ContiTech Beattie

FEA of Offloading Reel Design for FPSO Vessels

During new product development, ContiTech Beattie identified a need for detailed FEA (Finite Element Analysis) to demonstrate that their equipment would perform safely under the most arduous conditions. Product testing was not a practical or economic proposition. The analysis was required for approval by Lloyds Register, and PDSVISION was asked to carry out the FEA work.

Background

As part of their product range, ContiTech Beattie produce mounted offloading reels for use on FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) vessels. An FPSO is a floating tank system designed to receive the retrieved oil or gas produced from nearby platforms and to process and store it until offloading can take place onto a tanker or transported through a pipeline.

Challenge

During new product development, ContiTech Beattie identified a need for detailed FEA (Finite Element Analysis) to demonstrate that their equipment would perform safely under the most challenging conditions. It was also identified that product testing was not a practical or an economic proposition. The analysis was required for approval by Lloyds Register.

We approached PDSVISION because of their experience in working with the offshore sector using FEA

ContiTech Beattie

As a mounted offloading reel is a large offshore structure critical to the efficient and safe transfer of oil or gas from one vessel to another at sea, the required analysis was to take into consideration all anticipated operating and emergency loading conditions.

Global and localised stress distributions were required in addition to displacement predictions. Assessment of the acceptability of all significant structural components was also part of the scope of work and the analysis had to prove the structure for lift handling cases.

Solution

ContiTech Beattie supplied PDSVISION with 3D solid CAD geometry as the basis of the finite element model. This was imported into the leading Ansys simulation software used extensively within the offshore industry.

Much of the offloading reel structure was thinwalled when compared to the main dimensions, and therefore benefited from the use of shell elements to accurately and efficiently capture any bending behaviour.

Consequently, thin sections of the solid geometry were mid-surfaced where appropriate with the aid of the Ansys DesignModeler geometry editing module, with remaining parts meshed with solid elements.

Various analysis runs were performed to simulate the effect of ship born wave motions and equipment deployment loads. Finally, a technical report was supplied to the client to support the findings of the design.

Business Benefits

The use of simulation during the design of this new product reduced both development cost and lead time.

This project had to ensure the offloading reel was ‘fit for purpose’ in what would be very demanding conditions. We were confident that PDSVISION would provide us with the detailed and accurate analysis needed.

ContiTech Beattie