Time-Domain Coupled Dynamic Analysis of Mooring Systems in Extreme Sea Condition

In order to predict the coupled motion and external wave load for the design of deepwater floating structure system, based on the three-dimensional time-domain potential flow theory, this paper present the indirect time-domain dynamic coupling method and the body nonlinear dynamic coupling method. The perturbation expansion theory is adopted to evaluate hydrodynamic on the fixed mean wetted body surface for the former method. The transient free surface Green function has been extended and applied to calculate the nonlinear hydrodynamic on the instantaneous wetted exact body surface for the latter method. The finite element model is employed to solve dynamic response of mooring line. Then asynchronous coupled method is adopted to achieve the coupled dynamic analysis of platform and mooring lines. The time-domain motion responses and spectrum analysis of Spar platform are verified and compared with the traditional indirect time-domain coupling dynamic method when the mooring system is completed. Also the time-domain motion responses and statistical characteristic of Spar platform are investigated with one mooring line broken in extreme sea condition. Some conclusions are obtained, that is, dynamic coupling effects are significant and transient position hydrodynamic calculation of platform has a great influence on the low frequency motion. The results also show that the influence on the global performance of mooring system is different when the broken line is in different place. A remarkable influence occurs when the broken mooring line is in the head-wave direction.