January 30, 1997
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
OFFSHORE ENVIRONMENT
by:
The Pennsylvania State
University
The offshore (ocean) environment poses problems to structural engineers that are both common and unique as compared to the on-shore environment. Both environments require consideration of lateral forces. However, a structure in the ocean experiences lateral (wave) forces during every moment of its life in the ocean. Both environments contain loads that are difficult to estimate and that result in modeling abstractions. However, the estimation of wave forces involves a significant number of additional modeling abstractions. An ever-present companion to these abstractions are their (epistemic) uncertainties that in combination with the natural, or aleatory, uncertainties tend to dominate the probabilistic treatment of the offshore environment.
The intent of this seminar is to introduce the audience to the offshore environment, to the structures utilized in this environment, and to the challenges presented by this environment. We will particularly focus on the steel, jacket-type offshore platform. This type of platform has been the historical “work-horse” of the offshore community. We also introduce several “novel” concepts that are utilized for exceptionally deep water.