Development of Operational Limit Diagrams for Offshore Lifting Procedures

Lifting operations with offshore cranes are fundamental for proper functioning of a platform. Despite the great technological development, offshore cranes load charts only consider the significant wave height as parameter of environmental load, neglecting wave period, which may lead to unsafe or overestimated lifting operations. This paper aims to develop a method to design offshore crane operational limit diagrams for lifting of personnel and usual loads, in function of significant wave height and wave peak period, using time domain dynamic analysis, for a crane installed on a floating unit. The lifting of personnel with crane to transfer between a floating unit and a support vessel is a very used option in offshore operations, and this is in many cases, the only alternative beyond the helicopter. Due to recent fatal accidents with lifting operations in offshore platforms, it is essential the study about this subject, contributing to the increase of safety. The sea states for analysis were chosen covering usual significant wave heights and peak periods limits for lifting operations. The methodology used the SITUA / Prosim software to obtain the dynamic responses of the personnel transfer basket lifting and container loads on a typical FPSO. Through program developed by the author, it was implemented the automatic generation of diagrams as a function of operational limits. It is concluded that using this methodology, it is possible to achieve greater efficiency in the design and execution of personnel and routine load lifting, increasing safety and a wider weather window available.Copyright © 2015 by ASME