Dynamic Response Analysis of Offshore Converter Station Based on Vector Form Intrinsic Finite Element (VFIFE) Method

Abstract

This study aims at proposing a simulation method for an offshore converter station platform (OCS) under dynamic loading. A user-defined in-house FORTRAN code was developed based on the Vector Form Intrinsic Finite Element (VFIFE) method, and the numerical model was validated by test data. After model validation, the dynamic behavior of the OCS was carefully studied and the effect of different loading conditions, including seismic, hydrodynamic and wind load, on the dynamic behavior of OCS was investigated. The time history of the structural response was obtained, and the relationship between the structural peak response and the peak value of the seismic load was also shown. It indicated that water damping accelerates energy consumption, while the effect of hydrodynamic and wind load has little influence on the cases studied in this work. Generally, the peak response increases almost linearly with the increase in the peak acceleration of the ground, and the seismic propagating direction has a great impact. In addition, both a whipping effect and stretching-squeezing effect were observed, and the vertical acceleration response of the valve hall deck is much higher than other structures, which is caused by the relatively lower local rigidity of the large-span structure and the inertia force caused by the valve tower.