Hull-Mooring Coupled Dynamic Analysis of Two Side-by-Side Operating Vessels

This paper contains the results of mooring analyses of two side-by-side operating crane barges in the installation procedure of a jacket type platform in an oil-gas field in the Persian Gulf. Since the vessels are proposed to operate next to a fixed structure, making sure about their displacements and a convenient clearance between them and the jacket is a highly important aspect of the design process. In essence, the analyses consist of setting an appropriate configuration and positioning of the vessels relative to each other, considering a reasonable gap between vessels and the jacket, connecting the vessels together, and studding the behavior of the moored system when it is subjected to a set of environments. In particular, an equilibrium configuration is found when the system is subjected to the mean force of the environment which consists of waves, wind gusts and currents. Then the dynamics of the system about the mean position is investigated. In order to study the influence of a dynamic mooring analysis, two cases are compared; one considering weight and buoyancy as the only forces acting on the lines and carrying out a quasi-static mooring analysis, and the other taking into account the hydrodynamic forces from the mooring lines. An accurate and efficient finite element program for the coupled analysis of the hull-mooring system is used and two types of modeling the connected vessels are compared; one using joints with restraints for all relative motions but in relative roll, and the other using slings and fenders. In all cases, the results of time domain analyses consisting of mooring line loads and motion responses of the vessels are presented in time histories and the statistics are studied.