Assessing Helideck Turbulence of an Offshore Platform Using Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation and the Lattice Boltzmann Method

This paper describes the development, application, and comparison of two time-accurate Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) methods to assess the turbulent airflow over the helideck of a generic offshore platform, and its potential effect on helicopter operations. Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation (DDES) and the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) were used to compute the unsteady flow field over an offshore platform in one prevailing wind condition in which the helideck was positioned downwind of the platform’s topside structure. The results of the computed solutions from each CFD method are presented and discussed in relation to the characteristic airflow over the helideck. A comparison of the velocity magnitude computed by DDES and LBM over the helideck showed very good agreement. Similarly, both CFD methods showed generally good agreement of turbulence intensity over the helideck. With the available resources, LBM, which is particularly suited to efficient parallel computation, obtained a solution approximately nine times faster than DDES. The paper demonstrates how DDES and LBM could be used to perform assessments of helideck turbulence of offshore platforms, and how LBM, in particular, may be used in instances in which computational cost, available resources, and time, are significant factors.