Jack-Up Rig Gearbox Control for Real-Time Leg Load Balancing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Jack-up rigs face inefficiencies and single-point failures due to lack of individual control of gearbox motors used to raise and lower movable legs, leading to noise and communication issues on communication buses.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for dynamically balancing loads on legs supporting a jack-up rig by using individually controlled gearbox motors, with a processor and computer-readable medium to send speed reference values and load values over unidirectional communication links, ensuring each motor is monitored and controlled independently to prevent noise and hacking, and to distribute loads evenly across all legs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If individually controlled gearbox motors are implemented on each leg, then reliability and load distribution are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The control system is segmented into multiple independent gearbox motor controllers, one for each leg of the jack-up rig. Each controller independently manages its associated gearbox motor, allowing individual monitoring and control of load, speed, and operational status. This segmentation eliminates single-point failures and enables precise load distribution across all legs while maintaining manageable complexity through modular architecture.
2Stability of the object's composition
If load values are monitored and distributed evenly across all legs, then stability and efficiency are improved, but measurement and control difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
Each gearbox motor controller continuously monitors load values from its associated motor and feeds this information back to the central control system. The system processes these feedback signals to determine actual load distribution across all legs and automatically adjusts motor operations to achieve even load distribution. This closed-loop feedback mechanism simplifies the monitoring process and ensures platform stability without requiring complex manual measurement procedures.
Data Source
AI summary
A system is disclosed including but not limited to a a jack up processor in data communication with each for dynamically balancing loads in real time on a plurality of legs supporting a jack up rig platform having a plurality of gear box motors on the plurality of legs. A processor reads data from sensors on gear box motors on the legs and selects a stored torque profile from a computer readable medium based on the load data from the sensors; and sends the torque profile to the plurality of gearboxes. A computer readable medium and neural network are disclosed for dynamically balancing loads on the plurality of legs in real time.