Dynamic Response of Floating Structures on Water Surface Under Airgun Blast Wave Loading

Abstract

With onshore resources increasingly depleted, marine oil and gas exploration carries critical strategic value. Airgun sources remain the dominant choice for marine seismic surveys, primarily because they introduce less disturbance to the marine environment compared to alternative energy sources. During operation, the airgun source generates high-energy shock waves and an airgun bubble, which impose impact loads on the floating structure suspending it. To investigate the interaction mechanism of the airgun shock wave on the floating structure and its dynamic impact response, common floating structure configurations are first simplified into models. Theoretical methods are employed to calculate the shock wave loads of the airgun source under various operating cases, and the load characteristics are compared and analyzed for different airgun immersion depths, working pressures, and volumes. Subsequently, based on the acoustic-structure coupling method, the dynamic impact response of the floating structure is analyzed under varying airgun immersion depths, working pressures, and airgun volumes, and the relationships between parameters such as immersion depth and the stress-strain state of the floating structure, as well as the displacements at its center and ends, are summarized. Recommendations are proposed for improving the floating structure used with the airgun source and optimizing its deployment method, and minimum recommended thickness curves for the floating structure under specified impact environments are provided. Finally, the dynamic behavior of the floater is examined for different structural configurations, to provide a basis for geophysical practitioners in selecting suitable floating structures matched to specific airgun source configurations.

Keywords

Airgun source / Airgun bubble / Impact response / Acoustic-structure coupling / Floating structure

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