A novel approach for performance analysis of floating structure encountering storm conditions

A marine floating structure may experience a wide range of harsh environmental conditions during its operational lifetime. It is necessary to evaluate the performance of the structure in extreme conditions such as storm to maintain a desirable level of safety. Various approaches are available to analyse the response of an offshore structure in different sea states. However, many of them are computationally time consuming and require a large number of simulations. Moreover, it is not the most realistic approach to analyse the dynamic behaviour of a structure by separately replicating each level of a storm. In this study, a novel numerical model is developed for modelling a storm based on Endurance Wave Analysis (EWA) method. The developed model reduces the computational cost of simulations and takes into account the random nature of the sea environment. This will be beneficial for future risk and reliability analysis that require a great deal of data analysis. The application of the developed method is demonstrated through an analysis of a Floating Storage Unit (FSU) encountering storm conditions with varying sea states in the North Sea.