A Simplified Model for the Study of Dynamic Coupling Effects in Deepwater Floating Structures

Author(s):  
Ying Min Low ◽  
Robin S. Langley

As the exploitation of hydrocarbon moves towards deeper waters, the global dynamic response of a floating production system needs to be predicted with coupled analysis methods to ensure accuracy and reliability. Two types of coupling can be identified: one is between the floating platform and the mooring lines/risers, while the other is between the mean offset, the wave frequency and the low frequency motions of the system. At present, it is unfeasible to employ fully coupled time domain analysis on a routine basis due to prohibitive computational time. This has spurred the development of more efficient methods that account for the various couplings, including frequency domain approaches. It is paramount for the complex coupling mechanisms to be well understood before appropriate simplifications and assumptions can be made. In this paper, a simplified two degree-of-freedom system representing the surge motion of a vessel and the fundamental vibration mode of the lines is examined which captures the important underlying physics. Within this framework, the frequency domain equations are rigorously formulated, and the nonlinearities in the restoring forces and drag are stochastically linearized. The model allows key coupling effects to be identified: among other things, the equations demonstrate how the wave frequency dynamics of the mooring lines are coupled to the low frequency motions of the vessel. Subsequently, the effects of making certain simplifications are investigated through a series of frequency domain spectral analyses, and comparisons are made to simulations in the time domain. The work highlights the effect of certain common approximations, and recommendations are made regarding the development of efficient modeling techniques.

Author(s):  
Ying Min Low ◽  
Robin S. Langley

The global dynamic response of a deep water floating production system needs to be predicted with coupled analysis methods to ensure accuracy and reliability. Two types of coupling can be identified: one is between the floating platform and the mooring lines/risers, while the other is between the mean offset, the wave frequency, and the low frequency motions of the system. At present, it is unfeasible to employ fully coupled time domain analysis on a routine basis due to the prohibitive computational time. This has spurred the development of more efficient methods, including frequency domain approaches. A good understanding of the intricate coupling mechanisms is paramount for making appropriate approximations in an efficient method. To this end, a simplified two degree-of-freedom system representing the surge motion of a vessel and the fundamental vibration mode of the lines is studied for physical insight. Within this framework, the frequency domain equations are rigorously formulated, and the nonlinearities in the restoring forces and drag are statistically linearized. The model allows key coupling effects to be understood; among other things, the equations demonstrate how the wave frequency dynamics of the mooring lines are coupled to the low frequency motions of the vessel. Subsequently, the effects of making certain simplifications are investigated through a series of frequency domain analyses, and comparisons are made to simulations in the time domain. The work highlights the effect of some common approximations, and recommendations are made regarding the development of efficient modeling techniques.


Author(s):  
Chen Gang ◽  
Zhao Nan ◽  
Zhang Wei ◽  
Yuan Hongtao ◽  
Li Chunhui ◽  
...  

The analysis of the influence of risers on the motions of a floating platform is often conducted and simplified by uncoupled method. As the number of risers and water depth increase, this method would not predict system motion accurately. Coupled analysis method in time domain becomes a very convenient approach in response calculation since it automatically includes the interaction among platform, mooring lines and risers. This paper introduces a full coupled approach by AQWA-NAUT to include viscous damping of the semi submersible and effects of steel catenary risers on the wave frequency response of platform in time domain motion analysis. The main conclusion of this paper is that full coupled method can accruately predict semi submersible Response Amplitude Operator (RAOs) comparing to the case without risers. Other conclusions are that risers have an important effect on the wave frequency motion of semi submersible and also lead to a phase lag with respect to platform motions.


Author(s):  
Ying Min Low ◽  
Robin S. Langley

The dynamic analysis of a deepwater floating platform and the associated mooring/riser system should ideally be fully coupled to ensure a reliable response prediction. It is generally held that a time domain analysis is the only means of capturing the various coupling and nonlinear effects accurately. However, in recent work it has been found that for an ultra-deepwater floating system (2000m water depth), the highly efficient frequency domain approach can provide highly accurate response predictions. One reason for this is the accuracy of the drag linearization procedure over both first and second order motions, another reason is the minimal geometric nonlinearity displayed by the mooring lines in deepwater. In this paper, the aim is to develop an efficient analysis method for intermediate water depths, where both mooring/vessel coupling and geometric nonlinearity are of importance. It is found that the standard frequency domain approach is not so accurate for this case and two alternative methods are investigated. In the first, an enhanced frequency domain approach is adopted, in which line nonlinearities are linearized in a systematic way. In the second, a hybrid approach is adopted in which the low frequency motion is solved in the time domain while the high frequency motion is solved in the frequency domain; the two analyses are coupled by the fact that (i) the low frequency motion affects the mooring line geometry for the high frequency motion, and (ii) the high frequency motion affects the drag forces which damp the low frequency motion. The accuracy and efficiency of each of the methods are systematically compared.


