ADVANCED DESIGN AND EVALUATION TOOLS FOR MARINE STRUCTURES

A prototype design system has been developed to include life- cycle cost considerations in the preliminary design of semi- submersible production platforms. The programme can be used in the early stage of the design to balance initial costs and in-service costs of the platform structure. Inspection and repair costs are based on estimated fatigue behaviour of the structure and the inspection strategy. The system also provides an estimated safety level and therefore can be used to compare different structural concepts. Possible application of these tools, originally developed for design of offshore platforms, in a wider area of the marine community, is discussed. Similar tools could be useful for instance for novel ship types, but also for conventional ships which are prone to fatigue such as oil tankers and bulk carriers. Attention is paid to technical organization aspects and requirements for a design team to cope with complex engineering tools in a competitive environment.