Dassault Systèmes has announced that the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), an organization that sets standards for the international marine and offshore industry, has selected the analysis capability of Abaqus finite element analysis (FEA) software from SIMULIA to assist in the evaluation of the structural strength of offshore drilling and production units.
“Full-scale testing of offshore jack-up rigs is cost- and time-prohibitive,” states Jer-Fang Wu, head of the ABS Singapore Offshore Technology Center. “In the energy sector, there is a continuing trend towards larger, more complex projects that demand shorter, more intense design cycles. The realistic simulation capabilities of Abaqus provide a reliable and economical way to evaluate structural standards of engineering designs.”
“The accuracy of structural analysis in order to engineer the safe operation of offshore units is imperative,” says Dassault SIMULIA Vice President of Strategy and Marketing Ken Short. “The selection of Abaqus by ABS validates our approach to the development and quality assurance of mission-critical tools for the certification of these structures dedicated to economical and environmentally safe energy exploration.”
According to ABS, it selected Abaqus for its nonlinear analysis solution technology, robust contact formulations and unique simulation capabilities. Using the soil and concrete material models available in Abaqus, the organization could more easily evaluate the behavior of jack-up rig designs operating in harsh offshore environments.