On dynamic coupling effects between a spar and its mooring lines

The responses of a spar constrained by slack mooring lines to steep ocean waves and tensions in the mooring lines are simulated using two different numerical schemes: a quasi-static approach (SMACOS) and a coupled dynamic approach (COUPLE). The two approaches are the same in computing wave loads on the structure. Their difference is in modeling dynamic forces of mooring lines; that is the dynamic forces are included in the computation of COUPLE but neglected in SMACOS. The numerical simulation is examined against the laboratory measurements of the JIP Spar in a water depth of 318 m. The dynamic coupling effects between the JIP Spar and its mooring lines in different water depths (318, 618 and 1018 m) are investigated by the comparison of numerical simulations obtained using the quasi-static and coupled dynamic approaches. It is found that the damping of mooring lines reduces the slow-drift surge and pitch of the Spar, especially in deep water. The reduction in the amplitude of slow-drift surge can reach about 10% in a water depth of 1018 m. The tension in mooring lines may greatly increase in the wave frequency range when dynamic forces in mooring lines are considered. The mooring-line tension in the wave frequency range predicted by the coupled dynamic approach can be eight times as great as the corresponding prediction by the quasi-static approach in a water depth of 1018 m. This finding may have important implications for the estimation of the fatigue strength and life span of the mooring lines deployed in deep water oceans.     

不同布缆方式锚碇沉管管段运动的数值模拟

通过建立波浪作用下锚碇沉管管段运动的时域数值计算模型,对锚碇沉管的运动响应及锚碇缆受力特性进行了研究。应用集中质量法求解锚碇缆力,应用四阶Runge-Kutta法求解管段时域运动方程,计算了在不同沉深、不同周期、不同波高和不同波向条件下沉管管段的运动幅值和锚碇缆力。数值计算的结果表明:锚碇沉管的锚碇缆对沉管管段的运动起到一定的约束作用,在沉放深度较浅、波浪周期较大时,锚碇缆对沉管管段运动幅度的制约更为明显。通过五种布缆方式的计算与分析,探讨了布缆方式对沉管管段运动响应及锚碇缆受力的影响,并给出了较为合理的布缆方案。     

Dynamic Analysis of Semi-Submersible Production Platform Under the Failure of Mooring Lines

This paper quantitatively studies the transient dynamic response of a semi-submersible production platform with the loss of one or several positioning mooring lines.A semi-submersible platform,production risers,and positioning mooring lines are all included in the numerical simulation.Increased motion of the semi-submersible platform,tension variation of the remaining mooring lines/risers and the risk of mooring line or riser clashing are all investigated through fully coupled time-domain analysis.Combined environmental loads are selected from irregular waves and the steady current varying from very rough to extreme sea conditions.Three dimension radiation/diffraction theories and Morison’s equation are applied to calculate first-order wave force and second-order mean drift force of floating semi-submersible platform.Nonlinear time-domain finite element methods are employed to analyze the behavior of mooring lines and risers.Results show that the failure of mooring lines seriously reduce the platform’s stability performance.The tension of the rest lines is also increased accordingly.Remaining lines which are closer to the failed lines will have larger tension increase to compensate.Line-Line distance provides practical information for the risk of clashing investigation.     

Investigation on Effects of Mooring Line Fractures and Connector Failures for A Hybrid Modular Floating Structure System

The present work reports a Hybrid Modular Floating Structure (HMFS) system with typical malfunction conditions. The effects of both fractured mooring lines and failed connectors on main hydrodynamic responses (mooring line tensions, module motions, connector loads and wave power production) of the HMFS system under typical sea conditions are comparatively investigated. The results indicate that the mooring tension distribution, certain module motions (surge, sway and yaw) and connector loads (M_z) are significantly influenced by mooring line fractures. The adjacent mooring line of the fractured line on the upstream side suffers the largest tension among the remaining mooring lines, and the case with two fractured mooring lines in the same group on the upstream side is the most dangerous among all cases of two-line failures in view of mooring line tensions, module motions and connector loads. Therefore, one emergency strategy with appropriate relaxation of a proper mooring line has been proposed and proved effective to reduce the risk of more progressive mooring line fractures. In addition, connector failures substantially affect certain module motions (heave and pitch), certain connector loads (F_z and M_y) and wave power production. The present work can be helpful and instructive for studies on malfunction conditions of modular floating structure (MFS) systems.

