Structural Analysis of New Offloading Reel Design for FPSO Vessels

During development, ContiTech Beattie identified that product testing was not a practical or an economic proposition. Wilde used FEA to check their equipment would perform its duty safely under the most arduous of conditions and obtain approval by Lloyd’s Register.

ContiTech Beattie, based in Northumberland, is a major service provider to the offshore oil and gas sector. Amongst their product / service offering they produce mounted offloading reels for the use on FPSO vessels.

An FPSO is a floating tank system designed to receive the retrieved oil or gas produced from nearby platforms and to process and store it until offloading can take place onto a tanker or transported through a pipeline.

The Company

ContiTech Beattie is a global leader in the design, manufacture and supply of flexible hoses and fluid transfer systems and part of the multi-national giant, Continental Group. They provide services worldwide and their customers include the blue-chip companies;

• BP
• Shell
• Cheveron
• Exxon
• Jurong International
• Keppel
• Hyundai
• Samsung

ContiTech Beattie delivers flexible engineering excellence specialising in rubber and plastics technology and is the world’s largest manufacturer of non-tyre rubber-based products. As a worldwide supplier, they develop, produce and deal with all aspects of fluid handling technology and are represented in more than 140 countries by subsidiaries, regional sales offices and joint venture partners.

Scope of Work

During new product development, ContiTech Beattie identified that detailed FEA (Finite Element Analysis) was required to demonstrate that their equipment would perform its duty safely under the most arduous of conditions. It was also identified that product testing was not a practical or an economic proposition. The analysis was required for approval by Lloyds Register.

As a mounted offloading reel is a large offshore structure critical to the efficient and safe transfer of oil or gas from one vessel to another at sea, the required analysis was to take into consideration all anticipated operating and emergency loading conditions. Global and localised stress distributions were required in addition to displacement predictions. Assessment of the acceptability of all significant structural components was also part of the scope of work and the analysis had to prove the structure for lift handling cases.

“We approached Wilde because of their experience working with the offshore sector using FEA. The project was one where we had to ensure the offloading reel was ‘fit for purpose’ in what would be very demanding conditions and were confident Wilde would provide us with the detailed and accurate analysis needed”.

ContiTech Beattie

The Analysis

ContiTech Beattie supplied Wilde Analysis with 3D solid CAD geometry as the basis of the finite element model, which was imported into the leading ANSYS simulation software used extensively within the offshore industry. Much of the offloading reel structure was thin walled when compared to the main dimensions, and therefore benefited from the use of shell elements to accurately and efficiently capture any bending behaviour. Consequently, thin sections of the solid geometry were mid-surfaced where appropriate with the aid of the ANSYS DesignModeler geometry editing module, with remaining parts meshed with solid elements. Various analysis runs were performed to simulate the effect of ship born wave motions and equipment deployment loads. Finally a technical report was supplied to the client to support the findings of the design.

Business Benefits

The use of simulation during the design of this new product reduced both development cost and lead time. According to Rob Harrison, Engineering Manager of ContiTech Beattie, Wilde provided a “A timely, efficient cost effective solution.” and added:

“Wilde provided efficient communication with a cost effective approach within the timescale required to keep the project on target. The final report was delivered to both our client and Lloyds Register for third party approval. The team at Wilde gave excellent back up after the report had been delivered, answering any queries relating to the analysis that was raised by the third party body.”