Prediction of Wave Impact Loads on Ship-type Offshore Structures in Steep Fronted Waves

Steep fronted waves can induce extremely large impact pressures on the hull of moored ship-type offshore structures. Several incidents confirmed that these loads can result in significant damage to the bow. As part of the SAFE-FLOW Joint Industry Project these loads were investigated with a dedicated series of model tests. Detailed analysis of the results gave important insight in the wave impact hydrodynamics. It was observed that the local steepness of the waves has a large influence on the magnitude of the occurring bow slams and that the slamming could be characterised as a wave crest phenomenon. Therefore high pressures can be experienced in the upper bow and forecastle. The paper first presents the test philosophy, set-up and dedicated measurements. Then the developed prediction method and its results will be discussed in detail.

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