TWI774253B - A summit shaped fixed and floating hybrid offshore platform - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention incudes a summit shaped fixed and floating hybrid platform with canted columns, a new type of fairlead, a new mooring line configuration and installation method that can be used for canted columns for offshore facilities in both shallow and deep water (more than 50 meter water depth). The fixed and floating hybrid platform foundation includes 3 or more columns as needed by practical applications with upper ends projecting above water surface to support various industrial facilities. The 3 or more canted columns converge at the top of column in such a way that each column leans against the other 2 columns so that it has two connection points to the other 2 columns. Horizontally beam shaped triangular pontoons interconnect adjacent columns at columns’ lower ends. The columns and pontoons form a closed water-tight structure hull connecting to a transitional structure at the top of columns to support the offshore facilities of various functions. The fixed mode of this invention is relying on submersible operation of the whole facility to get fixed installation on sea bed.

Description

Minaret type floating and fixed dual-purpose offshore installation platform

The present invention forms a new type of floating and fixed dual-purpose platform according to the new concepts described in 1 to 10 of the [Summary of the Invention]. This concept is different from the inclined column semi-submersible platform previously used for oil and gas platforms. Different from the previous oil and gas facilities that required a larger deck, the combination of multiple vertical columns, the use of the central inclined column in the form of a spire has the advantage of increasing the structural strength and effectively reducing the number of components on the platform to directly support the superstructure. Such as fans and their foundations. Reducing the weight of the overall structure and the position of the vertical center of gravity will have better hydrostatic stability, which is conducive to the direct installation of topside facilities such as wind turbines in the logistics operation area or dock area, and avoids the assembly of topside facilities such as wind turbines and their foundations at sea . It also reduces the need for special expensive and large equipment when installing both floating and fixed foundations in offshore wind farms. The use of various industrial offshore facilities can be provided as follows:

‧Renewable energy industry: floating and fixed dual-use offshore wind energy, photovoltaic energy, wave energy, wind and wave measurement facilities

‧Oil and gas industry: floating and stationary dual-use oil and gas production, storage and offloading offshore facilities

‧Aviation industry: floating and fixed dual-purpose launch and landing offshore platforms

‧ Shipping industry: floating self-propelled and dynamic positioning vehicles

‧Defense industry: floating and fixed dual-purpose mobile helicopters and vertical take-off and landing offshore platforms

Traditional platforms have sloping columns with less bevel or use upright columns. The cables of the mooring system are set at a fixed angle to avoid affecting the hull of the platform. Due to the inclination of the inclined column structure, the side of the inclined column floating body forms an angle, and the installation angle of the mooring line is not necessarily consistent with the inclined angle of the inclined column, so the traditional fairlead cannot function. The newly invented fairlead provides an additional pivot and angle of rotation to allow greater deflection of the mooring lines than conventional arrangements. This additional swivel allows the mooring lines to perform their normal securing function on the sloping column structure.

The mooring system of this platform includes mooring lines (chains, chains/steel cables, or chains/ropes) with fixed lengths designed on two of the three columns according to the water depth and sea conditions. The mooring lines of these two columns do not need to be installed Pulling devices such as winches or chain jacks. The mooring lines set on the third column include, but are not limited to, various types of fairlead tensioners that can adjust the length of the mooring lines, or various steel or composite rope creep management systems that can adjust the tension of the mooring lines. . This arrangement eliminates the need for fairleads, mooring winches or chain jacks.

Offshore facilities such as offshore wind farms use the above-mentioned setting method, because there is no need to change the length of the mooring line or the position of the platform frequently, and the wind turbine platform does not need to be equipped with tension devices such as chain jacks or mooring winches. However, conventional floating facility platforms, such as oil and gas drilling or production facilities, cannot use this method due to the need to change mooring line lengths or locations frequently.

At present, the floating and fixed dual-purpose platforms using upright columns can provide the larger area and stability required for the upper platform. These upright column structures require more structural volume to provide additional upper parts. However, some such as offshore wind turbines require a small upper area and do not need extra upper platform area. Some patented invention designs also use inclined-column semi-submersible offshore work platforms. One of the inventions is a three-column semi-submersible offshore work platform. However, the content of the invention mainly consists of a floating body and a column body to form an open support upper platform, and the upper part of the column body is not connected to provide a larger platform area at the top. Larger platform areas are extremely important for offshore floating large oil and gas production and drilling facilities, which have more topsides and require larger platforms. However, for offshore wind turbines or other installations that require a smaller topside area, larger topsides do not provide additional hydraulic stability and increase construction costs.

illustrate

Description 1: A floating and fixed dual-purpose platform, including:

