Thesis
Numerical simulation and experimental study of horizontal wave slamming on offshore platforms
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2026
- Thesis identifier
- T17576
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201688903
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- The development of offshore oil and gas resources has long been a fundamental pillar of global energy supply and has driven continuous advances in large-scale marine engineering equipment such as floating platforms. Deep-sea mining is recognised as the next strategic frontier in marine resource development, and its development likewise relies heavily on semi-submersible platforms or mining vessels. Under extreme sea conditions, platforms are prone to wave run-up, overtopping, and slamming, which impose short-duration, high intensity impact loads on the column and deck structures, posing significant safety risks. Wave slamming is strongly nonlinear, transient, and characterized by coupled air–water structure interactions, all of which are influenced by platform geometry. Existing research approaches have notable limitations: experimental methods often lack the precision to capture transient peaks; simplified analytical models such as OTG13/14, though efficient, have limited accuracy and applicability under complex geometries and extreme conditions. Conventional CFD tools can describe detailed flow phenomena but are computationally expensive, limiting their practicality during design stages. This study conducts a comprehensive experimental and numerical investigation into wave slamming on the columns of semi-submersible platforms. A scaled physical testing system was established, employing regular, focused, and freak wave conditions to measure column load responses under varying sea states. Meanwhile, a Cartesian-grid numerical wave flume was developed and applied to the wave slamming problem. By combining high-resolution free-surface capturing with finite-difference algorithms, the method achieves a favorable balance between computational accuracy and efficiency. More than 180 experimental cases were conducted, systematically revealing the effects of air gap, wave steepness, period, and incident angle on slamming loads. Signal processing techniques were applied to extract peak loads and representative events. The numerical results showed strong agreement with experimental data, verifying the reliability of CGNT CFD in wave reproduction, pressure prediction, and total force estimation. Furthermore, 153 numerical sensitivity analyses quantified how parameters such as column diameter, shape, deck elevation, and column spacing influence the distribution and characteristics of slamming loads. This research establishes a complete experimental methodology and proposes a fast numerical prediction technique for slamming loads based on the CGNT-CFD approach. The developed experimental and numerical frameworks can be effectively applied to the impact-resistance design and performance evaluation of floating platforms, offering both theoretical significance and broad engineering applicability.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Yuan, Zhiming
- Li, Huajun, 1974-
- Incecik, Atilla
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Date Created
- 2025
- Embargo Note
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