Floating Experience

Type of Vessel: Floating Production/Offloading
Vessels (FPU)

Type of Project: Class and Flag, Machinery
and Systems, Structural and Safety Issues for
service in the Gulf of Mexico

Client: Helix Energy Solutions

Description of Project:

ACMA’s involvement with the Helix Producer 1, the US Gulf of Mexico’s first ship-shaped, dynamically-positioned floating producing/offloading vessel (FPU), was very broad in scope and covered issues involving class and flag, machinery and systems, as well as structural and safety issues.

Initially, ACMA performed an inclining experiment for the vessel that allowed her to transit from the conversion shipyard in Europe to the Gulf of Mexico and her final outfitting location in Ingleside, Texas for topsides outfitting and USCG inspections.

Upon completion of the topsides outfitting, class/flag required another vessel inclining to allow her to work offshore, producing oil in the Phoenix Field (formerly the Typhoon Field), 165 miles SSW of New Orleans, Louisiana. ACMA utilized its GHS program to investigate the vessel’s intact and damage stability characteristics. This information, along with the vessel’s final lightship characteristics as determined by the inclining experiment, was put into a dedicated vessel loading program. This vessel loading program was developed by ACMA and Creative Systems (GHS), with input from Helix operating personnel, to meet class/flag requirements.

The work scope included longitudinal strength analysis for the hull as well as analysis for local structure in way of equipment installations. Utilization of ACMA’s Finite Element Analysis (FEA) program, ANSYS, was key to some of the higher technical analyses, as was the use of Cadre Pro and various in-house-developed analysis software packages. Analysis of the bottom hull structure was investigated for possible slamming issues, as were bulkheads for sloshing effects. The flare boom foundation provided an additional challenge as constructability issues had to be considered for the final design.

Additional areas of ACMA's involvement and review responsibility included a number of marine systems, blast analysis verification, superstructure design audit, hazardous area determinations and safety plans, which all conformed to SOLAS requirements.

This project represented the company’s 26th floating production project.