NATIONAL PROGRAM ON TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING (NPTEL) IIT MADRAS

Offshore structures under special environmental loads including fire-resistance

Week one: Novelty of offshore structures

Tutorial 1

Part A: Objective questions (10 marks)

1. Strength degradation in offshore structural members take place due to ______________

(corrosion)
2. Fixed type platforms withstand lateral loads by ____________ and not by ___________
(strength, relative displacement)
3. Brittle modes of failure are undesirable feature of ______________ (stiff platforms)
4. Compliant offshore structures are flexible by ___________ and not by __________ (geometric
form, reduction in stiffness of members)
5. ___________ are used to position-restrain compliant platforms (tendons/tethers/mooring lines)

t
6. Guyed tower acts like a _______________ (inverted pendulum)

gh
7. Capacity of the platform to reach its equilibrium position is called ____________ (recentering
capacity)

-ri
8. Articulated towers rely on ________________ for recentering (buoyancy)
9. Tension leg platforms remain _______________ in horizontal plane and rigid in _____________
py
plane (flexible, vertical plane)
10. Tendons in TPLS are fabricated using Carbon fiber composites, whose specific gravity is
co

__________ (1.59)

Part B: Descriptive questions ( 10 marks)

EL

1. Why offshore structures need to adapt innovative geometric forms?

Innovative structural form is required to make offshore structures, more adaptive to the
PT

encountered environmental loads. Main objective is to reduce the response under applied
loads.
2. List a few special issues that make functionality of offshore structures unique
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Should remain functional, even when they undergo repair

although service life is exceeded, they are expected to serve
frequent intervention, in terms of repair and rehabilitation is not preferred and not advisable
No special/dedicated codal provisions exist to carry out repair on offshore structures
3. List few factors considered during design of offshore structures
Proposed structural geometry should be simple and stable
Easy to fabricate, install and de-commissioning
Low CAPEX
Early state of production
4. Discuss geometric form of compliant structures as evolved from fixed platforms
Rigid systems, are replaced by flexible systems
large deformation/displacements are enabled
Lecture notes of Prof. Srinivasan Chandrasekaran, IIT Madras
copy right protected
 NATIONAL PROGRAM ON TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING (NPTEL) IIT MADRAS
Offshore structures under special environmental loads including fire-resistance

Design philosophy shifted from strength-based design to displacement-based design

Flexibility introduced in the structural form features lees attraction of forces
encountered forces are not counteracted by strength but by large relative displacement
5. Explain mechanics of Tension Leg Platform
Buoyancy exceeds weight, by a large amount, which introduces flexibility to the structural form.
Tendons are used to compensate for excessive buoyancy.
Vertical component of tether forces, in displaced position adds to the weight and improves
stability in positioning while horizontal component resists lateral loads. This results in reduction
in forces on structural members

t
gh
-ri
py
co
EL
PT
N

Lecture notes of Prof. Srinivasan Chandrasekaran, IIT Madras

copy right protected