• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.299-307
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• 2017

The design of the mooring line to maintain the position of an offshore structure in rough marine environments is recognized as a very important consideration. Conventional fatigue evaluation of a mooring line was performed by considering the tensile force acting on the mooring line, but the mooring line broke after 238 days in the girassol area even though the expected fatigue life was expected to be longer. The causes of this event are known to be due to OPB/IPB (out-of-plane bending/in-plane bending) caused by chain link friction due to the excessive tensile strength of the mooring line. In this study, three models with different boundary conditions were proposed for fatigue analysis of a mooring line considering OPB/IPB. Interlink stiffness was calculated by nonlinear structure analysis and a stress concentration factor was derived. In addition, the sensitivity of interlink stiffness according to the magnitude of tensile force, large deformation effect, and coefficient of friction was analyzed, and the effect of critical elastic slip and bending moment calculation position on interlink stiffness was confirmed.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.297-309
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• 2018

After an accident involving mooring link failures in an offloading buoy, verification of the fatigue safety in terms of the out-of-plane bending (OPB) and in-plane bending (IPB) moments has become a key engineering item in the design of various floating offshore units. The mooring links for an 8 MW floating offshore wind turbine were selected for this study. To identify the OPB stiffness (OPB moment versus interlink angle), a numerical simulation model, called the 3-link model, is usually composed of three successive chain links closest to the fairlead or chain hawse. This paper introduces two numerical simulation techniques for the 3-link analyses. The conventional and advanced approaches are both based on the prescribed rotation approach (PRA) and direct tension approach (DTA). Comparisons of the nominal stress distributions, OPB stiffnesses, hotspot stress curves, and stress concentration curves are presented. The multiple link analyses used to identify the tension angle versus interlink angle require the OPB stiffness data from the 3-link analyses. A convergence study was conducted to determine the minimum number of links for a multi-link analysis. It was proven that 10 links were sufficient for the multi-link analysis. The tension angle versus interlink angle relations are presented based on multi-link analyses with 10 links. It was found that the subsequent results varied significantly according to the 3-link analysis techniques.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.178-201
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• 2019

The appropriate design of a mooring system to maintain the position of an offshore structure in deep sea under various environmental loads is important. Fatigue design of the mooring line considering OPB/IPB(out-of-plane bending/in-plane bending) became an essential factor after the incident of premature fatigue failure of the mooring chain due to OPB/IPB in the Girassol region in West Africa. In this study, mooring line fatigue analysis was performed considering the OPB/IPB of a spread moored FPSO in deep sea. The tension of the mooring line was derived by hydrodynamic analysis using the de-coupled analysis method. The floater motion time histories were calculated under the assumption that the mooring line behaves in quasi-static manner. Additional time domain analysis was carried out by prescribing the obtained motions on top of the selected critical mooring line, which was determined based on spectral fatigue analysis. In addition, nonlinear finite element analysis was performed considering the material nonlinearities, and both the interlink stiffness and stress concentration factors were derived. The fatigue damage to the chain surface was estimated by combining both the hydrodynamic and stress analysis results.