CFD Simulation and Wind Tunnel Investigation of a FPSO Offshore Helideck Turbulent Flow
The offshore helideck wind flow is usually subject to many interferences. The helideck airspace velocity and turbulence fields are important issues to promote safe helicopter take-off and landing operations. The current work brings some CFD results of a helideck wind flow 3D-field defined by the local conditions and constrained by the FPSO structure. A discussion about the chosen CFD boundary conditions is also presented. These CFD results are compared with the wind tunnel model-scale velocity and turbulence measurements. The wind tunnel measurements were performed with use of two different techniques: Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Constant Temperature Anemometry (CTA). The British standard CAP437: Offshore Helideck Design Criteria is examined and suggestions are made herein. The CFD simulations were conducted using the ANSYS CFX software.