     

Stochastic Analysis of Short-Term Structural Responses and Fatigue Damages of A Submerged Tension Leg Platform Wind Turbine in Wind and Waves

In connection with the design of floating wind turbines, stochastic dynamic analysis is a critical task considering nonlinear wind and wave forces. To study the random structural responses of a newly designed submerged tension leg platform(STLP) wind turbine, a set of dynamic simulations and comparison analysis with the MIT/NREL TLP wind turbine are carried out. The signal filter method is used to evaluate the mean and standard deviations of the structural response. Furthermore, the extreme responses are estimated by using the mean upcrossing rate method. The fatigue damages for blade root, tower, and mooring line are also studied according to the simulated time-series. The results and comparison analysis show that the STLP gives small surge and pitch motions and mooring line tensions in operational sea states due to the small water-plane area. Additionally, in severe sea states, the STLP gives lower extreme values of platform pitch, slightly larger surge and heave motions and better towerbase and mooring line fatigue performances than those of the MIT/NREL TLP. It is found that the STLP wind turbine has good performances in structural responses and could be a potential type for exploiting the wind resources located in deep waters.     

Experimental and numerical investigations on the intact and damage survivability of a floating–moored oscillating water column device

This paper investigates the intact and damage survivability of a floating–moored Oscillating Water Column (OWC) device using physical model experiments and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. Different extreme wave conditions have been tested using irregular and regular wave conditions. The device was moored to the tank floor via four vertical taut lines and the effect of the mooring line pre–tension on the device response was studied. It was found that the instantaneous position of the floating device was a key factor in the survivability analysis such that a certain irregular wave train that might not include the largest wave could induce the maximum response. Reducing the pre–tension minimized the maximum surge, but significantly increased the maximum tension due to mooring slack events causing snatch loads. A design regular wave with a period equal to the peak period and a height of 1.9–2.0 times the significant wave height could reasonably predict the same maximum line tension as the irregular sea state, but a smaller wave height was required to achieve the maximum surge. A single failure in the mooring system increased the maximum tension by 1.55 times the intact tension. For a damaged mooring system, using the same design regular wave condition derived from the survivability analysis with an intact mooring system could result in overestimating the maximum tension by more than 20% in comparison to the tension from the irregular sea state, but a smaller regular wave height or a different regular wave condition representing another sea state could lead to the same maximum tension. This highlighted the importance of investigating survival conditions with a damaged mooring system instead of simply using the same conditions derived for the intact mooring system.     

Analysis of hydrodynamic behaviors of gravity net cage in irregular waves

Based on the lumped-mass method and rigid-body kinematics theory, a mathematical model of a gravity cage system attacked by irregular waves is developed to simulate the hydrodynamic response of cage system, including the maximum tension of mooring lines and the motion of float collar. The normalized response amplitudes (response amplitude operators) are calculated for the cage motion response in heave and surge, and the mooring line tension response, in regular waves. In addition, a statistical approach is taken to determine the motion and tension transfer functions in irregular waves. In order to validate the numerical model of a gravity cage attacked by irregular waves, numerical predictions have been compared with the experimental observations in the time and frequency domain. The effect of wave incident angle on the float collar motion, mooring line tension and net volume reduction of the gravity cage system in irregular waves is also investigated. The results show that at high frequencies, the cage system has no significant heave motion. It tends to contour itself to longer waves. The variation amplitude of mooring line forces decreases as the wave frequency increases. With the increasing of wave incident angle, the horizontal displacement of the float collar increases.     

