Offshore buoyant drilling, production, storage and offloading structure
IPC분류정보
국가/구분
United States(US) Patent
등록
국제특허분류(IPC7판)
B63B-035/44
출원번호
US-0950221
(2013-07-24)
등록번호
US-8733265
(2014-05-27)
발명자
/ 주소
Vandenworm, Nicolaas J.
출원인 / 주소
SSP Technologies, Inc.
대리인 / 주소
Buskop Law Group, PC
인용정보
피인용 횟수 :
1인용 특허 :
27
초록▼
An offshore structure having a hull, an upper vertical wall, an upper inwardly-tapered wall disposed below the upper vertical wall, a lower outwardly-tapered wall disposed below the upper sloped wall, and a lower vertical wall disposed below the lower sloped wall. The upper and lower sloped walls pr
An offshore structure having a hull, an upper vertical wall, an upper inwardly-tapered wall disposed below the upper vertical wall, a lower outwardly-tapered wall disposed below the upper sloped wall, and a lower vertical wall disposed below the lower sloped wall. The upper and lower sloped walls produce significant heave damping in response to heavy wave action. A heavy slurry of hematite and water ballast is added to the lower and outermost portions of the hull to lower the center of gravity below the center of buoyancy. The offshore structure provides one or more movable hawser connections that allow a tanker vessel to moor directly to the offshore structure during offloading rather than mooring to a separate buoy at some distance from the offshore storage structure. The movable hawser connection includes an arcuate rail with a movable trolley that provides a hawser connection point that allows vessel weathervaning.
대표청구항▼
1. A buoyant structure for petroleum drilling, production, storage and offloading, comprising: a. a hull symmetric about a vertical axis and having a circular platform and a vertical profile designed to extend below and above a sea surface simultaneously, the hull including: i. an upper vertical wal
1. A buoyant structure for petroleum drilling, production, storage and offloading, comprising: a. a hull symmetric about a vertical axis and having a circular platform and a vertical profile designed to extend below and above a sea surface simultaneously, the hull including: i. an upper vertical wall section;ii. an upper tapered wall section having a gentle inward slope;iii. a lower tapered wall section having a steep outward slope; andiv. a lower vertical wall section with the conical form of the hull being structurally efficient, offering a high payload and storage volume per ton of material used to build the hull;b. a planar horizontal keel of a lower hull diameter and a generally horizontal main deck;c. a plurality of fin-shaped appendages attached to a lower and outer portion of the lower vertical wall section of the hull; each fin-shaped section comprising: a plurality of fin sections separated from each other by gaps and the gaps adapted to accommodate catenary production risers and anchor lines on the exterior of hull without contact with the fin-shaped appendages;d. a low center of gravity (CG) located below its center of buoyancy (CB) thereby providing inherent stability with the low center of gravity (CG) enhancing a meta centric height of the buoyant structure resulting in a large righting movement; ande. ballasting in one or more ring-shaped lower compartments with a heavy slurry with the compartments forming a ring shape and located in outer-most portions of the lower vertical wall section providing the advantages of high density structural ballast with the ease and flexibility of removal by pumping the heavy slurry material creates large righting moments and increases the natural period of the structure to above the period of the most common waves, thereby limiting wave-induced acceleration in all degrees of freedom, and thereby further increasing the large righting movement. 2. The buoyant structure of claim 1, wherein the upper tapered wall section slopes at a first angle with respect to the vertical axis from 10 degrees to 15 degrees; and the lower tapered wall section slopes at a second angle with respect to the vertical axis from 55 degrees to 65 degrees. 3. The buoyant structure of claim 1, wherein the upper vertical wall section abuts the upper tapered wall section, the lower vertical wall section abuts the lower tapered wall section, and the upper tapered wall section abuts the lower tapered wall section at a diameter. 4. The buoyant structure of claim 1, wherein a height of the hull defined from the planar horizontal keel to the generally horizontal main deck is less than the largest diameter of the hull. 5. The buoyant structure of claim 1, wherein a height of the hull, defined from the planar horizontal keel to the generally horizontal main deck is less than the smallest diameter of the hull. 6. The buoyant structure of claim 1, wherein the upper vertical wall section defines an upper hull diameter; the bottom of the upper tapered wall section defines a hull neck diameter; the hull neck diameter is from 75 percent to 90 percent of the upper hull diameter and the lower hull diameter is from 115 percent to 130 percent of the upper hull diameter. 7. The buoyant structure of claim 6, wherein the hull neck diameter is from 80 percent to 85 percent of the upper hull diameter and the lower hull diameter is from 120 percent to 125 percent of the upper hull diameter. 8. The buoyant structure of claim 1, wherein the buoyant structure defines a center of gravity and a center of buoyancy; and the center of gravity is located below the center of buoyancy. 9. The buoyant structure of claim 1, further comprising one or more compartments forming a ring shape disposed in a lowermost outermost portion of the hull, and ballast disposed in the one or more compartments. 10. The buoyant structure of claim 1, further comprising: a. a first moveable hawser connection including a first arcuate rail or track mounted to an upper outer wall of the hull and a first trolley captured by and movably disposed on the first arcuate rail or track, the first trolley defining a first movable hard point; andb. a vessel moored to the first movable hard point. 11. The buoyant structure of claim 10, wherein the first arcuate rail or track is circular and disposed 360 degrees about the hull. 12. The buoyant structure of claim 10, further comprising a second moveable hawser connection including a second arcuate rail mounted to an upper outer wall of the hull opposite the first arcuate rail and a second trolley captured by and movably disposed on the second rail, the second trolley defining a second movable hard point for mooring a vessel thereto. 13. The buoyant structure of claim 12, wherein the first arcuate rail defines a first center point located on the vertical axis; the second arcuate rail defines a second center point located on the vertical axis; the first arcuate rail defines a first arc extending approximately 90 degrees about the first center point; the second arcuate rail defines a second arc extending approximately 90 degrees about the second center point and approximately 180 degrees opposite the first arcuate rail; whereby each of the first and second movable hawser connections allows a vessel moored thereto to weathervane approximately 270 degrees about the buoyant structure. 14. The buoyant structure of claim 1, further comprising a non-curing slurry added to the heavy material. 15. The buoyant structure of claim 14, further comprising as the heavy material and non-curing slurry: water with at least one from a group consisting of hematite, barite, limonite, magnetite and combinations thereof. 16. The buoyant structure of claim 15, further comprising as the non-curing slurry: about three parts water to one part hematite.
연구과제 타임라인
LOADING...
LOADING...
LOADING...
LOADING...
LOADING...
이 특허에 인용된 특허 (27)
Elliott Steven A. (Glendale CA) Froelich Ronald W. (Covina CA) Sogge John W. (Orlando FL), Amusement ride and self-propelled vehicle therefor.
Checketts, Stanley J.; Hansen, Ned R.; Checketts, Quin R.; Allen, Lawrence E.; Bachtar, Dody; Clegg, Benjamin; Winger, Michael K., Variably curved track-mounted amusement ride.
※ AI-Helper는 부적절한 답변을 할 수 있습니다.