Semi-Submersible Hub Platform With an Internal Dock Model Testing

The recent discoveries and development of the Pre-salt reservoir in Brazilian coast require a new logistical model for crew transportation and transhipment to the drilling and oil rigs due to the large distance from coast, harsh environment conditions and large amount of workers to be transported against the actual model adopted considering only transportation by helicopters in order to reduce overall costs. The adoption of a logistic model with maritime transportation in these scenarios could provide several advantages, however there are several challenges from the technical point of view in transhipment between ship-shaped vessels, that could represent a great limitation in terms of operational window. Previous works showed the feasibility of monocolumn platforms with an internal moonpool as a Logistic HUB [1], allowing the boat docking in sheltered conditions. This work shows an overview of the model testing of a semi-submersible with an internal dock and the comparison of the free-surface elevation and RAOs (Response Amplitude Operators) between experimental results and potential flow computations. The tests were performed for 5 headings considering 10 regular, 5 irregular and 1 transient waves under a single draft and 5 different devices to reduce wave energy in the interior region.