Shipboard core-storage platform for drillships: design, verification and field validation

Abstract

For the pioneered shipboard automated core-transmission system (ACTS) on the ocean drillship Dream, the structural integrity and operational reliability of the storage rack subsystem are critical to core logistics efficiency. The shipboard subsystem module experiences pronounced quasi-static inertial actions associated with the heels and trims under sea-states conditions. Uneven or eccentric loading can shift the inertial resultant off the primary load path, increasing the mechanical property demand at critical connection nodes. More importantly, prevailing codes remain largely rooted in land-based seismic practice, leaving full-scale validation under attitude-induced marine actions distinctly limited. Aiming to fill this gap, this study proposes an integrated design and verification framework enabled by an in-house developed full-scale controllable tilting platform, together with a companion finite-element model and a purpose-built measurement and monitoring system. These provide a validation of both hot-spot demand and global load paths for a representative subsystem module. Representative operational and extreme attitudes derived from voyage statistics are imposed consistently in both simulations and tests. Balanced and eccentric loading layouts are used to characterise the baseline demand and assess structural sensitivity under torque and bending–torsion coupling. A monitoring test is employed to extract response signatures at critical connection nodes, track evolution of hot spots and validate predictions to demonstrate engineering applicability. The framework provides supports for design verification and performance management of a shipboard subsystem.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Maritime Engineering, 2026 · DOI ↗