Numerical investigation of control methods for reduction of motion of suspended jackets during offshore transport
J. Thomas (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences)
P.C. Meijers – Mentor (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences)
P. Atzampou – Mentor (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences)
Andrei Faragau – Mentor (TU Delft - Civil Engineering & Geosciences)
Niels Mallon – Mentor (Allseas Engineering)
Jochem De Kwant – Mentor (Allseas Engineering)
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Abstract
Marine operations are fundamentally constrained by safety, efficiency, and cost, factors that become critically important for massive heavy-lift vessels like the Pioneering Spirit. This vessel utilizes a bespoke Jacket Lift System (JLS) engineered for offshore jacket removal and installations, which requires transporting large steel jackets in a freely suspended state. During open-ocean transit, wave excitation drives severe pendular sway in the payload, restricting the workable weather window. Here we develop a simplified, computationally efficient
4-degree-of-freedom model to simulate these transit dynamics and evaluate methods to reduce jacket motion. We show that passive hoist optimisation, achieved by altering the rigging geometry, substantially reduces resonant motion and improves operability without
requiring any additional hardware. The performance of this passive detuning is directly compared against an active, velocity-proportional tugger damping system. Overall, this work establishes the reduced-order model as a practical tool for route-specific rigging assessment.
It proves that passive geometry reconfiguration is the most effective immediate mitigation, while clearly defining the strict conditions under which high-capacity active tuggers become beneficial.