Abstract
Hydrodynamic response of spar with appendages such as heave plate has been investigated in the past, mostly attached at the bottom of the spar. The effect of geometry and appendages on the hydrodynamic response of spar has been investigated in this article. A curved neck form with a heave plate near the free surface is proposed as an energy dissipation device for both heave and pitch responses. Numerical simulation using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is used for capturing the flow around the curved neck with heave plate and corresponding damping characteristics. CFD free decay simulations have been carried out to obtain heave and pitch damping and were noted to be higher than the conventional spar with heave plate at the bottom. Comparison of the proposed geometry and heave plate at the free surface with a conventional heave plate at the bottom of the spar has been made, and significant changes to the response and hydrodynamic characteristics have been noted. It is observed that the buoy form spar combined with the heave plate located near the surface (within 10% of the draft) helps dissipate energy and thus reduce the heave response.