‧At least three pillars (12), each of which has a top and a bottom

‧At least three inclined column floats (13), each of which has a top and a bottom end

‧At least three flat beam floating body (14) bases, wherein each flat beam floating body base has a left end and a right end

The top of any inclined column floating body (13) among the above at least three inclined column floating bodies is connected with the top ends of the two adjacent inclined column floating bodies (13), and merged to form the base plane (15) of the top. The left and right ends of any one of the flat beam floating bodies (14) of the at least three flat beam floating bodies (14) are respectively connected with the bottom ends of the two adjacent column bodies (12) in the at least three column bodies (12), and The top end of any one of the three pillar bodies is connected with the bottom end of one inclined column floating body (13) among the at least three inclined column floating bodies (13) to form a complete closed structure hull. According to actual needs, an inclined column floating body (13) and a connected column (12) can be combined to form an inclined column floating body (13), and the bottom end of the inclined column floating body (13) is connected to two adjacent flat beams. The left and right ends of the floating body (14) are connected.

Description 2: For the floating and fixed dual-purpose platform in Description 1, the cross-section of at least one of the three inclined column floating bodies (13) may be polygonal, rectangular or circular.

Description 3: For the floating and fixed dual-purpose platforms in Description 1, more than one (cross-section) of at least three flat beam floating bodies (14) may be polygonal, rectangular or circular.

Description 4: For the floating and fixed dual-purpose platform in Description 1, at least one of the three pillar bodies (12) or more (the cross section) may be polygonal, rectangular or circular.

Note 5: The floating and fixed platforms of Note 1 may include vertical tension cables.

Note 6: For the floating and fixed dual-purpose platform in Note 1, at least one of the three inclined column floating bodies (13) may be a cone, and the bottom may have a larger (or smaller) cross-sectional area. The cross-sectional area at the top is smaller (or larger).

Description 7: The floating and fixed platform of description 1, including dual wheel fairleads (19).

Description 8: For the floating and fixed dual-purpose platform in Description 1, at least one of the three inclined column floating bodies (13) can be combined with the connected column bodies (12) to form a single inclined column floating body (13) .

Description 9: The floating and fixed dual-purpose platform in Description 1 may include at least three or more columns (12), inclined column floating bodies (13) and flat beam floating bodies (14).

Instruction 10: The steps of the floating platform setting method in Instruction 1 are as follows:

(a) A mooring system is provided, consisting of mooring lines (18) and connectors

(b) Except for the last column body (12), a connector is provided on each column body (12) of the other at least two column bodies (12).

(c) sequentially set mooring lines (18) on the connectors set in step (b) and complete the mooring operation.

(d) A tensioning device is arranged on the last pillar body and a tensioning force is applied to the required tension so as to exert tensioning force on other cables.

The setting method in the description 10 is a floating platform composed of at least three pillars.

12: Cylinder

13: Inclined column floating body

14: Flat beam floating body

15: Basics

16: Fan

17: Tower base

18: Mooring lines

19: Double wheel fairlead

21: Mooring lines

22: Mooring lines

Figures 1 to 12 are briefly described as follows: Figure 1 is an isometric view of a floating and fixed platform (a three-column base is shown, but it can be a base of three columns of any cross-sectional shape)

Figure 2 is an elevation view of the platform. The platform can be a three-pillar foundation as shown in Figures 1 and 2, or a multi-pillar foundation not shown.

Figure 3 is an isometric view of the platform without superstructures, fans and moorings

Figure 4 is a top view of the platform without superstructures, fans and moorings

Figure 5 is an elevation view of the platform without superstructures, fans and moorings

Figure 6 is an elevation view of another platform without superstructures, wind turbines and moorings

Figure 7 is an isometric view of another inclined column platform without superstructures, fans and moorings. This shows another important point of the present invention, that is, the top of the inclined column floating body (13) has a large cross-sectional area and the top of the inclined column floating body (13) has a large cross-sectional area.

Figure 8 shows another important aspect of the present invention. That is, the double-wheel fairlead (19) which is arranged on the column (12) and can be used as a permanent or temporary tension device (a winch, a chain jack or other device) for the mooring line of the platform. The mooring line (18) is passed through the fairlead (19) of the present invention. The additional runners on the fairlead (19) can provide the mooring line steering function. The same axis supports the upper and lower runners and rotates on them, and the axis can be set in a horizontal or vertical direction.

Fig. 9 shows the part of the floating platform with only the inclined column floating body (13) and the flat beam floating body (14), which also shows another key point of the present invention. Connect the slanted columns from the crossover end of the horizontal part of the flat beam floating body to the center of the platform and connect with all the slanted columns.

