scholarly journals ON MOORING DESIGN OF WAVE ENERGY CONVERTERS: THE SEABREATH APPLICATION

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (33) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Martinelli ◽  
Piero Ruol ◽  
Giampaolo Cortellazzo
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Wave Energy ◽  
Shallow Waters ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Mooring System ◽  
Mooring Lines ◽  
Similar Frequency ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Resonance Effects ◽  
Non Linear

The design of a mooring system of a Wave Energy Converter is a challenging process that points out several unsolved technical problems, mostly related to the highly non-linear hydrodynamic phenomena occurring when high waves (e.g. 8 m high with 200 m wavelength) propagate in relatively shallow waters (e.g. 20 m). The aim of this note is to point out the relevance of the non-linear response of a WEC anchored in relatively shallow waters (shallow in the “non-linear” sense) in terms of loads applied to the mooring lines. Further, the effects of this cyclic load on the anchors is investigated. Note that to some extent it is like checking the importance of geotechnical and coastal engineers in the design process of the WEC structure and its mooring system (typically carried out by naval architects). The whole mooring design process is first outlined and then it is schematically applied to a specific case, namely a promising Italian device named SeaBreath (www.seabreath.it), in view of a possible deployment in the Adriatic Sea. The main concern of mooring designers is related to resonance effects induced by the second order drift. Therefore specific tests have been carried out in the 36 m long x 1.0 m wide x 1.3 m high wave flume of Padova University. Tests focused on the forces on the mooring lines induced by the sum of two regular waves of similar frequency. The mooring design is still far from complete: the physical model proved the relevance of the aforementioned effects but a numerical investigation (not yet performed) is required to draw final conclusions.

An Innovative Synthetic Mooring Solution for an Octagonal FPSO in Shallow Waters

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mo Fan ◽  
Da Li ◽  
Tuanjie Liu ◽  
Alex Ran ◽  
Wei Ye
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Shallow Waters ◽  
Manufacturing Processes ◽  
Mooring System ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
Mooring Lines ◽  
Environmental Loads ◽  
Design And Manufacturing ◽  
Full Production ◽  
Three Bundles

An octagonal FPSO has been proposed for marginal oil and gas development in shallow waters. A shuttle tanker will be deployed near the FPSO during offloading operations. This new concept simplifies the design and manufacturing processes, yet maintains full production, storage, and offloading functions of a conventional ship-shaped FPSO. However, design of the mooring system for this floating unit imposes technical challenges due to: 1) high environmental loads expected on this unit, 2) large dynamic offsets of the unit in shallow waters, and 3) inadequate performance of catenary mooring systems in shallow waters. Thus, development of a viable station keeping solution becomes a key issue to the new concept FPSO design. In this paper, an innovative mooring system is designed to meet the challenges. The FPSO mooring system consists of pile anchors, bridle chains, anchorage buoys, and polyester ropes. Nine mooring lines are grouped into three bundles which evenly spread around the FPSO. The shuttle tanker is attached to the FPSO with a nylon rope hawser at the bow and secured to pre-installed anchorage buoys at the stern with two other nylon ropes. Analyses have been performed for the FPSO mooring system. It is concluded that the proposed mooring system is fully functional and effective.

scholarly journals A Comparison of Numerical Approaches for the Design of Mooring Systems for Wave Energy Converters

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imanol Touzon ◽  
Vincenzo Nava ◽  
Borja de Miguel ◽  
Victor Petuya
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Domain ◽  
Wave Energy ◽  
Time Domain ◽  
Linear Time ◽  
Line Tension ◽  
Mooring System ◽  
Mooring Lines ◽  
Viscous Forces ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Inertia Forces

This paper analyses the numerical outcome of applying three different well-known mooring design approaches to a floating wave energy converter, moored by means of four catenary lines. The approaches include: a linearized frequency domain based on a quasistatic model of the mooring lines, a time domain approach coupled with an analytic catenary model of the mooring system, and a fully coupled non-linear time domain approach, considering lines’ drag and inertia forces. Simulations have been carried out based on a set of realistic combinations of lines pretension and linear mass, subject to extreme environmental conditions. Obtained results provide realistic cost and performance indicators, presenting a comparison in terms of total mooring mass and required footprint, as well as the design line tension and structure offset. It has been found that lines’ viscous forces influence significantly the performance of the structure with high pretensions, i.e., >1.2, while there is acceptable agreement between the modelling approaches with lower pretensions. Line tensions are significantly influenced by drag and inertia forces because of the occurrence of snap loads due to the heaving of the floater. However, the frequency domain approach provides an insight towards the optimal design of the mooring system for preliminary designs.

