| Abstract: | For general dynamic positioning systems, controllers are mainly based on the feedback of motions only in the horizontal plane. However, for marine structures with a small water plane area and low metacentric height,undesirable surge and pitch oscillations may be induced by the thruster actions. In this paper, three control laws are investigated to suppress the induced pitch motion by adding pitch rate, pitch angle or pitch acceleration into the feedback control loop. Extensive numerical simulations are conducted with a semi-submersible platform for each control law. The influences of additional terms on surge-pitch coupled motions are analyzed in both frequency and time domain. The mechanical constraints of the thrust allocation and the frequency characters of external forces are simultaneously considered. It is concluded that adding pitch angle or pitch acceleration into the feedback loop changes the natural frequency in pitch, and its performance is highly dependent on the frequency distribution of external forces, while adding pitch rate into the feedback loop is always effective in mitigating surge-pitch coupled motions. |
