Dynamic response of offshore triceratops: Numerical and experimental investigations

Offshore triceratops is a new generation offshore platforms that alleviates wave loads by virtue of its innovative structural form and design. It consists of a deck structure, buoyant legs (BLS) and ball joints that are placed between the deck and the buoyant legs. Platform is position-restrained by taut-moored tethers. Main objective of the present research is to study the dynamic response characteristics of offshore triceratops through experimental and numerical investigations. Natural periods in different degrees-of-freedom are estimated experimentally for different boundary conditions and are verified with that of the numerical and empirical relationships. Experimental studies are performed to study the dynamic response of triceratops in coupled degrees of freedoms under regular waves for uni-directional wave on the scaled model. Numerical studies are also carried to verify the experimental results and dynamic responses of the triceratops under different wave headings for regular and random waves. Based on the detailed investigations carried out, it is seen that the coupled responses of the deck in rotational degrees-of-freedom are lesser than that of the buoyant legs. Presented study is a prime-facie to show that the chosen structural configuration is advantageous and deserves attention of the research community.