DYNAMIC RESPONSE OF JACKET STRUCTURES TO WAVE LOADS: OVERVIEW

Jacket structures have been the most widely used type of structures in the oil and gas industry. They are increasingly becoming competitive, especially in terms of both costs and response to environmental loads, as support structures of wind turbines which are generally built in different water depths. These structures are frequently exposed to breaking and near-breaking waves, especially when they are located in shallow or intermediate water depths. Currently, the wave load models developed formono-pile structures are also applied for jacket structures. However, considerable uncertainties in the obtained total wave loads might result when applying such approaches. The importance of jacket structures in practice on the one hand, and the complexity and variety of the available approaches implemented for these structures on the other hand, underline the necessity to question the current approaches/models for the assessment of the total wave loading and dynamic response of jacket structures, with the objective to improve the modelling and analysis techniques for this type of structures.