Jack-Up Rig Leg Load Balancing With Independent Gearbox Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Jack-up rigs face inefficiencies and single-point failures due to lack of individual control over gearbox motors used to raise and lower movable legs, leading to noise and communication issues on communication busses.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for dynamically balancing loads on jack-up rig legs 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 hacking and improve security.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If individually controlled gearbox motors are used for each leg, then reliability and load balancing are improved, but device complexity and communication requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The control system is segmented into individual gearbox motor controllers for each leg, with each controller independently managing its motor. This segmentation improves reliability by isolating failures to individual legs while maintaining overall system functionality, and enables precise load balancing through independent control of each motor's speed and torque.
Solution Approach 2:
Each gearbox motor controller receives feedback from load cells measuring the weight on individual legs, and uses this feedback to dynamically adjust motor speed and torque. This closed-loop feedback control enables automatic load balancing across all legs, improving system reliability by preventing overload conditions on any single leg.
2Ease of operation
If traditional communication busses are used for motor control, then ease of operation is maintained, but noise and security vulnerabilities increase
Solution Approach 1:
A processor acts as an intermediary between the operator interface and the individual gearbox motor controllers. This intermediary consolidates communication, receiving single control signals from the operator and distributing appropriate speed reference values to each motor controller based on real-time load feedback, thereby reducing communication bus noise while maintaining ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces traditional noisy electrical communication busses with unidirectional communication links for speed reference signals and separate links for feedback signals. This substitution reduces electromagnetic interference and noise while improving security by using dedicated unidirectional channels that are more resistant to hacking and interference.
3Duration of action of stationary object
If load balancing control is implemented, then fatigue life and stability are improved, but use of energy and computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The control system dynamically adjusts the speed and torque of each gearbox motor based on real-time load conditions measured by load cells. By continuously optimizing motor operation to match actual leg loads, the system extends fatigue life through reduced stress concentrations while minimizing energy consumption by avoiding unnecessary motor activity and operating each motor at its optimal efficiency point.
Data Source
AI summary
A system is disclosed including but not limited to 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.