Figure 10 is the first mooring line (21) with mooring set on the platform

Figure 11 is the second mooring line (21)+(21) with mooring set on the platform

Figure 12 shows the third mooring line (21)+(21)+(22) with a special cable tensioner or similar mooring connector installed on the floating platform

The present invention has a floating and fixed dual-purpose platform in the shape of an inclined column floating body (13) plus a column body (12) and the base shape of a flat beam floating body (14). The platform may be composed of three groups of pillars as shown in Figures 1 and 2, or a plurality of groups of pillars not shown in the figures. The cross-sectional shape of the inclined column floating body (13), the column body (12) or the flat beam floating body (14) may be polygonal, rectangular or circular. Figure 1 shows a cylindrical inclined column floating body (13), a column body (12) and a flat beam floating body. The upper part is a foundation (15) that can be used as a supporting fan (16) or other facilities. The lower structure of the fan (16) can be a truss or box-type structure (not shown) supporting the fan and the tower (17) or a rod-shaped object supporting the fan. The foundation (15) may be the equipment and other facilities required for deck structure support. Illustration of the way the mooring lines (18) are anchored at sea. The anchoring method can be catenary type, tension type or vertical tension type, and is connected to the double wheel fairlead (19) arranged on the floating body.

One of the options of the present invention is a floating platform with inclined column floating body (13) and flat beam floating body (14). The platform can be composed of three inclined column floating bodies (13) and three flat beam floating bodies (14) as shown in Figure 9, or multiple groups of inclined column floating bodies (13) and flat beam floating bodies not shown in the figure. (14) CONSTITUTION. The cross-sectional shape of the inclined column floating body (13) or the flat beam floating body (14) may be polygonal, rectangular or circular. The upper part is a foundation (15) that can be used as a supporting fan (16) or other facilities. The lower structure of the fan (16) can be a truss or box-type structure (not shown) supporting the fan and the tower (17) or a rod-shaped object supporting the fan. The foundation (15) may be the equipment and other facilities required for deck structure support. Illustration of the way the mooring lines (18) are anchored at sea. The anchoring method can be catenary type, tension type or vertical tension type, and is connected to the double wheel fairlead (19) arranged on the floating body.

12: Cylinder

13: Inclined column floating body

14: Flat beam floating body

15: Basics

16: Fan

17: Tower base

18: Mooring lines

19: Double wheel fairlead

Claims (6)

A floating and fixed dual-purpose platform, comprising: at least three inclined column floating bodies (13), wherein each inclined column floating body has a top end and a bottom end; at least three flat beam floating body (14) bases, wherein Each flat beam floating body has a left end and a right end; at least three pillar bodies (12), each of which has a top end and a bottom end; any inclined column floating body (13) among the at least three inclined column floating bodies The top end is connected with the top ends of the two adjacent inclined column floating bodies (13), and is combined to form a base plane (15) at the top; the left and right sides of any one of the at least three flat beam floating bodies (14) Both ends are respectively connected to the bottom ends of two adjacent pillar bodies (12) of the at least three pillar bodies (12), and the top end of any one of the at least three pillar bodies is connected to the at least three inclined column floating bodies (13) The bottom ends of one of the inclined column floating bodies (13) are connected to form a complete closed structure. A floating and fixed dual-purpose platform, comprising: at least three inclined column floating bodies (13), wherein each inclined column floating body has a top end and a bottom end; at least three flat beam floating body (14) bases, wherein Each flat beam floating body has a left end and a right end; the top of any inclined column floating body (13) among the above at least three inclined column floating bodies is connected with the top ends of the two adjacent inclined column floating bodies (13), and is combined to form a The base plane (15) at the top; the left and right ends of any one of the above-mentioned at least three flat beam floating bodies (14) are respectively adjacent to two of the above-mentioned at least three inclined column floating bodies (13). The bottom ends of the supporting and inclined column floating bodies (13) are connected to form a complete closed structure. As claimed in claim 1 or 2, the floating and fixed dual-purpose platform, the cross-section of at least one of the three inclined column floating bodies (13) may be polygonal, rectangular or circular. According to the floating and fixed dual-purpose platform of claim 1 or 2, more than one (section) of at least three flat beam floating bodies (14) can be polygonal, rectangular or circular. If the floating and fixed dual-purpose platform of claim 1, at least three pillars (12) are in More than one piece can be polygonal, rectangular or circular. If the floating and fixed dual-purpose platform of claim 1 or 2, at least one of the three inclined column floating bodies (13) may be a cone, and the bottom may have a larger (or smaller) cross-sectional area. The cross-sectional area at the top is smaller (or larger).

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