Unconstrained Dynamic Simulation on Offshore Dual Derrick

With the increase in demand for oil and oil products, the petroleum industry is faced with the requirement for more complex tools to increase production at lower prices. The complexity of drilling tools is manifested in the complex geometry, fabrication, assembly, deformations, stresses and loads acting on them. This study introduces a dual derrick simulation procedure in a marine environment which provides a step towards a better understanding by giving a simulation close to the real state. The derrick was considered in equilibrium, and then the derrick vibration was simulated using field data in order to obtain stress distribution. This implies that the derrick can move freely and cause deformations in all directions without constraints. In this paper, the finite element method was employed to simulate the derrick in a static state and in motion, and then the obtained stress distribution was compared for both cases. A literature review on the analysis of environment working conditions is provided. The results showed that the vibration of the platform increased the stress considerably. The maximum combined stress increased by 27 %, while the maximum bending stress increased by 40 % and reached considerably higher values in the beams connected to the top of the derrick

A Novel Algorithm for Solving Structural Optimization Problems

In the past few decades, metaheuristic optimization methods have emerged as an effective approach for addressing structural design problems. Structural optimization methods are based on mathematical algorithms that are population-based techniques. Optimization methods use technology development to employ algorithms to search through complex solution space to find the minimum. In this paper, a simple algorithm inspired by hurricane chaos is proposed for solving structural optimization problems. In general, optimization algorithms use equations that employ the global best solution that might cause the algorithm to get trapped in a local minimum. Hence, this methodology is avoided in this work. The algorithm was tested on several common truss examples from the literature and proved efficient in finding lower weights for the test problems