Aerodynamic response of offshore triceratops

The common types of deep-water offshore structures have rigid connections, resulting in more stresses on members subjected to environmental loads. On the contrary, the relatively new offshore triceratops alleviates the encountered environmental loads by virtue of its innovative structural form and design. The top deck and the buoyant leg structure (BLS) are connected to each other by universal joints that permit transfer of translations from the BLS to the top deck but restrain transfer of rotations. The present study develops a mathematical formulation for the aerodynamic analysis of offshore triceratops and examines its response under regular waves in the presence of wind. Based on the numerical studies conducted here, it is observed that triceratops shows significant reduction in deck response, with no transfer of rotation from the BLS; the deck remains horizontal under the encountered wave loads. Lateral displacement of the deck is restrained due to the compliancy offered by the ball joints. The heave response is less in comparison with the surge response; this implies that the platform is stiff in heave degree-of-freedom, which is required for deep-water compliant platforms. A lesser response in the deck confirms that the deck remains horizontal even when the pitch response is significant in the BLS units. Offshore triceratops derives an advantage through the chosen geometric form for ultra-deep-water applications.