Author(s):  
Ying Min Low ◽  
Robin S. Langley

The recognition of the need for a fully coupled analysis of deepwater floating production systems has led to the research and development of several coupled analysis tools in recent years. Barring a handful of exceptions, these tools and available commercial packages are invariably in the time domain. This has resulted in a much better understanding and confidence in time domain coupled analysis, but less so for the frequency domain approach. In this paper, the viability of frequency domain coupled analysis is explored by performing a systematic comparison of time and frequency domain methods using computer programs developed in-house. In both methods, a global coordinate system is employed where the vessel is modeled with six degrees-of-freedom, while the mooring lines and risers are discretized as lumped masses connected by extensional and rotational springs. Coupling between the vessel and the mooring lines is achieved by stiff springs, and the influence of inertia and damping from the lines are directly accounted for without the need for prior assumptions. First and second order wave forces generated from a random environment are applied on the vessel, as well as drag and inertia loading on the lines. For the time domain simulation, the Wilson-theta implicit integration scheme is employed to permit the use of relatively large time steps. The frequency domain analysis is highly efficient despite being formulated in global coordinates, owing to the banded characteristics of the mass, damping and stiffness matrices. The nonlinear drag forces are stochastically linearized iteratively. As both the time and frequency domain models of the coupled system are identical, a consistent assessment of the error induced by stochastic linearization can be made.


Author(s):  
Ying Min Low ◽  
Andrew J. Grime

In the dynamic analysis of a floating structure, coupled analysis refers to a procedure in which the vessel, moorings, and risers are modeled as a whole system, thus allowing for interactions between various system components. Because coupled analysis in the time domain is impractical owing to prohibitive computational costs, a highly efficient frequency domain approach was developed in a previous work, wherein the drag forces are linearized. The study showed that provided the geometric nonlinearity of the moorings/risers is insignificant, which often holds for ultradeepwater systems, the mean-squared responses yielded by the time and frequency domain methods are in close agreement. Practical design is concerned with the extreme response, for which the mean upcrossing rate is a key parameter. Crossing rate analysis based on statistical techniques is complicated as the total response occurs at two timescales, with the low frequency contribution being notably non-Gaussian. Many studies have been devoted to this problem, mainly relying on a technique originating from Kac and Siegert; however, these studies have mostly been confined to a single-degree-of-freedom system. The aim of this work is to apply statistical techniques in conjunction with frequency domain analysis to predict the extreme responses of the coupled system, in particular the modes with a prominent low frequency component. It is found that the crossing rates for surge, sway and yaw thus obtained agree well with those extracted from time domain simulation, whereas the result for roll is less favorable, and the reasons are discussed.


Author(s):  
Ying Min Low ◽  
Andrew J. Grime

In the dynamic analysis of a floating structure, coupled analysis refers to a procedure in which the vessel, moorings and risers are modeled as a whole system, thus allowing for the interactions between the various system components. Because coupled analysis in the time domain is impractical owing to prohibitive computational costs, a highly efficient frequency domain approach was developed in a previous work, wherein the drag forces are linearized. The study showed that provided the geometric nonlinearity of the moorings/risers is insignificant, which often holds for ultra-deepwater systems, the mean-squared responses yielded by the time and frequency domain methods are in close agreement. Practical design is concerned with the extreme response, for which the mean upcrossing rate is a key parameter. Crossing rate analysis based on statistical techniques is complicated as the total response occurs at two timescales, with the low frequency contribution being notably non-Gaussian. Many studies have been devoted to this problem, mainly relying on a technique originating from Kac and Siegert; however, these studies have mostly been confined to a single-degree-of-freedom system. The aim of this work is to apply statistical techniques in conjunction with frequency domain analysis to predict the extreme responses of the coupled system, in particular the modes with a prominent low frequency component. It is found that the crossing rates for surge, sway and yaw thus obtained agree well with those extracted from time domain simulation, whereas the result for roll is less favorable, and the reasons are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 781
Author(s):  
Shi He ◽  
Aijun Wang

