Wave-Current Interaction on Offshore Spar Platforms

Various types of offshore structures have been
designed since the beginning of oil and gas discovery. They are
conventional fixed platform, compliant tower, tension leg
platform, spar, and semi-submersible. The oil and gas
exploration is now focusing in the deepwater regions as the
natural sources from the shallow water regions are facing
depletion. In Malaysia, further studies have to be done in order
to develop the technology for oil and gas exploration in
deepwater. It is well known that the environmental forces are the
main sources of lateral loading acting on offshore structures.
When the waves propagate towards the large structure, the
existence of the currents in the ocean changes the characteristics
of the forces acting on it. So, it is important to know the
characteristics of the wave-current interaction on the structure.
Some possible interaction mechanisms between waves and
currents include surface wind stress, bottom friction, wave
climate, wave field, depth and current refraction and modulation
of the absolute and relative wave period. The two basics methods
of dynamic analysis for offshore floating platforms are the
frequency domain and time domain analysis