WAVE ABSORPTION IMPROVEMENTS INSIDE THE MOONPOOL OF A MONOCOLUMN PLATFORM WITH AN INTERNAL DOCK

摘要

Monocolumn platforms are usually considered an alternative concept for drilling and offshore production unit designs. This concept could provide high stability, small motions and also storage capacity. More recently, it was considered for a logistic hub platform design. The use of this concept with an opening for boat docking seems to provide a feasible solution for the people transfer in harsh environments, especially in areas like pre-salt Brazilian offshore fields, which are also very far from the coast. Although the helicopter technology has been improved in recent years to attend transport requirements from shore to the platforms, the use of a hub platform at sea still shows some economical and operational advantages, related to the conventional operations. Although the sheltered area provided by the interior of the monocolumn platform seems to solve the transfer problem in harsh environments, the hydrodynamic behavior of the moonpool became a problem to be solved during the feasibility studies of the concept, since the moonpool water column elevations tends to be resonant in special cases. To deal with this problem, some attempts were done to absorb the wave energy inside the moonpool and eliminate its resonance, achieving the desired level of absorption. This work shows the attempts and the results obtained, which has proven the feasibility of the concept.