A field experiment on the small-scale model of a gravity offshore platform

Abstract The 1:50 scale model of a big offshore gravity platform was placed off the beach at Reggio-Calabria, where the wind waves typically have significant height ranging from 0.20 to 0.40 m and peak period from 1.8 to 2.6 sec. A first set of pressure transducers was assembled at the boundary of the platform and a second set, with the same configuration as the first one, was assembled in the undisturbed wave field, in order to compare the force amplitude on the platform to the force amplitude on an ideal equivalent mass of water (Froude-Krylov force amplitude). Along with the pressure transducers, a few wave gauges were functioning in the undisturbed wave field. It was found that the time histories of the pressure induced by the highest waves, at the columns and at the platform base, were very similar to the measured covariances of the pressure fluctuations. The statistical distribution of the forces on the platform proved to be coincident with the statistical distribution of the Froude-Krylov forces. The spectrum of the force process proved always to be narrow even in the case of the broad wave spectrum. The diffraction coefficient (ratio of the actual force amplitude to the Froude-Krylov force amplitude) was found to depend essentially on a marked reduction of the propagation speed of the pressure head waves, both at the columns and at the platform base.

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