Conceptual Design And Stability Research Of The CT-Spar Platform

The new oil-extraction platform in deep ocean-Spar configuration wasinitially introduced early 80s in the 20th century. In 1997, the first sparplatform-Neptune platform was installed in the Gulf of Mexico and put intoproduction. Subsequently, it has been developed three generations and 14platformstotally.The presentation of conception of spar expanded the new train of thoughtonresearchingandsolvingtheincreasinglycomplicatedoilexplorationindeepwater problems. The spar has some main features compared with otherplatforms: First, it is fit to work in deep water. Second, it is flexible to betransported and installed; third, the cost is lower and not sensible to the depth.With such outstanding advantages characteristics, the spar configuration hasaroused great interest of scholars and operators in international, and becomesthesecondmaintypeofplatformwiththeTLP.Now China is doing research on the oil exploration platform under theSouth China Sea Environment. The State Key Laboratory of Ocean Eng,Shanghai Jiao Tong University, is doing research on the“The concept designof oil-extraction platform in deep ocean and hydrodynamic performance”. Asdescribed in the paper, a series of research work have been conducted tovalidatetheperformanceofsparplatform. DemonstrationontheconceptualdesignFirstly, according to the requirements of general arrangement, structure,operatingmanagement,constructionandetc,thepaperfinishedthepreliminarydesign for the spar platform-CT spar, including determination anddetermination for dimensions, general arrangement design, weight and centerof gravity calculation using the overseas successful examples as reference.Furthermore,thedesignstudiesdeterminedthewayoftankcompartmentations.All these work aim at providing an objective for the following detailedresearch.It is summarized in the paper that the mother-hull method is used tointroduce a favorable estimation way applied to calculation for weight of thelight ship. The dimension of main hull and form geometries are optimizedbasedon analyzingmajor characteristics,general arrangementof domestic andoverseasspars.ResearchonthestabilityperformanceWith static method, this paper presents some research work on thestability characteristics dividing it into intact stability and damaged one.Finally,theintactanddamagedstabilityarecheckedinrelatedrules.ResearchonthemooringdesignThirdly, based on the“static analysis”the number of mooring lines, thelinescharacteristicsandthearrangementisdefined.To sum up, this paper has performed a series of research work including conceptual design and stability analysis and drawn some useful conclusions. Itis expected to be helpful for further research and development of the sparconceptdesign.