Deepwater System and Component Engineering Design Software Suite for Floating Production Systems Beyond 2000m

This two-year R&D project, which commenced in January 2004 with support from Enterprise Ireland's Research, Technology and Innovation (RTI) Competitive Grants Scheme, will develop a new generation multi-functional, integrated time and frequency domain software suite that will provide offshore engineers with the capability to design deepwater floating production system (FPS) components (i.e., marine risers, moorings and offloading lines), accounting for flow-induced vibrations, hydrodynamic and mechanical coupling effects and structure-structure interaction effects.

Key features of the DESCEND software suite will be:

• Global system response analysis, including
  • coupled system response prediction
  • vortex induced vibration (VIV) analysis through the development of interfaces to (i) semi-empirical codes, e.g., SHEAR7 and (ii) CFD codes to facilitate to fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analyses
  • structure-structure impact/clashing model
• Local cross-section stress analysis of load-bearing components (flexible risers and steel-tube umbilicals)
• Design code checking
• Software validated against scale model tests

The architecture of the DESCEND software suite is shown schematically below.

For further information on these R&D initiatives please contact Michael O'Sullivan at +353 91 781010