Design of a Mooring System With Synthetic Ropes for the FLOW Wave Energy Converter

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Fonseca ◽  
Ricardo Pascoal ◽  
Tiago Morais ◽  
Renato Dias
Keyword(s):  
Wave Energy ◽  
Domain Boundary ◽  
Angular Separation ◽  
Development Stage ◽  
Wave Energy Converter ◽  
Design Solution ◽  
Mooring System ◽  
Energy Converter ◽  
Mooring Lines ◽  
Global Cost

Martifer Energia is developing a concept of a wave energy converter (WEC) to be used at near shore locations with water depths starting at around 40m. It is a floating device composed of two bodies connected by a one degree of freedom articulation. The energy is extracted at the articulation by a power takeoff system actuated by the relative motion between the bodies. One of the important components of many WECs is the mooring system, since usually the cost is large compared global cost of the device. In this case the WEC will be moored by a spread mooring that allows the device to weathervane with the environmental loads. The paper presents one design solution for the mooring system investigated during the development stage of the concept. It is composed of four hybrid lines, each one with a segment of nylon rope connected to the floating device and a part of chain that contacts with the sea bottom and ends at the anchor. The wave frequency hydrodynamics are first calculated with a frequency domain boundary element method. The nonlinear cable dynamics problem, which is coupled to the slow drift motions of the floater, is solved in the time domain by a finite difference method. The design considers the climatology of the future area of operation of the prototype. Since the loads on the lines depend on the characteristics of the lines themselves, the design solution is obtained iteratively. Appropriate safety factors are considered. The result is the number of mooring lines, their angular separation, length and diameter of each line component.

scholarly journals Experimental Validation and Comparison of Numerical Models for the Mooring System of a Floating Wave Energy Converter

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 565 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Paduano ◽  
Giuseppe Giorgi ◽  
Rui P. F. Gomes ◽  
Edoardo Pasta ◽  
João C. C. Henriques ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wave Energy ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Mooring Line ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Mooring System ◽  
Lumped Mass ◽  
Mooring Lines ◽  
Wave Energy Converters ◽  
Efficiency Cost ◽  
Numerical Instabilities

The mooring system of floating wave energy converters (WECs) has a crucial impact on power generation efficiency, cost of delivered energy, proper operation, reliability and survivability. An effective design, addressing such competing objectives, requires appropriate mathematical models to predict mooring loads and dynamic response. However, conversely to traditional offshore engineering applications, experience in modelling mooring systems for WECs is limited, due to their unique requirement of maximising the motion while minimising loads and costs. Even though modelling approaches and software are available for this application, guidelines and critical comparison are still scarce. This paper proposes a discussion and validation of three mooring-line models: one quasi-static approach (developed in-house) and two dynamic lumped-mass approaches (the open source MoorDyn and the commercial OrcaFlex). The case study is a 1:32-scale prototype of a floating oscillating water column WEC tested in a wave tank, with three mooring lines, each one comprising of a riser and a clump weight. Validation, performed by imposing fairlead displacements and comparing resulting tensions, shows good agreement. The small scale may induce numerical instabilities and uncertainties in the parameter estimation. Finally, likely due to internal resonance of this particular mooring system, high-frequency content in the mooring tension is found, albeit absent in the kinematics of the floater.

scholarly journals Transient Responses Evaluation of FPSO with Different Failure Scenarios of Mooring Lines

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Dongsheng Qiao ◽  
Binbin Li ◽  
Jun Yan ◽  
Yu Qin ◽  
Haizhi Liang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Service Condition ◽  
Mooring Line ◽  
Mooring System ◽  
Transient Effects ◽  
Floating Platform ◽  
Transient Responses ◽  
Mooring Lines ◽  
Performance Deterioration ◽  
Steady State Responses ◽  
Influence Process

