• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.22-26
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to improve the design of a mooring line by attaching a lumped mass to it on the seabed. A numerical analysis of the redesigned mooring system is performed to analyze the effect of the weight of the attached lumped mass using the commercial software Orcaflex. The ultimate tension of the mooring system with the lumped mass is compared with that of a bare mooring line in the original design. An appropriately designed weight for the lumped mass is found to induce a critical lifted point in the mooring line by floater motion in the ultimate condition to move toward the floater position from the anchor point, while maintaining a similar safety factor for the mooring line. On the other hand, it is shown that excess weight for the lumped mass induces snapping in a mooring line, resulting in low safety factor for the mooring system. The distance between lumped weights is shown to be a minor parameter affecting the safety of a mooring line, although a shorter line has an advantage from an economic point of view. Using the optimal weight for the lumped mass attached to the mooring line on a seabed reduces the mooring line length and installation area occupied by a mooring system under real sea conditions.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.77-85
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• 2012

A study was performed on the design of a mooring line to maintain the position of a floating WEC (wave energy conversion) system. The procedure to design a mooring line is set up and the safety of the designed mooring system is evaluated using commercial software, Orcaflex. The characteristics curve for one line is analyzed to determine the properties and pretension of a mooring line. While considering the ocean environmental condition and importance of a floating WEC system, a multi-line layout is determined. A 4-point mooring system with 4 lines shows the instability in the yaw motion of the floating WEC system under a designed ocean environmental condition. The redesigned 4-point mooring system with 8 lines is found to be safe on the condition of a harsh ocean environment. The floating WEC system with the redesigned mooring system also shows stable motion in surge and pitch under operating conditions. From a parametric study on the mooring line length, the extreme value of the mooring line tension is found to be very sensitive to the pretension and length of mooring line. The results of this study can contribute to the establishment of a design procedure for mooring lines.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.16-21
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• 2013

In this paper, the mooring system for a floating wave energy farm is designed based on a two-dimensional analysis. The mooring system uses an anchorless mooring line linking two floaters in a floating wave energy farm. The basic equation to determine the length of the mooring line between the two floaters is proposed. The other properties such as the diameter and pretension are taken from the mooring line for a single floater. The dynamic behavior and safety of the designed mooring system under extreme ocean conditions are analyzed with the commercial software Orcaflex. A numerical study shows the stability and high safety in tension of the designed mooring lines for a floating wave energy farm. The proposed anchorless mooring system for a floating wave energy farm results in a considerable reduction in the length of the mooring line, contributing to the economics of a floating wave energy farm.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Information Technology
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.41-47
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• 2018

The buoy-enabled underwater surveillance system is a device that is installed in a particular sea area and operated for a certain period of tine and moved to another sea area after recovery. In this paper, a mooring method which is applied for a buoy-enabled underwater surveillance system was selected to maintain installation and enure stable operation. Also, the structure of the mooring line was designed. Two-point mooring method was selected considering interference with the communication cable of array-assembly. The composite structure of buoy chain, nylon rope, and anchor chain is designed as the basic component of mooring line. For the verification of design, a numerical simulation and wave tank experiment were performed. Their results were confirmed similarity in test condition. Finally, the mooring lines were designed for the environment of the sea trial location. The mooring line produced by the final design confirmed the stability above the significant wave height considered in the design on the sea trial.

• 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.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.257-265
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• 2017

In this study, a series of numerical simulations was conducted in order to design a truncated mooring line with a static similarity to the prototype. A finite element method based on minimizing the potential energy was utilized to describe the dynamics of mooring lines. The prototype mooring lines considered were installed at a water depth of 1,000 m, whereas the KRISO ocean engineering basin (OEB) in Daejeon has a water depth of 3.2 m, which represents 192 m using a scaling of 1:60. First, an investigation for the design of the truncated mooring line was carried out to match the static characteristics of the KRISO Daejeon OEB environment. Then, the same procedure was performed with the KRISO new deepwater ocean engineering basin (DOEB) that is under construction in Busan. This new facility has a water depth of 15 m, which reflects a real scale depth of 900 m considering the 1:60 scaling factor. A finite element method was used to model the mooring line dynamics. It was found that the targeted truncated mooring line could not be designed under the circumstances of the KRISO OEB with any material properties, whereas several mooring lines were easily matched to the prototype under the circumstances of the KRISO DOEB.

• Bulletin of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.3-12
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• 1986

This paper investigates the static configurations and the dynamic behaviors of a single point mooring line. To obtain the static configuration and static tension distribution along the mooring line, including the effect of fluid nonlinear drag and the elasticity of the line, the Runge-Kutta fourth order numerical method was used. The relationship between the horizontal excursion and the horizontal restoring force component of the mooring line, which is very important to a mooring line design, and the effect of a subsurface buoy on the static configuration are presented. In nonlinear dynamic analysis including nonlinear fluid drag acting on the line and geometrical nonlinearity for large deflections, finite element method using updated Lagrangian was used to obtain the solution. In the case of upper end harmonic excitation of the mooring line, the dynamic motion and the tension were also presented.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.61-66
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• 2009

For a spread-moored FPSO (Floating Production, Storage, & Off-loading) subjected to environmental excitation from waves, current, and wind, a procedure to determine optimum length and stiffness of mooring lines is suggested using quasi-static frequency domain response analyses. Coupled relations between design parameters are closely examined. In consideration of this, optimized design parameters are proposed based on minimum weight condition. The initial design parameters for numerical analyses are calculated using the static catenary equation of mooring lines. It is demonstrated the line tension and vessel's offset are influenced by the mooring line length and stiffness. Accordingly it is suggested the optimum vessel's offset range should be determined considering line fatigue damage. The availability and limitation of the application of quasi-static analysis method for spread mooring system are explained by comparing the result of time domain analysis with one of frequency domain analysis.

• International Journal of Ocean System Engineering
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.209-217
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• 2013

This paper presents a mooring design procedure for a floating offshore wind turbine. Offshore environmental data for Jeju are taken from KHOA (Korea Hydrographic and Oceanographic Administration) and used for the environmental conditions in numerical analyses. A semi-submersible-type floating wind system with a 5-MW-class wind turbine studied by the DeepCwind Consortium is applied. Catenary mooring with a studless chain is chosen as the mooring system. Design deliverables such as the nominal sizes of chain and length of the mooring line are decided by considering the long-term prediction of the breaking strength of the mooring lines where a 100-year return period is used. The designed mooring system is verified using a fatigue calculation based on rain-flow cycle counting, an S-N curve, and a Miner's damage summation of rule. The mooring tension process is obtained from time-domain motion analyses using ANSYS/AQWA.

• 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.