Effects of Directionality of the Waves in the Mooring Systems Design

Author(s):  
Flávia C. Rezende ◽  
Cédric Brun

In the analysis of the mooring system, one of the most important steps concerns the computation of the low-frequency wave loads that will excite the system at its resonance periods. Therefore, over the last decades much work has been devoted to this topic, especially for unidirectional waves although some publications can be found which deal with the computation of second-order loads in multi-directional waves. The common practice in the design of mooring systems is to ignore the interaction between waves coming from different directions even if we know that the unidirectional sea is an idealized situation that does not exist in practice. In Rezende & Chen (OMAE 2010), new method for computation of the low-frequency loading has been presented which is more efficient than the method based on the computations of the complete QTF in multi-directional waves, even though this method is still much more time consuming than the usual approximations in unidirectional seas. In this paper, the effects of the directionality of the waves are evaluated for typical mooring systems in deep water and in shallow water. The contribution of the directional interaction terms in the loads will be assessed in order to conclude on its importance to the mooring design.

Author(s):  
Flavia C. Rezende ◽  
Xiao-bo Chen

Further to the studies by Chen & Rezende (OMAE2009) on the quadratic transfer function (QTF) of low-frequency wave loading in which the QTF is developed by the series expansion associated with the difference-frequency up to the order-Δω2, new formulations have been developed in order to take into account the effect of interactions between waves of different headings. It provides a novel method to evaluate the low-frequency second-order wave loads in a more accurate than usual order-Δω approximation (often called Newman approximation) and more efficient way comparing to the computation of complete QTF in multi-directional waves. New developments including numerical results of different components of QTF are presented here. Furthermore, the time-series reconstruction of excitation loads by quadruple sums in the motion simulation of mooring systems is analyzed and a new efficient and accurate scheme using only a triple sum is demonstrated.


Author(s):  
Olaf J. Waals

Operability of offshore moored ships can be affected by low frequency wave loads. The low frequency motions of a moored ship may limit the uptime of an offshore structure such as an LNG offloading terminal. The wave loads that cause the main excitation of these low frequency motions are usually computed using second order wave drift theory for long crested waves, which assumes that the low frequency components are only related to waves coming from the same direction. In this method short crested seas are dealt with as a summation of long crested seas, but no interaction between the wave components traveling in different directions is usually taken into account. This paper describes the results of a study to the effect of 2nd order low frequency wave loads in directional seas. For this study the drift forces related to the interaction between waves coming from different directions is also included. This is done by computing the quadratic transfer functions (QTF) for all possible combinations of wave components (frequencies and directions). Time traces of drift forces are generated and compared to the results without wave directional interaction after which the motions of an LNG carrier are simulated. A sensitivity study is carried out towards the number of direction steps and the water depth. Finally the motions of an LNG carrier in shallow water (15m water depth) are simulated and mooring forces are compared for various amounts of wave spreading.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Abbiati ◽  
Thomas Sauder

An application of cyber-physical testing to the empirical estimation of difference-frequency quadratic transfer functions is presented. As an alternative to today's procedure based on hydrodynamic tests with broad-banded or realistic (e.g., JONSWAP) wave spectra, tests in bichromatic waves are considered. The laboratory setup is the one developed by Sauder \& Tahchiev (2020) that enables magnifying the sensitivity of the floater response to the low-frequency wave loading by adjusting the stiffness and damping parameters of a virtual soft mooring system. Bayesian experimental design is proposed to optimize the selection of the control variables (frequencies in the bichromatic wave and properties of the virtual mooring system) for a batch of cyber-physical tests. The experimental design algorithm is based on the recent work of Huan \& Marzouk (2013). In a virtual yet realistic case study using an uncertain parametric quadratic transfer function, we demonstrate how the uncertainty of its describing parameters and other calibration parameters (low-frequency added mass and hydrodynamic damping) can be reduced. Results indicate that the proposed procedure has the potential for reducing experimental cost for calibration of hydrodynamic models.


Author(s):  
Xiao-Bo Chen ◽  
Fla´via Rezende

As the main source of resonant excitations to most offshore moored systems like floating LNG terminals, the low-frequency wave loading is the critical input to motion simulations which are important for the design. Further to the analysis presented by Chen & Duan (2007) and Chen & Rezende (2008) on the quadratic transfer function (QTF) of low-frequency wave loading, the new formulation of QTF is developed by the series expansion of the second-order wave loading with respect to the difference-frequency upto the order-2. It provides a novel method to evaluate the low-frequency second-order wave loads in a more accurate than usual order-0 approximation (often called Newman approximation) and more efficient way comparing to the computation of complete QTF. New developments including numerical results of different components of QTF are presented here. Furthermore, the time-series reconstruction of excitation loads in the motion simulation of mooring systems is analyzed and a new efficient and accurate scheme is demonstrated.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Lu Wang ◽  
Amy Robertson ◽  
Jason Jonkman ◽  
Yi-Hsiang Yu

Current mid-fidelity modeling approaches for floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) have been found to underpredict the nonlinear, low-frequency wave excitation and the response of semisubmersible FOWTs. To examine the cause of this underprediction, the OC6 project is using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools to investigate the wave loads on the OC5-DeepCwind semisubmersible, with a focus on the nonlinear difference-frequency excitation. This paper focuses on assessing the uncertainty of the CFD predictions from simulations of the semisubmersible in a fixed condition under bichromatic wave loading and on establishing confidence in the results for use in improving mid-fidelity models. The uncertainty for the nonlinear wave excitation is found to be acceptable but larger than that for the wave-frequency excitation, with the spatial discretization error being the dominant contributor. Further, unwanted free waves at the difference frequency have been identified in the CFD solution. A wave-splitting and wave load-correction procedure are presented to remove the contamination from the free waves in the results. A preliminary comparison to second-order potential-flow theory shows that the CFD model predicted significantly higher difference-frequency wave excitations, especially in surge, suggesting that the CFD results can be used to better calibrate the mid-fidelity tools.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Abbiati ◽  
Thomas Sauder

