Through the integration of cutting-edge technology with the industry’s most experienced engineers, Bennett has developed enhanced engineering methodologies and analysis tools.

These advancements have resulted in both the industry’s most innovative solutions and the fruition of the ideology upon which the company was founded.

After comparing several commercially available software packages at the time, Bennett & Associates of New Orleans purchased SESAM and DeepC in November 2003. Although these programs have applications for much of our work, the project driving our need for such software is the design and analysis of Soft Berth™ for the Main Pass Energy Hub™. In the operating condition, this system will have five floating vessels with interactions among them due to fenders, mooring/breasting lines and hydrodynamic coupling. Our desire is to have software that will accurately represent the behaviour of this complex, multi-body system.

Although getting started with any new software takes some time and effort, the transition was relatively easy. The DeepC GUI is well designed and provides a valuable tool for model creation, edit and verification. In addition, the journaling and scripting capabilities of the DNV Software applications saves a great deal of time in making changes and even creating new models based on existing ones.

The figure was generated as a visual presentation only.
This is not an analysis model.

The ability to verify model input graphically and produce result animations is, admittedly, very desirable and is becoming more necessary when showing results to clients. However; regardless of how impressive an animation can be, the true test of any engineering software must be its analytical capabilities. Without the ability to analyse complex systems with consistently reliable results, the graphics alone are meaningless.

Many software packages are capable of analysing a single moored vessel coupled with risers. However; with the rising level of activity in the area of deepwater terminals, new analytical challenges are coming to light. There is more need to analyse multiple diffracting bodies in close proximity, with multiple fixed/floating and floating/floating connections (including fenders, mooring/berthing lines and transfer lines) and to consider close hydrodynamic coupling. With these additional criteria, new design is pushing the limits of proven software capabilities.

Over the course of our relationship with DNV Software, we have seen many improvements in the capabilities of several of its products. While most of these improvements are certainly part of its development strategy, some have been provided to us in response to our requests, making it clear that we have a good partner in DNV Software. While there are additional features we would like to see incorporated into DeepC, we have found DNV Software’s support staff to be a valuable resource in providing guidance and workaround solutions. Because DeepC uses two very powerful analysis engines (Simo and Riflex), the workaround often involves running one or both of these with minor modifications to the input.

Our use of DNV Software has not been restricted to typical moored vessels. In addition to our work for Main Pass Energy Hub, we have used the software to develop curves for jack-up units on location and to predict the behaviour of jack-up hulls during launching from the shipyard.

After the hurricane Katrina forced us out of New Orleans, the officers of DNV Software generously offered their assistance to ensure that we had access to the software necessary to continue work in Houston. Since then, we have reopened our New Orleans office and maintain the Houston office as a permanent expansion.

We look forward to future developments and to continuing our relationship with DNV Software.

Author: Kennet A. Ullrich, Bennett & Associates