Numerical Simulation of Interfacial Sloshing in the SDPSO’s Storage Tank Available to Purchase

SDPSO platform is a deep-draft floating platform integrating the key functions of drilling, dry-tree production, oil storage and offloading capabilities, and improves the flexibility of technical solution and reduces the overall cost of deepwater oil field development. However, the motion of SDPSO platform induced by ocean waves may result in sloshing effect at the oil-water interface and cause mix of the two fluids, i.e. oil-water emulsification, which may cause the oil content in the displaced water to exceed international standard. Therefore, in the present study, the oil-water interface sloshing phenomena in the SDPSO's storage tank is investigated by means of ANSYS Fluent 14.0. The RANS κ- ε model and the VOF method are adopted to model the turbulence effect and track the free surface, respectively. The numerical results analyzed include mix of oil and water and the vertical displacement at the interface of two liquids. From this study, it is found that the motion of SDPSO platform will not result in obvious sloshing effect at the oil-water interface and mix of the two fluids.