Directional wave-in-deck loading on offshore structures with porous and plated decks with supporting I-beams

Extreme wave impacts on decks of offshore structures with insufficient air gap may cause damage or even result in collapse with safety, economic, and pollution consequences. In this study, the impact loads on a fixed platform deck have been predicted numerically by employing a Navier-Stokes solver with the free-surface captured by the volume of fluid (VOF) method. Three dimensional (3D) numerical simulations of wave-deck interactions were conducted for long-crested extreme waves. The simulations successfully captured the history of impact loads and evolution of free surface of the studied waves during its interaction with the platform deck. A detailed parametric analysis of wave-deck interactions showed significant differences in loads under various situations and confirmed the existence of large-magnitude loads as expected during impact. The presented results include a solid box and a more realistic case of under-deck beams with plated and porous decks, which provide a useful benchmark for predicting wave loading on platform decks under different incident wave directions.