Special Issue "Environmental Risk Assessment for Maritime Transport and Offshore Structures through State-of-the-Art Ocean Models and Observations"

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to highlight recent advances in the practical ocean model and the observational data interrogation procedure to include realistic waves and currents, along with winds and ice conditions, in subsequent structural analysis of offshore structures and ships. The main purpose is to refine assessments of structural integrity and environmental risk, a matter of specific interest to ship and offshore structure classification societies. In developing the throughput and use of ocean state and wave forecasting data, these assessments may also be of use in real-time offshore operations. This Special Issue brings together physical oceanography and the mathematics of fluid–structure interaction, and particularly addresses the likely extreme environmental loads on a selection of structures and ships, in a wide range of offshore environments. 

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• offshore structures
• ship operational conditions
• ocean current and wave loads
• sea ice loads
• iceberg hazards
• ocean forecasting
• environmental risk assessment.

Title: Estimation of extreme environmental loads on fixed/floating offshore structures in the North Sea based on high-resolution ocean/wave forecasting
Authors: Skliris N.1, Marsh R.1, Hearn G.1, Srokosz M.2, Aksenov Y.2, Rynders S.2, Fournier N.3
Affiliation: 1. Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK 2. National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK 3. Met Office, Exeter, UK
Abstract: The fast development of the offshore energy industry to face the greater demand for energy in a cost-efficient and environmental safe way is essential to sustain a resilient economy in many countries around the North Sea. Offshore wind farms are planned to move further away from the coasts to ensure stronger and more stable wind resources in this region. Oil/gas extraction structures are also planned to move in deeper areas to explore new fields. However, deeper and continental slope areas are characterized by more harsh marine environmental conditions i.e. stronger winds, larger waves, strong slope currents, inducing considerably larger loads on offshore structures. This study brings together operational physical oceanography and the mathematics of fluid structure interaction to address the likely extreme environmental loads on offshore structures in the North Sea. We use the state-of-the-art Met Office high resolution ocean/wave forecasting system offering high frequency environmental data including ocean/tidal currents, waves and winds on a ~7km grid spanning the NW European Shelf. The Morison’s equation is used to calculate environmental loads on various types of offshore structures including jackets and fixed/floating monopiles of different dimensions typically employed by the offshore industries in the North Sea. We use hourly data for a 2-year period to analyse the spatiotemporal variability of mean and extreme hydrodynamic loads focusing on the relative contributions of currents and waves in this region. Results indicate that waves dominate extreme hydrodynamic forces on the shallow shelf, whereas the current contribution is important at the shelf break and in the English Channel characterized by strong slope and tidal currents, respectively.