Effect of wave nonlinearity on fatigue damage and extreme responses of a semi-submersible floating wind turbine

Floating wind turbine has been the highlight in offshore wind industry lately. There has been great effort on developing highly sophisticated numerical model to better understand its hydrodynamic behaviour. A engineering-practical method to study the nonlinear wave effects on floating wind turbine has been recently developed. Based on the method established, the focus of this paper is to quantify the wave nonlinearity effect due to nonlinear wave kinematics by comparing the structural responses of floating wind turbine when exposed to irregular linear Airy wave and fully nonlinear wave. Critical responses and fatigue damage are studied in operational conditions and short-term extreme values are predicted in extreme conditions respectively. In the operational condition, wind effects are dominating the mean value and standard deviation of most responses except floater heave motion. The fatigue damage at the tower base is dominated by wind effects. The fatigue damage for the mooring line is more influenced by wind effects for conditions with small wave and wave effects for conditions with large wave. The wave nonlinearity effect becomes significant for surge and mooring line tension for large waves while floater heave, pitch motion, tower base bending moment and pontoon axial force are less sensitive to the nonlinear wave effect. In the extreme condition, linear wave theory underestimates wave elevation, floater surge motion and mooring line tension compared with fully nonlinear wave theory while quite close results are predicted for other responses.     

Fatigue reliability analysis of mooring system for fish cage

Fish cages in the open sea are exposed to cycle loads due to irregular wave climate during their service life, and thus the fatigue reliability assessment of mooring system should be conducted to ensure the safe operation. The aim of this study is to evaluate the fatigue failure probability of mooring system for fish cage. Numerical simulation of net cage in random waves is performed and the time dependent approach is applied to conduct the fatigue reliability analysis of shackle chains based on S-N curve method. The sensitivity analysis of fatigue reliability of mooring line to the uncertainty of random variables in the fatigue limit state is conducted. In addition, the system reliability for mooring system is analyzed and the effect of the initial pretension and safety factor on system reliability is investigated. The results indicate that a case without the initial pretension on anchor lines is helpful to decrease the failure probability of mooring system and the safety factor of mooring lines in the current regulation is conservative for the system reliability against fatigue damage.     

Nonlinear coupled dynamics analysis of a truss spar platform

Accurate prediction of the offshore structure motion response and associate mooring line tension is important in both technical applications and scientific research. In our study, a truss spar platform, operated in Gulf of Mexico, is numerically simulated and analyzed by an in-house numerical code ‘COUPLE'. Both the platform motion responses and associated mooring line tension are calculated and investigated through a time domain nonlinear coupled dynamic analysis. Satisfactory agreement between the simulation and corresponding field measurements is in general reached, indicating that the numerical code can be used to conduct the time-domain analysis of a truss spar interacting with its mooring and riser system. Based on the comparison between linear and nonlinear results, the relative importance of nonlinearity in predicting the platform motion response and mooring line tensions is assessed and presented. Through the coupled and quasi-static analysis, the importance of the dynamic coupling effect between the platform hull and the mooring/riser system in predicting the mooring line tension and platform motions is quantified. These results may provide essential information pertaining to facilitate the numerical simulation and design of the large scale offshore structures.     

Motion and Dynamic Responses of A Semisubmersible in Freak Waves

The present research aims at clarifying the effects of freak wave on the motion and dynamic responses of a semisubmersible. To reveal the effects of mooring stiffness, two mooring systems were employed in the model tests and time-domain simulations. The 6-DOF motion responses and mooring tensions have been measured and the 3-DOF motions of fairleads were calculated as well. From the time series, trajectories and statistics information, the interactions between the freak wave and the semisubmersible have been demonstrated and the effects of mooring stiffness have been identified. The shortage of numerical simulations based on 3D potential flow theory is presented. Results show that the freak wave is likely to cause large horizontal motions for soft mooring system and to result in extremely large mooring tensions for tight mooring system. Therefore, the freak wave is a real threat for the marine structure, which needs to be carefully considered at design stage.     

