A light weight Semi-submersible platform for deepwater productionnamed as QX-Semi has been developed. Attributed to innovativedesigns such as triple columns and simplified structural configurations,the QX-Semi achieves a significant CAPEX reduction, 14% for hullstructure and mooring system compared with conventional productionSemi-submersibles.This paper addresses the global performance of QX-Semi in a waterdepth of 300m. To verify the mooring design and investigate the globalperformance, motion responses of QX-Semi were conducted using boththe frequency-domain and the time-domain fully coupled approachadopting viscous damping coefficients obtained from wave basin modeltest. Extreme motion characteristics were subsequently verified bywave basin model test adopting combined wind, wave and current so asto simulate the severe meta-ocean environments. Satisfactoryagreements between the numerical and experimental investigationshave been achieved, such as extreme WF roll, pith and heave motionand horizontal motion responses. VIM is conducted using a numericaltowing tank model, which reveals comparable motion amplitudecompared to recent developed Semi-submersible FPS. Moreover, thesecomparative studies prove the feasibility and survivability of QX-Semiin the operation condition and in the extreme/survival conditionrespectively. The results show that the light weight QX-Semi hasexcellent global performance characteristics for deepwaterdevelopment.
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