During the long-term service condition, the mooring line of the deep-water floating platform may fail due to various reasons, such as overloading caused by an accidental condition or performance deterioration. Therefore, the safety performance under the transient responses process should be evaluated in advance, during the design phase. A series of time-domain numerical simulations for evaluating the performance changes of a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) with different broken modes of mooring lines was carried out. The broken conditions include the single mooring line or two mooring lines failure under ipsilateral, opposite, and adjacent sides. The resulting transient and following steady-state responses of the vessel and the mooring line tensions were analyzed, and the corresponding influence mechanism was investigated. The accidental failure of a single or two mooring lines changes the watch circle of the vessel and the tension redistribution of the remaining mooring lines. The results indicated that the failure of mooring lines mainly influences the responses of sway, surge, and yaw, and the change rule is closely related to the stiffness and symmetry of the mooring system. The simulation results could give a profound understanding of the transient-effects influence process of mooring line failure, and the suggestions are given to account for the transient effects in the design of the mooring system.

Value of information of in situ inspections of mooring lines

2021 ◽  
pp. 1748006X2098740
Author(s):  
Jorge Mendoza ◽  
Jacopo Paglia ◽  
Jo Eidsvik ◽  
Jochen Köhler
Keyword(s):  
Pitting Corrosion ◽  
Value Of Information ◽  
Structural Reliability ◽  
Structural Safety ◽  
Statistical Dependence ◽  
Mooring System ◽  
Mooring Lines ◽  
Corrosion Condition ◽  
Chain Links

Mooring systems that are used to secure position keeping of floating offshore oil and gas facilities are subject to deterioration processes, such as pitting corrosion and fatigue crack growth. Past investigations show that pitting corrosion has a significant effect on reducing the fatigue resistance of mooring chain links. In situ inspections are essential to monitor the development of the corrosion condition of the components of mooring systems and ensure sufficient structural safety. Unfortunately, offshore inspection campaigns require large financial commitments. As a consequence, inspecting all structural components is unfeasible. This article proposes to use value of information analysis to rank identified inspection alternatives. A Bayesian Network is proposed to model the statistical dependence of the corrosion deterioration among chain links at different locations of the mooring system. This is used to efficiently update the estimation of the corrosion condition of the complete mooring system given evidence from local observations and to reassess the structural reliability of the system. A case study is presented to illustrate the application of the framework.

scholarly journals Excitation Forces Estimation for Non-linear Wave Energy Converters: A Neural Network Approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 12334-12339
Author(s):  
M. Bonfanti ◽  
F. Carapellese ◽  
S.A. Sirigu ◽  
G. Bracco ◽  
G. Mattiazzo
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Wave Energy ◽  
Linear Wave ◽  
Network Approach ◽  
Neural Network Approach ◽  
Wave Energy Converters ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Energy Converters

Qualification and Certification of Polyester Rope for Seabed Contact

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Øystein Gabrielsen ◽  
Kjell Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Water Flow ◽  
Water Depth ◽  
Test Method ◽  
Mooring System ◽  
Qualification Test ◽  
Mooring Lines ◽  
Norwegian Sea ◽  
Flow Through ◽  
Full Scale Tests ◽  
Certification Requirements

The Aasta Hansteen spar in the Norwegian Sea is designed to be moored with a taut polyester rope mooring system. The water depth at the field is 1300 meters, and due to the short installation season the most efficient hookup is with pre-installed mooring lines, which require the mooring lines to be laid down on the seabed. DNV certification does not allow seabed contact for polyester ropes unless proven that no soil ingress and damage takes place. To be able to certify the ropes Statoil developed a test method including contact with soil, rope movement and forced water flow through the filter construction. Full scale tests were performed with actual rope and Aasta Hansteen soil, both in laboratory and at site. This paper discusses the certification requirements and presents adequate qualification test together with results from testing.