两层流体中内波作用下Spar平台运动响应

研究两层流体中Spar平台在内波作用下的运动响应问题。在线性势流理论框架,提出在内波作用下Spar平台运动响应及分段式悬链线系泊张力特性的计算方法。数值分析两层流体内界面位置、入射内波的波长以及系泊索初始预张力对Spar平台运动响应及其系泊索张力特性的影响规律,结果表明内波对Spar平台纵摇运动响应的影响是小的,但对Spar平台纵荡与垂荡运动响应及其系泊索张力的影响是不可忽视的。因此,在Spar平台的设计中,考虑内波的影响是重要的。     

浪流作用下系泊船舶撞击力和系缆力试验研究

以某25万吨矿石码头工程为例,分别进行了单流、单浪和浪流共同作用下,系泊船舶撞击力和系缆力试验。研究了不同水位、不同船舶载度、不同浪流夹角,单流、单浪和浪流共同作用时对船舶撞击力和系缆力的影响。分析了该码头工程护舷和缆绳的布置情况,为工程设计提供了依据。     

Stiffness of mooring lines and performance of floating breakwater in three dimensions

In the present paper, the performance of a moored floating breakwater under the action of normal incident waves is investigated in the frequency domain. A three-dimensional hydrodynamic model of the floating body is coupled with a static and dynamic model of the mooring lines, using an iterative procedure. The stiffness coefficients of the mooring lines in six degrees of freedom of the floating breakwater are derived based on the differential changes of mooring lines' tensions caused by the static motions of the floating body. The model of the moored floating system is compared with experimental and numerical results of other investigators. An extensive parametric study is performed to investigate the effect of different configurations (length of mooring lines and draft) on the performance of the moored floating breakwater. The draft of the floating breakwater is changed through the appropriate modification of mooring lines' length. Numerical results demonstrate the effects of the wave characteristics and mooring lines' conditions (slack-taut). The existence of ‘optimum’ configuration of the moored floating breakwater in terms of wave elevation coefficients and mooring lines' forces is clearly demonstrated, through a decision framework.     

Dynamic analysis of hydrodynamic behavior of a flatfish cage system under wave conditions

This paper presents a simulation model based on the finite element method. The method is used to analyze the motion response and mooring line tension of the flatfish cage system in waves. The cage system consists of top frames, netting, mooring lines, bottom frames, and floats. A series of scaled physical model tests in regular waves are conducted to verify the numerical model. The comparison results show that the simulated and the experimental results agree well under the wave conditions, and the maximum pitch of the bottom frame with two orientations is about 12o. The motion process of the whole cage system in the wave can be described with the computer visualized technology. Then, the mooring line tensions and the motion of the bottom frame with three kinds of weight are calculated under different wave conditions. According to the numerical results, the differences in mooring line tensions of flatfish cages with three weight modes are indistinct. The maximum pitch of the bottom frame decreases with the increase of the bottom weight.     

内孤立波作用下Spar平台动力响应特性

以三类内孤立波理论(Kd V、e Kd V和MCC)的适用性条件为依据,采用Morison和傅汝德-克雷洛夫公式分别计算Spar平台内孤立波水平力和垂向力,结合时域有限位移运动方程,建立了有限深两层流体中内孤立波与带分段式系泊索Spar平台相互作用的理论模型。以东沙群岛某海域实测内孤立波为对象,数值分析了在内孤立波作用下某经典式Spar平台的内孤立波动态载荷、运动响应及其系泊张力的变化特性。研究表明,内孤立波不仅会对Spar平台产生突发性冲击载荷,使其产生大幅度水平漂移运动,而且还会使其系泊张力显著增大。因此,在Spar平台等深海平台的设计应用中,内孤立波的影响不可忽视。     

