Vol.25, No.3, 2025, pp. 495–500
https://doi.org/10.69644/ivk-2025-03-0495 

Environmental loads, such as wind, wave and current are random and are the main data players during an operation of sea transportation. The wind load, in particular and if not predicted, can cause a huge damage to the combined structure (barge and offshore structure). The purpose of this work is to investigate two folds. The first one is mainly to predict the wind drag loads on an offshore structure transported on a towed barge, if it is not self-propelled, to an exploration field and; the second, by adding the wave and current forces, to predict the tug towing capacity to prepare the required number of tugs for towing operation. In this case, the barge is not self-propelled. The wind drag force is measured experimentally and calculated numerically. The wind loads, lift and drag, can act on either direction depending on wind direction, i.e., longitudinally and transversally. In this study and for towing purposes, only the case of the headwind is studied. A model of a combined offshore structure transported on a barge is used inside a subsonic wind tunnel using different speeds model and a weather window of wind headings. Qualitatively and quantitatively measured and numerically calculated loads, in the transverse direction, enhance each other and the obtained experimental results are in good agreement with those provided by numerical calculation methods.

Keywords: • offshore structure • oil field • wind load, drag load, lift load • subsonic wind tunnel • towing power