Overview
Helicopter travel contributes to a significant proportion of the risk experienced by workers in the offshore industry. As winds encounter the complex structures of an offshore platform, turbulence within the helideck airspace can occur. This can cause difficulties for pilots landing on the helideck, and in extreme cases could result in the helicopter crash landing on the platform.
Regulatory Compliance
The Civil Aviation Authority guidance, Standards for Offshore Helicopter Landing Areas CAP 437, states two limits with respect to vertical turbulent velocity above the helideck. Extra caution should be exercised by the pilot/operator above the advisory limit of 1.75 m/s, whilst the upper limit of 2.4 m/s imposes a restriction above which helicopters should not operate at the installation.
Importantly, CAP 437 sets the requirement for operators to conduct either wind-tunnel testing or Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) studies for all new-build helidecks and modifications to existing structures, to establish the wind environment in which helicopters are expected to operate.
CAP 437 is applicable to helicopter landing areas used by helicopters registered in the UK, however it is recognised internationally as industry-leading guidance and is utilised by many countries throughout the world.
Our Solution
ESR Technology’s Safety and Risk Management department has extensive experience in carrying out helideck turbulence analysis. Our team of modelling and simulation experts utilise CFD to carry out comprehensive studies to define weather conditions under which the approach to an offshore helideck could be deemed unsafe.
Taking advantage of the leading software OpenFOAM, our team can undertake bespoke analysis for a range of offshore installations including offshore substations, drilling units and FPSOs.
By combining our simulation data with the environmental data for the installation, we can then perform exceedance analysis and provide operators with threshold wind speeds for each wind direction, above which it is deemed unsafe to operate their helideck. The installation wind rose is utilised to provide analysis of how frequently this could occur.
Through analysis of the graphical output from OpenFOAM, we can assess which structures on the installation may be causing adverse flow of wind around the helideck and provide recommendations as to how to remedy this.
If you would like to know more about how ESR Technology can support you with carrying out analysis of Helideck Turbulence, please contact info@esrtechnology.com.
