Cooperative project with OTRC on VIM/SPAR Industry Forum. The workshop forum led to sharing data and experiences that have been gained to date. Focus on objectives as follows: Initiate a path for development of an industry-acceptable design practice/ methodology on Spar VIM; Identify uncertainties and technical needs in Spar VIM and a path forward to fill the identified gaps;
Educate industry on the technical challenges involved.
Steering Group of technical experts from the major industry stakeholders was formed to define the case for action, plan the workshop agenda, and identify specific presentation topics and speakers. A 3 day agenda was needed and the workshop was held from October 22-4, 2003 at Camp Allen Retreat and Conference center in Navasota, TX. Over 100 reps from 38 companies attended the workshop.
Some of the identified areas of concern were:
Need for oceanographers and designers to work more closely with each other on metocean data, criteria, modeling, and prediction of Spar VIM, so cost-benefits trade-offs can be made to ensure future investments in sophisticated field and laboratory measurement programs.
Better understanding of existing model tests practices and to validate, test data on high stress / low cycle fatigue behavior of mooring chain and industry consensus design criteria for strength designs.