DNV Launches DIGIN Fluke Anchor Design Tool at OTC

DNV is launching DIGIN, a powerful fluke anchor design tool with a state-of-the-art graphical user interface.

To avoid or manage the consequences of dragging anchor when being installed on a congested seabed, particularly where the soil is layered, the anchor behaviour must be reliably predicted. To deal with this, DNV is launching DIGIN, a powerful fluke anchor design tool with a state-of-the-art graphical user interface.

The devastating consequences of the hurricanes Ivan in 2004 and Katrina and Rita in 2005, together with other weather-related catastrophes, have led to a sharper focus on the reliability of the mooring systems of mobile drilling units.

"In the Gulf of Mexico, for example, many rigs are increasing their number of mooring lines and having their anchors upgraded. In Norway, the Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has increased its focus on the anchor installation tension at locations where anchor drag should be avoided because of congested seabeds (e.g. pipelines)," says Rune Dahlberg, senior principal engineer at DNV.

Joint Development of DIGIN
Based on this reality, many companies in the oil industry have shown great interest in an existing, but internal, DNV version of the DIGIN software, a powerful design tool for fluke and plate anchors in clay. To make this tool available also to the industry, Dahlberg explains that a DNV Joint Industry Project was completed in early 2008. The result is now providing an external version of the existing DIGIN tool.

DIGIN is integrated with DNV's DeepC software package, which provides a number of new advantages. Using the modelling and program logistics facilities in this package, DIGIN now has an efficient graphical user interface for program input, execution, output and results in a ready-to-report format.

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