passive

compensators for
offshore
installation of
heavy modules
Authors:
George Stanescu
Ruan Henrique Colombo

What we have to do with this?

The quest for more energy sources led
the mankind to the most unexpected
and challenging places on the planet.

Source : IEA -Energy by power source 2008

Gas spring physical model

One cylinder that contains a moving piston. The
piston is assumed free to move, with or without
friction, either allowing or not the heat transfer
between the two compartments and also
maintaining or not the seal between them.
The two compartments within the cylinder,
containing ideal gas, might be modeled as closed
systems or control volumes when appropriate.
Also, the cylinder walls may be assumed either
adiabatic or non-adiabatic.
Source : Tord martinsen sketch of the system

Source:http://www.offshoretechnology.com/

Source:http://www.offshore-technology.com/

The vertical heave source is typically generated by

an installation vessels motion and or crane tip
motion. The SPHC is an inline tool that uses the
principles of spring isolation to generate a net
heave compensation effect or spring isolation
effect.
Source :Ormond, Matthew Jake

Applications & Importance

Huge amount of resources is spent in exploration.
Time and equipment are very expensive and a
smart plan is required to achieve the more
profitable business.
Exploration and drilling operations in unfavorable
weather conditions such as strong winds and high
sea states.
The module requires care in its installation, the
occurrence of abrupt shocks can result in a great
loss of time and money, so the gas springs are a
cheaper solution, essential for control the speed of
the landing module on the seabed .
Widely used for cargo transportation, isolation of
shock and expansion of the "weather window"
enables operations for longer.

Source : Tord martinsen sketch of the system

Objectives
Investigation of the physical mechanisms of energy dissipation in
passive compensator. How are they dissipating the energy and how
this affects the piston oscillation.
Friction
piston/cylinder

Kinectic
energy

Mechaical
interaction
gas/piston

Heat and mass

transfer ;
gas in chambers
gas /piston

Internal energy of gas

and piston

Challenges in obtaining accurate

numerical integration
Initially the system was assumed
conservative and reversible then
implemented in Fortran for
validation of the numerical
solution obtained.
Tested methods:
Runge-Kutta 4 order;
Runge-Kutta Cash-Karp 4/ 5
order;
Rosenbrock method;
Newton-Stormer-Verlet-leapfrog;

Energy destruction
due to numerical
error propagation

Velocity x position

Challenges in obtaining accurate

numerical integration
Successfully implemented in Fortran method:
Newton-Stormer-Verlet-leapfrog.
Long term energy conservation through
several periods of integration with energy
and entropy monitoring.

Plot of the dimensionless gap energy and entropy through the cycles

Studied case Conservative, Irreversible

system
The performance of the device
depends on the geometry;
Different stabilization point of
the piston from starting point,
as predicted theoretically;

Presented Results
Initial conditions P0 e T0 (1 bar e 300 K),the same for both chambers;
Fvel : Initial condition of velocity in relation to the initial energy
presente in the system;
The conservative, irreversible model describes a more realistic
performance of passive heave compensator;

Entropy monitoring in the irreversible

cycle
As known from the second law of
thermodynamics,
the
total
entropy of a isolated system tends
to increase in time, aproaching a
maximum value
as internal
constraits in the system are
removed ;

Conclusion
This study is a first step on simulating the device
more closely to reality lighting a way for more
studies on the passive heave compensator
performance;
The better understanding of the dynamic
performance of this devices can lead in a more
efficient control in its application;
Knowledge of these devices are owned by large
corporations and kept secret. This study tries to
bring some light on the subject, which can be
useful for future applications of the national oil
industry;

bibliography

Acknowledgement: