Design of a lightweight FRP T-boom for an offshore gangway, and development of a fatigue model for prediction of its service life

Master thesis (2016)

Authors

Contributors

S. Shroff (mentor)
Department
Aerospace Structures and Materials (Aerospace Engineering) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2016 Subramanian, K.
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Published Date

20-05-2016

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Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Department

Aerospace Structures and Materials

Abstract

The high stiffness to weight ratio of fibre reinforced composites have been utilized in improving the performance of various structures conventionally designed using metals. One such application is the gangway of the Ampelmann system used to transfer personnel safely from and to the offshore platform in sea. In the current work, a preliminary composite based design of this gangway was carried out, by overcoming challenges including such as harsh environmental conditions, and, lack of standards and certification requirements for offshore composite gangways. A static finite element analysis and dynamic analysis of the new design was carried out. Subsequently, a suitable fatigue model was developed to incorporate the effect of temperature and humidity. The new design resulted in a preliminary weight savings of 45% as compared to the original steel-based truss structure.