Development of a water filled fender system for off shore installations

In order to extend the life and productivity of an off-shore oil and gas platform an new installation has been proposed to provide a compression unit. The existing platform is already extensively occupied, having been in existence for over 25 years, and a new approach was required to facilitate the compression unit. This additional facility is an addition outside the existing envelope of the platform and in line with requirements it must withstand a direct ship impact of given mass and velocity. It has been proposed that a fender system be designed that will absorb the energy from the ship impact allowing time to facilitate repair of the platform extension without the need to stop production from the platform. LS-DYNA has been used to model the platform, the proposed extension and the fender system to determine the effects of the ship impact. As with all projects the requirements have changed during the investigation and this paper only represents some of the investigation in to suitability and design of a proposed fender system.