On the choice of CFD codes in the design process of planing sailing yachts

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérémie Raymond ◽  
Jean-Marie Finot ◽  
Jean-Michel Kobus ◽  
Gérard Delhommeau ◽  
Patrick Queutey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Free Surface ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Finite Differences ◽  
Potential Flow ◽  
Surface Condition ◽  
Cpu Time ◽  
Free Surface Condition ◽  
Finite Differences Method ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
Ranse Solver

The discussion is based on results gathered during the first two years of a 3 years research program for the benefits of Groupe Finot-Conq, Naval Architects. The introduction presents the objectives of the program: Setting up a practical method using numerical and experimental available tools to design fast planing sailing yachts. The aim of this paper is to compare advantages and disadvantages of four different kinds of CFD codes which are linear and non-linear potential flow approach, RANSE solver using finite differences method and RANSE solver using volume of fluid method. The Fluid Mechanics Laboratory of the Ecole Centrale de Nantes (France) has developed those three approaches so those homemade codes will be used for this study. The first one is REVA, a potential flow code with a linearised free surface condition. ICARE is a RANSE solver using finite differences method with a non linear free surface condition. It is extensively used for industrial projects as for sailing yachts projects (ACC for example). ISIS-CFD is a RANSE solver using finite volume method to build the spatial discretization of the transport equations with unstructured mesh. The latter is able to compute sprays for fast planing ships but is also the slower in terms of CPU time. In addition, we had the opportunity to test FS-FLOW which is a potential flow code with a non linear free surface condition distributed by FRIENDSHIP CONSULTING. Numerical results for the four codes are compared with the other codes' results as with tank tests data. Those tank tests were made using captive model test technique on two Open60' models. Reasons of the choice of the captive model technique are explained and experimental procedures are briefly described. Comparisons between codes are mainly based on the easiness of use, the cost in CPU time and the confidence we can have in the results as a function of the boat speed. Flow visualizations, pressure maps, free surface deformation are shown and compared. Analysis of local quantities integrated or by zone is also presented. Results are analyzed focusing on the ability of each code to represent flow dynamics for every speed with a special attention to high speeds. The practical question raised is to know which kind of answers each code can bring in terms of tendencies evaluation or sensitivity to hull geometry modifications. The main goal is to be able to judge if those codes are able to make reliable and consistent comparisons of different designs. Conclusion is that none of the codes is perfect and gather all the advantages. It is still difficult to propose a definitive methodology to estimate hydrodynamic performances at every speed and at every stage of the design process. Knowing each code limitations, it appears more coherent to use each of them at different stages of the design process: the quickest and less reliable to understand the main tendencies and the longest and more precise to validate the final options.

Validation of Mooring Simulations (for Mooring Integrity Assessment) With In-Service Tension Measurements

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willemijn Pauw ◽  
Remco Hageman ◽  
Joris van den Berg ◽  
Pieter Aalberts ◽  
Hironori Yamaji ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Models ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Mooring Line ◽  
Mooring System ◽  
Mooring Lines ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Integrity Assessment ◽  
Motion Data ◽  
Load Cells ◽  
Line Loads

Abstract Integrity of mooring system is of high importance in the offshore industry. In-service assessment of loads in the mooring lines is however very challenging. Direct monitoring of mooring line loads through load cells or inclinometers requires subsea installation work and continuous data transmission. Other solutions based on GPS and motion monitoring have been presented as solutions to overcome these limitations [1]. Monitoring solutions based on GPS and motion data provide good practical benefits, because monitoring can be conducted from accessible area. The procedure relies on accurate numerical models to model the relation between global motions and response of the mooring system. In this paper, validation of this monitoring approach for a single unit will be presented. The unit under consideration is a turret-moored unit operating in Australia. In-service measurements of motions, GPS and line tensions are available. A numerical time-domain model of the mooring system was created. This model was used to simulate mooring line tensions due to measured FPSO motions. Using the measured unit response avoids the uncertainty resulting from a prediction of the hydrodynamic response. Measurements from load cells in various mooring lines are available. These measurements were compared against the results obtained from the simulations for validation of the approach. Three different periods, comprising a total of five weeks of data, were examined in more detail. Two periods are mild weather conditions with different dominant wave directions. The third period features heavy weather conditions. In this paper, the data set and numerical model are presented. A comparison between the measured and numerically calculated mooring line forces will be presented. Differences between the calculated and measured forces are examined. This validation study has shown that in-service monitoring of mooring line loads through GPS and motion data provides a new opportunity for mooring integrity assessment with reduced monitoring system complexity.

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