FAILURE EVENT ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION OF A SUBMERGED UNDERWATER CRITICAL STRUCTURE AGAINST NON DETERMINISTIC CURRENT LOADING CONDITIONS WITH THE USE OF THE FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

Abstract eng:
The survivability of critical underwater structures against probabilistic loading and a Failure Event will be addressed in this paper. The structure under analysis is a double inverted funnel designed for the recuperation of lighter than water pollutants from shipwrecks. The structure is comprised of a pollutant recuperation tank, a large tube and a dome covering the shipwreck. The whole structure is anchored on the seabed by a number of anchor lines, keeping it in a pre-stressed condition. The present paper addresses the Failure Event Analysis of this underwater structure under current loading. Initially, a first step in structural analysis is presented taking into account loading conditions in a supposed area of deployment and initial dimensions for the anchor lines are derived. Following the Finite Element analysis of the submerged structure in order to meet imposed strength requirements, the failure of critical components (mainly anchoring) is considered. The current loads are divided into two components: tidal (deterministic) and wind-induced (probabilistic), introducing the non-deterministic aspect of the analysis. The structural behaviour of the submerged structure is evaluated in order to determine survivability of the pollutant recuperation tank against the aforementioned failure. Design iterations are then conducted in order to assure structure survivability against environmental conditions, after and during the failure of the critical component (anchor line). The structural analysis is conducted using commercial Finite Element software (MSc Nastran/Patran).

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