Numerical Modelling for Synthetic Fibre Mooring Lines Taking Elongation and Contraction into Account

Synthetic fibre mooring lines are used as an alternative to traditional steel wire ropes due to their higher strength to weight ratio. Benefits are also found in relative ease of handling, and therefore the marine industry has largely accepted this type of mooring line. By rules and regulations, the design of mooring lines should be based on a coupled dynamic analysis of a particular mooring system and moored vessel. This approach incorporates damping and inertial forces (i.e., hydrodynamic reactions) acting directly on the mooring lines due to their motion through the seawater. On the basis of the outer diameter of the synthetic fibre rope, the Morison equation gives estimations of the mooring line hydrodynamic reactions. In comparison to the traditional steel wire ropes, the synthetic mooring lines usually have relatively larger elongations and consequently larger reductions of the outer diameter. Furthermore, the lower diameter certainly leads to reduced values of damping and added mass (of mooring lines) that should be considered in the coupled model. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a new numerical model that includes diameter changes and axial deformations when estimating the hydrodynamic reactions. The development of the model is carried out with a nonlinear finite element method for mooring lines with the assumption of large three-dimensional motions. The obtained results show the effectiveness of the newly developed model as a more accurate approach in calculation of hydrodynamic reactions.

Suction Bucket Pile–Soil–Structure Interactions of Offshore Wind Turbine Jacket Foundations Using Coupled Dynamic Analysis

This paper presents a procedure for the coupled dynamic analysis of offshore wind turbine–jacket foundation-suction bucket piles and compares the American Petroleum Institute (API) standard method and Jeanjean’s methods used to model the piles. Nonlinear springs were used to represent soil lateral, axial, and tip resistances through the P–Y, T–Z, and Q–Z curves obtained by either API’s or Jeanjean’s methods. Rotational springs with a stiffness equated to the tangent or secant modulus characterized soil resistance to acentric loads. The procedure was implemented in X-SEA program. Analyses of a laterally loaded single pile in a soft clay soil performed in both the X-SEA and Structural Analysis Computer System (SACS) programs showed good agreements. The behaviors of a five MW offshore wind turbine system in South Korea were examined by considering waves, current, wind effects, and marine growth. In a free vibration analysis done with soil stiffness through the API method, the piles were found to bend in their first mode and to twist in the second and third modes, whereas the first three modes using Jeanjean’s method were all found to twist. The natural frequencies resulting from Jeanjean’s method were higher than those from the API method. In a forced vibration analysis, the system responses were significantly influenced by soil spring stiffness type. The procedure was found to be computationally expensive due to spring nonlinearities introduced.

Coupled dynamic analysis of low and medium speed maglev vehicle-bridge interaction using SIMPACK

The low- and medium-speed maglev vehicle generally operates on elevated bridges with a levitation gap of only 8--10 mm, which makes it very sensitive to the vehicle--bridge coupled vibration. To conduct the corresponding modeling and simulation with common dynamics tools, an equivalent processing of the levitation system is required. Using the dynamics software SIMPACK, this paper first introduces the methods of building the multi-body vehicle system, levitation control system and the elastic bridge, respectively, in the SIMPACK railway module, levitation control module and SIMBEAM elastomer module, thus providing a modeling idea for the simulation of the active levitation and operation of low- and medium-speed maglev vehicles through multi-span bridges. It then goes on to simulate and analyze the coupled vibration of a 160 km/h low- and medium-speed maglev vehicle passing through 25 m + 25 m double-span continuous bridges. The research results show that the modeling method introduced in this paper can simulate the low- and medium-speed maglev vehicle--bridge coupled vibration phenomenon, which can be affected significantly by the low-order frequency of the elastic bridge, and can also be intensified under the bridge end impact when the vehicle enters and leaves the bridge. As the running speed of the vehicle increases and the dynamic force increases, the vertical vibration amplitudes of the elastic bridge mid-span, the car body as well as the levitation frame approximate a linear fitting with the vehicle speed. The variation amplitudes of the levitation gap and of the electromagnet current approximate a quadratic fitting with the vehicle speed.