The numerical procedures for dynamic analysis of mooring lines in the time domain and frequency domain were developed in this work. The lumped mass method was used to model the mooring lines. In the time domain dynamic analysis, the modified Euler method was used to solve the motion equation of mooring lines. The dynamic analyses of mooring lines under horizontal, vertical, and combined harmonic excitations were carried out. The cases of single-component and multicomponent mooring lines under these excitations were studied, respectively. The case considering the seabed contact was also included. The program was validated by comparing with the results from commercial software, Orcaflex. For the frequency domain dynamic analysis, an improved frame invariant stochastic linearization method was applied to the nonlinear hydrodynamic drag term. The cases of single-component and multicomponent mooring lines were studied. The comparison of results shows that frequency domain results agree well with nonlinear time domain results.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Giovanni Amaral ◽  
Pedro Mello ◽  
Lucas do Carmo ◽  
Izabela Alberto ◽  
Edgard Malta ◽  
...  

The present work highlights some of the dynamic couplings observed in a series of tests performed in a wave basin with a scaled-model of a Floating Offshore Wind Turbine (FOWT) with semi-submersible substructure. The model was moored by means of a conventional chain catenary system and an actively controlled fan was used for emulating the thrust loads during the tests. A set of wave tests was performed for concomitant effects of not aligned wave and wind. The experimental measurements illustrate the main coupling effects involved and how they affect the FOWT motions in waves, especially when the floater presents a non-negligible tilt angle. In addition, a frequency domain numerical analysis was performed in order to evaluate its ability to capture these effects properly. The influence of different modes of fan response, floater trim angles (changeable with ballast compensation) and variations in the mooring stiffness with the offsets were investigated in the analysis. Results attest that significant changes in the FOWT responses may indeed arise from coupling effects, thus indicating that caution must be taken when simplifying the hydrodynamic frequency-domain models often used as a basis for the simulation of FOWTs in waves and in optimization procedures for the design of the floater and mooring lines.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (03) ◽  
pp. 1850037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Su ◽  
Zhenggang Cao ◽  
Yue Wu

Wind-induced response analysis is an important process in the design of large-span roofs. Conventional time-domain methods are computationally more expensive than frequency-domain algorithms; however, the latter are not as accurate because of the ill-treatment of the modal coupling effects. This paper revisited the derivations of the frequency-domain algorithm and proposed a fast algorithm for estimating the dynamic wind-induced response considering duly the modal coupling effects. With the wind load cross-spectra modeled by rational functions, closed-form solutions to the frequency-domain integrals can be calculated by Cauchy’s residue theorem, rather than by numerical integration, thereby reducing the truncation errors and enhancing the efficiency of computation. The algorithm is applied to the analysis of a grandstand roof and a spherical dome. Through comparison with time domain analyses results, the algorithm is proved to be reliable. A criterion of the coupling modal combination was suggested based on the cumulative modal contribution rate of over 70%.


Author(s):  
Liping Liu ◽  
Earl H. Dowell

This paper describes the extension and application of a novel solution method for the periodic nonlinear oscillations of an aeroelastic system. This solution method is a very attractive alternative to time marching algorithms in that it is much faster and may track unstable as well as stable limit cycles. The method is employed to analyze the nonlinear aeroelastic response of a two dimensional airfoil including a control surface with freeplay placed in an incompressible flow. The mathematical model for this piecewise aeroelastic system is initially formulated as a set of first order ordinary differential equations. A frequency domain solution for the limit cycle oscillations is derived by a novel high dimensional harmonic balance (HDHB) method. By an inverse Fourier transformation, the system in the frequency domain is then converted into the time domain. Finally, the airfoil motions are obtained by solving the system in the time domain for only one period of limit cycle oscillation. This process can be easily implemented into computer programs without going through the complex algebraic manipulations for the nonlinearities typical of a more conventional harmonic balance solution method. The solutions found using this new HDHB method have been shown to be the same as those found using a more traditional time marching (e.g. Runge-Kutta) approach and also a conventional harmonic balance approach in the frequency domain with a considerable computational time saving.


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