Structural Safety Evaluation of Marine Loading Arm Using Finite Element Analysis

This paper presents a structural design review of a marine loading arm used for the fluid transfer of a liquid cargo from a ship or offshore plant. The marine loading arm is installed on a ship, offshore plant, or jetty in order to load or unload liquid cargo such as crude oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG), chemical products, etc. The struct ural design of this marine loading arm is obliged to comply with the design and construction specifications regulated by the oil companies and international marine forum (OCIMF). In this paper, the structural safety of the initial design for the marine loading arm is evaluated for the design load conditions required by various operational modes. The evaluated results based on a finite element analysis (FEA) are reviewed in relation to the OCIMF specifications.