This book summarizes results of longstanding research and scientific contributions from many projects and relevant working groups. It collects and evaluates wind and wave climate projections under changing climate having design needs and marine safety in focus. Potential impact of projected climate change in met-ocean conditions on ships and offshore structures is discussed and illustrated by an example of the expected wave climate change on tanker design. The monograph is intended for students, researchers and industry based engineers who want a summary of the many studies that have been carried out on climate change effects on wind and waves and their importance for design and operations of ship and offshore structures. The reader needs only a moderate knowledge of marine wind and wave climate to follow the text.

and Literature Rev iew Chapter 1 1. INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW The exploration for oil and gas in ever increasing water depths has given an impetus to research efforts on the behaviour of offshore structures under ocean environment. These structures are continuously subjected to environmental loading because of waves, wind and current. A response analysis is required to assess the safety of offshore structure under severe storm conditions as well as for estimation of damage caused by less severe but more frequently occuring sea states. A majority of the reported failures in the life time of offshore structures are in fact fatigue failures. The offshore structures are usually built in the form of welded tubular structures. The joints of these tubular members experience the fatigue damage mainly due to small defects in welding which act as crack initiators, high stress concentrations and the variable loads. The variable loads due to the ocean waves cause cyclic stress variation in the structural members and the accumu lated effect of these stresses results in the fatigue failure.

This book presents a study for the determination of environmental load factors for Jacket Platforms in Malaysia and a methodology to determine the life extension of aging platforms. The simplified methods described here could be used for determining not only structural reliability but also safety factors. Its content is particularly interesting to design and maintenance engineers who are working in offshore or onshore industry.