Environmental Forces on Offshore Structures

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Ships and structures used in ocean engineering may be held in place with mooring systems, but as thestructures move into deeper water this may become impractical. An active system where the structure is held inplace by powered thrusters is a practical alternative solution for deep water. Designing and analyzing theseactive systems requires an additional set of techniques beyond those used for mooring systems, which includemethods of predicting the forces and moments created by the environmental forces (wind, waves and current),and a system for allocating thrust to each device to balance these forces and moments. DSA has developed aseries of software tools for anlayzing mooring forces for offshore structures, but sees a gap in its capacity foranalyzing dynamic positioning systems. Researchers at Memorial University will work with engineers at DSAto provide them with validated results for wind, current and wave drift force predictions and a thrust forceallocation method. These new features will allow DSA to expand its client base into the markets for offshorestructures used for energy exploration and production as well as support cruise ship operators, navies andcoastguards around the world.