新型激光雷达浮标运动响应特性数值研究

以新型激光雷达浮标系统为研究对象,基于ANSYS/AQWA开展了激光雷达浮标系统运动响应特性数值研究,研究了浮标吃水深度、形状参数对于激光雷达浮标运动响应的影响规律,分析了附加质量、辐射阻尼、运动响应RAO及一阶、二阶波浪力等水动力参数。采用时域分析方法对不同风浪流荷载入射角度下的激光雷达浮标锚泊系统张力特性进行了计算分析。研究结果表明:随着浮标吃水深度的增加,浮标纵荡方向响应无明显变化,垂荡响应显著增大;随着浮标底部圆台直径的增大,浮标纵荡方向响应变化较小,而圆柱形浮标垂荡运动响应显著大于圆台形浮标;当浮标系泊锚链发生松弛—张紧状态变化时易出现极端张力,且极端张力出现的幅值和频率随有效波高的增大和谱峰周期的减小而增大。     

Feed-forward control for dynamic positioning in random waves based on quadratic impulse function and real-time wave measurement

The real-time estimation of second-order difference-frequency wave forces using real-time random-wave measurement is developed for the FF (feed-forward) control based dynamic positioning of floating offshore vessels and platforms. The efficacy of the developed FF control scheme is validated by using the in-house hull-mooring-riser-thruster fully coupled time-domain computer simulation program through comparisons with the results by the conventional feedback-control-only case. The feedback (FB) control intends to reduce the accumulated position-excursion error, meanwhile the proposed feed-forward control compensates the controllable slowly-varying wave loads by activating thrusters in advance based on the real-time estimation of the second-order difference-frequency wave loadings using the real-time signal of random incident wave. The real-time estimation of the second-order difference-frequency wave loads is done by using the double-convolution integral with pre-calculated QIF (quadratic impulse function). The numerical DP system is successfully implemented with the FF control algorithm in the vessel-thruster fully coupled time-domain simulation program. The developed schemes are applied to a turret-moored FPSO (floating production storage offloading) with six dynamic-positioning (DP) azimuth thrusters in two non-collinear storm conditions. It is clearly demonstrated that the developed FF control scheme performs much better than the conventional feedback-control-only case. The corresponding reductions in horizontal offsets, motions, mooring tensions, and fuel consumptions by using the developed FF control scheme are underscored.     

FSRU码头系泊模型实验与数值模拟研究

FSRU在恶劣环境条件下的作业和安全停靠性能与系泊缆张力、靠垫挤压应力、船体6自由度运动等参数有关。针对FSRU码头处海洋环境条件,进行FSRU不同装载状况的模型实验,获得FSRU的6自由度运动及其系泊载荷的动力特性。基于三维辐射和绕射理论,使用Sesam软件进行频域计算,以此为基础在相应海洋环境条件下进行时域耦合分析,获得FSRU 6自由度运动、系泊载荷、靠垫应力等参数的响应时历。结果表明:30%装载、横浪条件下FSRU的运动响应最大,系泊缆张力未达到破断值,靠垫压力超过其压缩60%时的载荷;模型实验对FSRU运动响应和系泊缆张力的预测结果可信,靠垫受力情况需要数值仿真进行辅助研究。     

Setpoint Chasing for Thruster-Assisted Position Mooring

In the present industrial thruster-assisted position mooring (PM) systems, thrusters are used to damp the vessel's dynamical motions and to provide compensation of any line breakage. To increase robustness and extend the weather window for PM systems, this paper proposes a new concept of setpoint (SP) chasing for moderate and extreme conditions. The SP in moderate conditions is the vessel's equilibrium position where the environmental loads are balanced by the mooring forces to avoid the conflict between the control action of thruster assistance and the mooring system. To chase this SP, the thruster assistance provides additional damping and restoring forces to compensate the dynamic environmental loads while the mooring system compensates the mean environmental loads. The simulations and experiments suggested that the proposed SP chasing for moderate conditions improved the vessel performance while the utilization of the mooring system was maximized. Due to risk for mooring line breakage, the SP in extreme conditions is the position closer to the field zero point than the equilibrium position. To chase this SP, the thruster assistance provides damping, restoring force and mean force controls to compensate both the dynamic and a part of the mean environmental loads while the mooring system compensates the rest of the mean environmental loads. The simulations indicated that the proposed SP chasing for extreme conditions reduced the vessel's drift and tension in the most loaded line.