Abstract An application of cyber-physical testing to the empirical estimation of difference-frequency quadratic transfer functions is presented. As an alternative to today’s procedure based on hydrodynamic tests with broad-banded or realistic (e.g., JONSWAP) wave spectra, tests in bichromatic waves are considered. The laboratory setup is the one developed by Sauder & Tahchiev (2020) that enables magnifying the sensitivity of the floater response to the low-frequency wave loading by adjusting the stiffness and damping parameters of a virtual soft mooring system. Bayesian experimental design is proposed to optimize the selection of the control variables (frequencies in the bichromatic wave and properties of the virtual mooring system) for a batch of cyber-physical tests. The experimental design algorithm is based on the recent work of Huan & Marzouk (2013). In a virtual yet realistic case study using an uncertain parametric quadratic transfer function, we demonstrate how the uncertainty of its describing parameters and other calibration parameters (low-frequency added mass and hydrodynamic damping) can be reduced. Results indicate that the proposed procedure has the potential for reducing experimental cost for calibration of hydrodynamic models.


Author(s):  
Monica J. Holboke ◽  
Robert G. Grant

This paper presents the results of a two-body analysis for a moored ship sheltered by a breakwater in shallow water with and without free surface forcing in the low frequency wave load calculation. The low frequency wave loads are determined by second order interactions from the first order. The free surface forcing term arises from the free surface boundary condition, which is trivial to first order but is not at second order. We demonstrate in the frequency domain the importance of this term in a two-body analysis. Additionally, we show how inaccurate calculations of the off-diagonal terms of the Quadratic Transfer Function can translate to over or under prediction of low frequency wave loads on moored ships sheltered by breakwaters in shallow water. Low frequency wave load accuracy has direct consequence for LNG marine terminal design. Generally, LNG marine terminals are sited in sheltered harbors, however increasingly they are being proposed in offshore locations where they will require protection from persistent waves and swells. Since breakwaters typically cost twice as much as the rest of the marine facilities, it is important to optimize their size, orientation and location. In a previous paper we described this optimization process [1], which identified a key step to be the transforming of waves just offshore the breakwater into wave loads on the moored ships. The ability to do this step accurately is of critical importance because if the loads are too large, the breakwater will be larger and more expensive than necessary and if the loads are too small, the terminal will experience excessive downtime and loss of revenue.


Author(s):  
Charles Monroy ◽  
Guillaume de Hauteclocque ◽  
Xiao-Bo Chen

The low-frequency quadratic transfer function (QTF) is defined as the second-order wave loads occurring at the frequency equal to the difference frequency (ω1 − ω2) of two wave frequencies (ω1, ω2) in bi-chromatic waves of unit amplitude. The exact formulation of the QTF which is recalled here is difficult to implement due to numerical convergence problems mainly related to the evaluation of an arduous free surface integral. This is why several approximations have been used for practical engineering studies. They have been the subject of a detailed review in [5]. Following this work, two closely-related formulations are investigated in this paper. In [2], the classical formulations of QTF are examined by an analysis based on the Taylor development with respect to Δω for Δω ≪ 1 and an expansion of QTF in power of Δω is then obtained. It is shown that the zeroth-order term is a pure real function equal to the drift loads and that the term of order O(Δω) is a pure imaginary function. The second-order low-frequency wave loading of order O(Δω) contains a free-surface integral representing the second-order corrective forcing on the free surface. Since the integrand is of order O(1/R4) with R as the radial coordinate, the free-surface integral converges rapidly with the radial distance. Unlike what has been assumed in previous studies of particular cases, this free-surface contribution is, in general, not negligible for high Δω compared to other components and the complete QTF. Depending whether we use the O(Δω) approximation for the whole QTF or only for this free surface integral, it leads to two different approximations. The first one is called original O(Δω) approximation, because it is on this form that the O(Δω) approximation was first described in [2]. If we use the O(Δω) approximation only for the free surface integral, we call this approximation the practical O(Δω) approximation. It is shown in this paper that the original formulation fails to predict the behaviour of the QTF even for small O(Δω). Comparison for the O(Δω) approximation of the free surface integral is performed against the analytical solution and the exact numerical formulation. The results are improved compared to when we neglect this free surface integral for the range of Δω of interest, but still the agreement with the exact solution is not ideal. A path for further improvement is finally proposed.


Author(s):  
Mathieu Renaud ◽  
Fla´via Rezende ◽  
Olaf Waals ◽  
Xiao-Bo Chen ◽  
Radboud van Dijk

Due to the installation of LNG terminals moored in proximity to the coast, the wave kinematics in shallow water and the consequence on the behavior of those terminals have recently became a major concern of the offshore industry. One key issue is the accurate simulation of the low-frequency motions of LNG carriers, specially the surge, for which the vessel presents low damping, in order to perform the design of the mooring system. The present paper focuses on the effect of wave directionality on second-order slow-drift loads and the related response of the vessel. The paper describes results of model tests in regular cross waves — monochromatic but coming from two directions separated by 90 degrees, as well as bichromatic cross waves. The new “middle field” formulation extended to the case of cross waves, is used to compute the wave drift loads and low-frequency Quadratic Transfer Function (QTF). The results are compared with those from the model tests.


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