OFFLOADING OPERATION WITH A DP SHUTTLE TANKER: COMPARISON BETWEEN FULL SCALE MEASURENMENTS AND NUMERICAL SIMULATION RESULTS

In the present paper, full scale measurements of a DP offloading operation is presented, considering all stages of the operation: approach to the FPSO, connection, oil transfer and disconnection. Vessel motions, thruster forces and environmental agents were measured. A time-domain offshore system simulator was then used to reproduce the same conditions of that operation, and the results from the numerical code are compared to the full-scale measurements. Good agreement between numerical results and full-scale measurements was observed.