Offshore Structures

The module Offshore Structures of the Hydraulic and Offshore Structures (HOS) track, is worth 9 ECTS and consists of the following units:

• Ultimate Strength and Fatigue = 3 ECTS (this unit is shared with the module CIEM4110 Hydraulic Structures

• Design of Offshore Structures = 6 ECTS

This module enables students to produce conceptual engineering designs for fixed offshore structures accounting for ultimate strength and fatigue criteria. During this course, students gain a thorough theoretical understanding of the design process, its structuring, available design methodologies and the philosophy behind the design codes. Furthermore, this module addresses offshore, geotechnical, structural and reliability aspects in coherence to analyse the behaviour of offshore structures.

The ultimate strength and fatigue unit specifically focuses on the ultimate strength and fatigue assessment of steel and concrete structures. The provided knowledge and skills are required to be able to perform the verification of offshore structures design and are therefore directly applied in the design component of this module.

Throughout the module students work on a group design project, where each student team designs an offshore support structure from scratch up to a preliminary design by performing a full design-cycle. This design-cycle includes:

1. The design and assembly of the structure geometry and the structural configuration, including a natural frequency analysis,

2. Determining and assessing the permanent and environmental loads, including both hydrodynamics and wind, on the structure,

3. The design, analysis and evaluation of its foundation,

4. The analysis of the jacket structure by using structural mechanics approaches, and

5. The evaluation of the jacket structure against ULS and, if applicable, FLS design criteria.

Through this group design project, students will not only learn to judge their design against ULS and FLS design criteria, but they will also develop an instinct on how to best modify and improve their design based on both static and dynamic structural analyses. Thereby, students will learn how to analyse and evaluate the dimensioning and performance of structural components for strength and stability. Furthermore, students learn to predict how changing (parts of) their design will influence the corresponding loads and based on their insight in these loads, be able to defend their design choices. Moreover, students will learn what the practical implications of their design choices are for operations and other feasibility and life-cycle aspects. To reinforce the understanding of these aspects, the course program also includes a visit to an offshore structures fabrication yard.

During this course, students will additionally learn how to collaborate effectively in a team and develop skills and competences to motivate their assumptions and provide argumentation of their design choices by accounting for relevant moral values, norms and principles.

Participants of this module are summatively assessed through a Group Design Project and an individual written exam. In addition, participants are formatively assessed through home assignments. This means that the home assignments are checked to provide feedback but are not graded.

The final grade for the module is the weighted average of the Group Design Project (50%) and the individual written exam (50%). To pass the course, participants must score a pass grade, i.e. at least a 6.0 (rounded to halves), on both the project and the exam.

Group Design Project:

The final deadline for the Group Design Project is set at the end of the Q3 education period. If you fail to get a pass grade for the assignment, but the assignment grade is equal to or higher than a 5.0, you are allowed to improve your grade by submitting an addendum to your assignment report in the following education period, i.e. during Q4. Here, please note that the maximum grade that can be obtained after submitting an addendum to improve an insufficient grade is 6.0.

Written exam:

The regular individual written exam for this course is organised during the exam period of Q3, and a re-exam is organised in the exam period of Q4. The written exam is an open-book exam, meaning that any written or printed material is permitted during the exam sessions. The content of the individual exam includes content of all the involved units, so that half of the exam problems are related to Ultimate Strength and Fatigue and half of the exam problems are related to the Design of Offshore Structures.

If due to any unforeseen circumstances the written exam for this course may not be given in a plenary on-campus session, alternatively the written exam for this course may be given as an online open-book exam through Brightspace. To participate in the online exam you must be enrolled for this course in Brightspace. For further practicalities regarding any online examinations, you will be informed through Brightspace.

To successfully pass the module, all components of the assessment must be evaluated with a pass-grade. A successful participation in the module, requires a minimum evaluation of 5.8 in all units. For more information on grading, see article 14 in the Rules and Guidelines (RGBE): https://www.tudelft.nl/en/student/ceg-student-portal/education/education-information/educational-rules-and-regulations

Permitted Materials during Exam

The written exam is an open-book exam, meaning that any books, slide print-outs, personal notes, i.e. any written or printed material is permitted during the exam sessions. However, to limit the amount of paper waste, a maximum of 10 A4-pages (written or printed) are allowed during the exam. This rule does not include books.

Additionally, it is allowed and advised to bring a scientific calculator to the exam. Nevertheless, any devices that allow for communication are not allowed, i.e. no laptops, pads or phones.