Hydraulic Engineering   

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24866/2227-6858/2019-2-12

Kim L.

LEV KIM, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, Associate Professor, e-mail: kim_lvl@dvfu.ru
Offshore & Structural Engineering Department, School оf Engineering
Far Eastern Federal University
8 Sukhanova St., Vladivostok, Russia, 690091

Safety of mobile offshore drilling units under managed ice impacts

Abstract: The problems of ensuring the safety of mobile drilling units (MODU) for exploratory drilling in freezing seas by identifying all hazards are considered. Safety prediction consists in determining the risk zone and its growth to the permissible value established for specific scenarios based on comprehensive studies (tests, different types of modeling). Risk reduction is possible only when managing ice conditions (ice management), defining reliability and safety criteria with regard to structural integrity and survivability in relation to their types and combinations of ice loads with other influences. Ice loads require a reliable determination of the structure, physical-mechanical and strength properties and mechanisms of ice destruction. The paper deals with the concepts of structural integrity and robustness of bearing elements of MODU in the interface zone with ice formations. Due to the lack of operational experience and the high cost of field research, the tasks of physical and mathematical modeling come to the fore when developing program of ice management. The ice flow parameters determine the design decisions of the support part of the MODU, the parameters and forms of the destruction of the ice. The application of the control volume method for the analysis of kinematic interaction in the MODU-ice system, including the determination of various areas of ice flow around the MODU, is considered. The results of model tests with a granular medium (ice analogue material) are given. The possibility of applying this method to solving the problem of ice forces from “managed” ice to simulate ice streams of various cohesion is considered.

Keywords: safety, MODU, ice, offshore, structural integrity, robustness.

See the reference in English at the end of the article
Download article in PDF format