Nonlinear dynamic response of a compliant tower under the effect of steady and unsteady sea states

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to highlight the importance of considering the actual nonlinear dynamic response for the analysis and design of fixed deep water platforms. The paper highlights the necessity of applying dynamic analysis through the comparison with the results obtained by the authors by applying static nonlinear analysis on the structure under examination. The example treated in the context of the present paper is a compliant tower, set-up in deep water. Nonlinearities are considered both for the calculation of the wave loadings and the structural analysis. The wave loading is based on linear random wave theory and comparisons are provided with the steady wave theories, Airy and Stokes 5th. The former solution is based on the most probable shape of a large linear wave on a given sea-state; the auto-correlation function of the underlying spectrum. On the other hand, in the field of structural analysis, two cases are considered for comparison, static analysis and time history dynamic analysis. For both types of analysis, two sub-cases are considered, a case in which geometric nonlinearity and nonlinearities related to the modelling of the soil are considered and a case in which the corresponding linear theories are employed (reference cases). The structural calculations were performed using the wellknown structural analysis software SAP2000, which was enhanced by a special programming interface that was developed to calculate the wave loading and to directly apply the generated loads on the structural members. The results show that the consideration of the particle velocities associated with the linear random wave theory in the wave loading lead to significant differences with respect to the steady wave theories in terms of the displacements and stresses of the structure. Moreover, irrespectively of the adopted wave theory, the nonlinear analyses lead to significant discrepancies with respect to the linear ones. This is mainly associated with the nonlinear properties of the soil. Another source of discrepancies between the results of static and dynamic analyses stems from the change of the effective natural frequency of the structure when nonlinearities are considered. © Copyright 2017 ASME.