Friction damper for vibration control in offshore steel jacket platforms

The performance of friction dampers to mitigate the wave-induced vibrations in jacket-type offshore platforms has been investigated in this study. Due to the random nature of ocean waves, a full stochastic analysis method has been used to evaluate the response of the structures equipped with these devices. A stochastic linearization technique has also been used to take the nonlinear behavior of these hysteretic dampers into account. At last, the developed mathematical formulation has been applied to evaluate the response of realistic models, and to find out the optimal values for the adjustable parameters of the friction dampers to dissipate the wave induced vibrations of the platforms. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.