotopy perturbation method (HPM) is used to solve highly nonlinear differential equation of... 

Conceptual discussion on highly nonlinear duffing type equation of surge motion of TLP gives a deep view on structural response under environmental loads with some simplifications. Such analytical response is a simple form that clarifies important points in behavior of the structure. This paper presents the dynamic motion responses of a TLP in regular sea waves obtained by applying three methods in time domain using MATLAB software. Surge motion equation of TLP is highly nonlinear because of large displacement and it should be solved with large perturbation parameter in time domain. In this paper, homotopy perturbation method (HPM) is used to solve highly nonlinear differential equation of... 

Having deep view in structural response of tension leg platform is important issue not only for response analysis but also for engineering design. Coupling between surge and heave motions of tension leg platform is such a problem. Here, tension leg platform motions are considered only in surge and heave degrees of freedom without pitch effect. The coupled term of heave is a nonlinear differential equation. Because the focus of this article is on this term, therefore, Duffing equation of motion in the surge direction is linearized. The wave forces are calculated using Airy’s wave theory and Morison’s equation, ignoring the diffraction effects. Current force also can be very important in... 

Having deep view in structural response of tension leg platform is important issue not only for response analysis but also for engineering design. Coupling between surge and heave motions of tension leg platform is such a problem. Here, tension leg platform motions are considered only in surge and heave degrees of freedom without pitch effect. The coupled term of heave is a nonlinear differential equation. Because the focus of this article is on this term, therefore, Duffing equation of motion in the surge direction is linearized. The wave forces are calculated using Airy’s wave theory and Morison’s equation, ignoring the diffraction effects. Current force also can be very important in... 

Mooring lines may be damaged under severe conditions during the life of an offshore platform. In the event of a mooring failure, it is possible to break remaining mooring lines in a severe condition, which ultimately leads to the total structural failure; Therefore, the post-failure analysis is very important for the mooring system. In this study, the Amir-Kabir semi-submersible platform has been modeled which is installed in 700 m’ depth of the Caspian Sea, and random waves have been generated towards the structure in the form of the JONSWAP wave spectrum according to the conditions of the Caspian Sea. For analysis, four different mooring configurations have been considered. Then, in each... 

Floating wind turbines are subjected to highly dynamic and complicated environmental conditions leading to significant platform motions and structural vibrations during operation and survival conditions. These motions and vibrations alter the induced loading characteristics; and consequently, affect the dynamic behavior of the system. In order to better understand the influence of such motions and structural vibrations, herein elastic structural disturbance of tower, on the system behavior, the spectral and statistical characteristics of a floating wind turbine dynamic responses under operational and survival conditions are fully explored using a fully coupled... 

Three dimensional responses of riser subjected to Vortex Induced Vibration (VIV) are investigated. Proportionality relations of stress and fatigue damage are mentioned. A computer code has been developed for time domain modeling of VIV of riser accounting for both Cross-Flow (CF) and In-Line (IL) vibration. The wake oscillator model is used to calculate the VIV of each strip. The wake oscillators are coupled to the dynamics of the long riser, while the Newmark-beta method is used for evaluating the structural dynamics of riser. The wake dynamics, including IL and CF vibrations, is represented using a pair of non-linear Van der Pol equations that solved using modified Euler method. The... 

Structural control under seismic excitation is becoming an important problem in earthquake engineering. Among several control systems, semi-active control is usually possible and efficient. In the conventional bracing systems it is assumed that the braces buckle under little compressive forces. In this research a semi-active on-off brace strategy is implemented to improve the conventional braces performance. A new completely tensile ribbed bracing system (RBS) has been developed to use the whole capacity of the member. In the proposed system the buckling of compressive member is prevented using a ribbed shape cylinder. RBS causes a permanent-stiffness-presence system that leads to less... 

Experiences of past earthquakes show that the infill wall is one of the non-structural elements which has the highest collapse potential of the structure. Although architects are responsible for designing the form and arrangement of walls, little research has been done in this regard with the aim of architectural design. In this research, a method was developed to control the infill walls in the basic architectural design. In this method, architectural design features are preserved, and only by applying minor modifications to the specifications of walls, undesirable effects such as short column, soft story, and torsion are prevented and without using more materials, additional potential for... 

Iterative methods for modification of vibratory characteristics of dynamic systems have attracted a lot of attention as a convenient and more economical way when compared to the traditional and costly structural dynamic optimization processes. Many complicated structures, such as telecommunication towers, chimneys and tall buildings, may be modeled as simple spring-mass systems. This paper presents an iterative method for modification of the frequencies of simple vibrating system consisting of springs and masses. The proposed algorithm may be used to adjust any of the vibration frequencies of a simple vibrating system to the target values within the desired level of accuracy. The method... 

