Hydroelastic analysis of floating structures under wave loads

Accurate prediction of hydroelastic response in ocean waves is of great significance to the structural design and reliability design of floating structures. In this paper, based on the potential flow theory, a large floating structure is simplified as a thin-plate material, and the hydrodynamic characteristics of the structure are calculated by using the modal expansion method and the boundary element method. The correctness of the theory and calculation is verified by comparing the experimental and numerical results. Further, the wave properties and structural materials characterization were changed, this paper calculates the stress and deflection of the structure under wave action, and analyzes the effects of hydroelastic response on the safety of the structure.

Experimental Data of a Hexagonal Floating Structure under Waves

Floating structures have a wide range of application and shapes. This experimental investigations observes a hexagonal floating structure under wave conditions for three different draft configurations. Regular waves as well as a range of white noise tests were conducted to quantify the response amplitude operator (RAO). Further irregular waves focused on the survivability of the floating structure. The presented dataset includes wave gauge data as well as a six degree of freedom motion measurement to quantify the response only restricted by a soft mooring system. Additional analysis include the measurement of the mass properties of the individual configuration, natural frequency of the mooring system as well as the comparison between requested and measured wave heights. This allows us to use the provided dataset as a validation experiment.

The Quasi-Static Response of Moored Floating Structures Based on Minimization of Mechanical Energy

It is essential to design a reasonable mooring line length that ensures quasi-static responses of moored floating structures are within an acceptable level, and that reduces the cost of mooring lines in the overall project. Quasi-static responses include the equilibrium position and the line tension of a moored floating structure (also called the mean value in a dynamic response), etc. The quasi-static responses derived by the classic catenary equation cannot present mooring–seabed interaction and hydrodynamic effects on a mooring line. While a commercial program can predict reasonable quasi-static responses, costly modeling is required. This motivated us to propose a new method for predicting quasi-static responses that minimizes the mechanical energy of the whole system based on basic geometric parameters, and that is easy to implement. In this study, the mechanical energy of moored floating structures is assumed to be the sum of gravitational–buoyancy potential energy, kinetic energy induced by drag forces, and spring potential energy derived by line tension. We introduce fundamental theoretical background for the development of the proposed method. We investigate the effect of quasi-static actions on mooring response, comparing the proposed method’s results with those from the catenary equation and ABAQUS software. The study reveals the shortcomings of the catenary equation in offshore applications. We also compare quasi-static responses derived by the AQWA numerical package with the results calculated from the proposed method for an 8 MW WindFloat 2 type of platform. Good agreement was drawn between the proposed method and AQWA. The proposed method proves more timesaving than AQWA in terms of modeling of mooring lines and floaters, and more accurate than the catenary equation, and can be used effectively in the early design phase of dimension mooring lengths for moored floating structures.

The Hydrodynamic Moment of a Floating Structure in Finite Flowing Water

The implementation of floating structures has increased with the construction of new sluices for flood control, and the hydrodynamic moment of a floating structure affects the safety and operation of that structure. Based on basic hydrodynamic theory, theoretical analysis and 121 physical model tests were conducted to study the relationships between the hydrodynamic moment and the influencing factors of floating structures, namely, the shape parameter, hydraulic conditions, and draft depth. Stepwise regression fitting based on the least squares method was performed to obtain a mathematical expression of the hydrodynamic moment, and the experimental results show that hydrodynamic factors significantly influence the hydrodynamic moment of such structures. The results predicted by the mathematical expression agree with the experimental results, and thus, the proposed expression can be used to comprehensively analyze and study the safety of a floating structure under the action of flow in finite water.