DYNAMIC LOADS EXERTED ON OFFSHORE OIL STRUCTURES BY AQUACULTURE PEN SYSTEMS

SURPLUS OFFSHORE OIL PLATFORMS AND SIMILAR STRUCTURES HAVE POTENTIAL AS BASES FOR THE SUPPORT OF OFFSHORE AQUACULTURE OPERATIONS. ONE CONCEPT DEVELOPED AT NET SYSTEMS ENVISIONS A PLATFORM SURROUNDED BY, AND HELPING TO SUPPORT, A RINGSHAPED ARRANGEMENT OF FLOATING FISH PENS. HOWEVER, BEFORE SUCH STRUCTURES CAN BE INCORPORATED INTO AQUACULTURE SYSTEMS, WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO PREDICT THEIR RESPONSE TO VARIOUS LOADS IMPOSED BY THE PENS AND THEIR RIGGING, INCLUDING DYNAMIC LOADS INDUCED BY WAVES. WE PROPOSE TO BUILD AN ENGINEERING SCALE MODEL OF A PLATFORM-BASED PEN SYSTEM AND MEASURE ITS RESPONSE TO ARTIFICIALLY-GENERATED WAVES OF VARYING FREQUENCY, AMPLITUDEAND DIRECTION AT THE U.S. NAVY'S DAVID TAYLOR RESEARCH CENTER. LOADS MEASURED AT VARIOUS POINTS IN THE MODEL WILL THEN BE USED AS INPUT VALUES IN FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS COMPUTER MODELS OF TYPICAL OFFSHORE OIL STRUCTURES, MAKING IT POSSIBLE TO EVALUATE THE SHORT- AND LONG-TERM EFFECTS ON THESE STRUCTURES OF TYPICAL DYNAMIC LOADS GENERATED BY THE PEN SYSTEMS, AND TO IDENTIFY OPTIMUM PEN AND RIGGING CONFIGURATIONS. IN PHASE 2, A FULL-SCALE PEN SYSTEM WILL BEBUILT AND INSTALLED AT AN OFFSHORE OIL STRUCTURE FOR TRIALS,LEADING TO ACTUAL EMPLOYMENT FOR AQUACULTURE.