Nonlinear behavior of jacket platforms is important in both design and rehabilitation issues that depends on the bracing arrangement. Both ductility and strength of the structures derived from pushover analysis are highly related to configuration of the braces. Considering a suitable criterion such as constant weight or constant stiffness and period of the structure in all arrangement cases, one can compare the capacity curves and find the best configuration. In this paper a simple logical method for investigating the strength and ductility of the jacket structure is presented, it is shown that global geometry and configuration of the braces are very important and effective in both strength... 

Recently, various approaches have been introduced to estimate the response of offshore structures in different sea states by stepwisely intensifying records. In this article, a more practical approach entitled Modified Endurance Wave Analysis (MEWA) considering the random and probabilistic nature of wave loading and utilizing optimal time duration is introduced. Generation procedure of this approach is described based on two practical wave theories: random and constrained new-wave. In addition, assessment of a simplified model representing a typical fixed offshore platform under extreme wave conditions in the Persian Gulf is performed making use of MEWA. A comparative analysis has been also... 

In this article, wave endurance time (WET) is addressed as an applicable method for performance-based assessment of fixed offshore structures under extreme waves. In this method, inspired by the endurance time method in the field of earthquake engineering, artificial wave records called wave functions are designed so that their excitations gradually increase with time. Therefore, the main advantage of the proposed method is that it can assess the structural performance under various wave load conditions through a single time-history analysis. Moreover, the reliability of structures can be evaluated on the basis of the time that the structural response is still acceptable. In this study,... 

In this article, wave endurance time (WET) is addressed as an applicable method for performance-based assessment of fixed offshore structures under extreme waves. In this method, inspired by the endurance time method in the field of earthquake engineering, artificial wave records called wave functions are designed so that their excitations gradually increase with time. Therefore, the main advantage of the proposed method is that it can assess the structural performance under various wave load conditions through a single time-history analysis. Moreover, the reliability of structures can be evaluated on the basis of the time that the structural response is still acceptable. In this study,... 

The main objective of this investigation is to modify endurance wave analysis (EWA) based on New-wave theory for convenient assessment of offshore structures under extreme waves. EWA is a novel time history based approach to evaluate structural performance in various excitation levels of wave loading by intensifying wave records. In this article, modifications are proposed to determine appropriate time duration and intensifying trend for reliable and practical assessment of offshore structures. In this way, a simplified model of a real jacket platform is utilised to investigate the application of this approach under extreme wave conditions in the Persian Gulf and results are compared with... 

Conventional methods of seismic rehabilitation with concrete shear walls or steel bracing are not considered suitable for some buildings as upgrades with these methods would have required expensive and time consuming foundation work. Supplemental damping in conjunction with appropriate stiffness offered an innovative and attractive solution for the seismic rehabilitation of such structures. This paper deals with the use of friction damper as a passive dissipative device in order to seismic retrofit of existing structures and discusses the design criteria and seismic analysis of a building. The structure is modeled using the finite element program Sap2000 and is analysed using both non-linear... 

Tendons vertically moor Tension-Leg Platforms (TLPs), thus, a deep understanding of physical tendon stresses requires the determination of the total axial deformation of the tendons, which is a combination of the heave, pitch, and surging responses. The vertical motion of the lateral sides of the TLP is coupled with surge and constitutes a portion of the pitch motion. Tendons are connected to the sides of the TLP; hence, the total displacement of the lateral sides is related to the total deformation of the tendons and the total axial stress. Therefore, investigating the total vertical response at the sides of the TLP is essential. The coupling between various degrees of freedom is not... 

Numerous buildings have been damaged or destroyed in previous earthquakes by developing soft storey. Almost all the seismic codes have provisions to prevent soft storey in structures, most of them have recommended the ratio of stiffness between adjacent storeys, but none of them has proposed the method to calculate the storey stiffness. On the other hand a great number of previous researches on stiffness have been focused on approximate methods and accurate methods by using analytical softwares have been almost neglected. In this study, six accurate methods for calculating the storey stiffness have been studied on 246 two-bay reinforced concrete frames. It is shown with the results of the... 

Some existing platforms may have some problems with probable extreme future loads such as earthquake. From economic point of view, it is preferable to retrofit and continue using of existing jackets in many cases, in comparison to a new installation. Two efficient rehabilitation methods of friction damper device and buckling restrained braces are presented and investigated numerically for seismic loads from far-fault and near-fault earthquakes. As an example, an existing four-leg service platform placed in the Persian Gulf (Ressalat) is considered and the results are presented. Because of low redundancy in jacket platforms (after buckling of compression members), it is important to...