Sensitivity Study of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Motion Concerning Wave Parameters

Abstract

Abstract A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) platform is an important facility for offshore oil and gas production. The purpose of this paper is to use a fully coupled time-domain analysis code to study the sensitivity of the FPSO motion to the wave parameters, which is significantly important for the safety and operability of the FPSO. First, the quality of the numerical model is tested by the difference between the near-field method and the far-field method. Then, a typical operational condition is used to analyze the motion responses of the FPSO. In this paper, the second-order low-frequency response of the surge motion is obtained by the Newman's approximation method. Finally, the influence of the significant wave height, the peak period, and the peak shape parameter on the surge, pitch, and heave motions of the FPSO is studied through the standard deviation (STD) and response spectrum. The response spectrum is obtained from the time history of the dynamic response through the fast Fourier transformation (FFT). The results of the dynamic coupled analysis reveal that the FPSO motion changes significantly under different wave parameters.