Hull component interaction and scaling for TLP hydrodynamic coefficients

The purpose of this paper is to validate a new method that can be used by offshore platform designers to estimate the added mass and hydrodynamic damping coefficients of potential Tension Leg Platform hull configurations. These coefficients are critical to the determination of the platform response particularly to high frequency motions in heave caused by sum-frequency wave forcing i.e. “springing”. Previous research has developed the means by which offshore platform designers can extrapolate anticipated full-scale hydrodynamic coefficients based on the response of individual model scale component shapes. The work presented here further evaluates the component scaling laws for a single vertical cylinder and quantifies the effects due to hydrodynamic interaction. Hydrodynamic interaction effects are established through a direct comparison between the superposition of individual hull component coefficients and those evaluated directly from complete hull configuration models. The basis of this comparison is established by the experimental evaluation of the hydrodynamic coefficients for individual hull components as well as partial and complete platform models. The results indicate that hydrodynamic interaction effects between components are small in heave, and validate component scaling and superposition as an effective means for added mass and damping coefficient estimation of prototype platforms. It is found that the dependency of damping ratio with KC for a TLP is almost identical to that of a single column, thus offering a scaling methodology for prototype damping ratio values.