CIVL 4171

Pipeline, Platform and

Subsea Technology

Mooring Design of Floating Platforms

Mooring Design

1.

Introduction

2.

System Types

3.

Mooring Components

4.

Design Considerations

5.

Design Criteria

6.

Design Methods

Quasi Static

Dynamic

Model Tests

Station Keeping
System:
System Types:
Most floating facilities are designed to stay at a single location secured to
the sea floor by a purpose built mooring system
Some systems are designed to be disconnectable to allow escape from bad
weather such as cyclones (eg BHPBs Griffin Venture)
DP & Thruster Assisted station keeping is also used, though much less
frequently

Hull type Vs. Wave

period

Spar - Motions

Spars are different from both Semis and

TLPs in the mechanism of motion
control.
The centre of gravity (VCG) is lower
then the centre of buoyancy (VCB)
unconditionally stable.
The spar derives no stability from its
mooring system.
The deep draft is favourable for
minimal heave motions esp. with heave
plates.
The hull natural period in heave & pitch
is above the range of wave energy
periods.
The reduced heave & pitch motions
permit the use of dry trees.

TLP Motions

The vertical forces acting on the TLP must

be in balance ie the fixed & variable loads +
tendon tension equal its displacement.
The hulls excessive buoyancy causes the
tendons to always be in tension and
restrains the platform in heave.
The displacement of the hull and the tendon
axial stiffness are chosen such that the
vertical and angular natural periods are well
below the wave excitation periods and the
horizontal natural periods are well above the
wave excitation periods.
TLPs undergo setdown, as environmental
forces cause an offset displacement ie the
draft increases as the platform is moved
horizontally due to lateral loads thereby
increasing the tendon tensions.
The reduced heave & pitch motions permit
the use of dry trees.

Semisubmersible Motions

Limited sensitivity to water depth

Trending to deeper draft to reduce
heave motions esp. in response to low
wave periods (<8 seconds).
Columns are sized to provide adequate
waterplane area to support all
anticipated loading conditions, spaced
to support topsides modules, and tuned
for a natural period of at least 20
seconds.
These columns are supported by two
parallel pontoons or a ring pontoon.
Pontoons are sized to provide adequate
buoyancy to support all weights and
vertical loads, and proportioned to
maximize heave damping.
Taut or spread catenary mooring
system.

Common FPS
Configurations

Spar Platform

Mooring

Tensioned
Risers

Spread Moored FPSO

CALM Buoy

Common FPS
Configurations

Common FPS
Configurations
Spread Moored Semi-Submersible

FPS Mooring
Configurations

FPSO Turret
Configurations
Bow Mounted External Turret

Bow Mounted Internal Turret

Other Station Keeping

Methods
Dynamic Positioning

Single Anchor Leg Mooring

(SALM)

Catenary Mooring Basics

Loads on Floater:
Steady & fluctuating
wind
Wave & wave drift
Current

Loads on Mooring lines:

Top end surge motions (small
heave)
Wave
Current
Sea-bed friction

Mooring Components

Basically the mooring system comprises of:

Chain
Wire
Synthetic line
Clump weights
Buoys
Hardware & Accessories
Anchor Point

Mooring Components Chain

Chain has proven durability offshore.

Several grades available (ORQ, K4, U3 etc.. depending upon
classification society)
Studlink & Studless (studless has greater strength & fatigue life, but
lower mass/m for a given size)
Corrosion & wear catered for by increasing diameter ~0.4mm/year
service allowance in splash zone & dip zone, ~0.2mm elsewhere.

Mooring Components Wire

Wire

Greater restoring force for a given

pretension
Costs less per load capacity than chain but
doesnt have the same restoring effect as
weight is 40% or so.
Wear issues due to abrasion
6-strand, spiral strand, non-rotating

Spiral Strand Advantages

Six Strand Advantages

Higher Strength to Weight Ratio

Higher elasticity

Higher Strength to Diameter

Ratio

Greater Flexibility

Torsionally Balanced
Higher Resistance to corrosion

Lower Axial Stiffness

Mooring Components Synthetic lines / Clump

Weights

Synthetic lines:
Recent developments in ultra deep water used
them
Still in development phase for permanent
moorings

Buoys
Reduces weight of mooring lines on system
reduced dynamics in deep water
increased hardware costs / complexity of
installation

Clump Weights
sometimes used to improve performance or
reduce cost
used in dip zone to increase restoring forces
added installation complexity

Mooring Components - Buoys

/ Connecting Hardware

Connecting Hardware
shackles, swivels, link
plates

Vessel Hardware

Mooring Components Anchors

Drag Anchor Types

Options:
Drag Embedment
Driven Piles
Suction Installed Piles
Gravity Anchors
Choice based upon costs as
well as system performance,
soil conditions, reliability,
installation & proof loading

Suction Anchors

Recap of the FPSO Design

Overview
FUNCTIONAL
REQUIREMENTS
-Mooring envelope
-Allowable Motions
-Allowable
displacements.

SCHEME
CONFIGURATION
-TLP, FPSO, Spar etc

METOCEAN DATA

Topside
Layout
and
structural
support
configuration

HYDRODYNAMIC
ANALYSIS

Functional
Loads:
Eg
crude
oil
storage,
production equipment etc.

STRUCTURAL DESIGN
-Strength
-Fatigue

MOORING ANALYSIS

ANCHOR POINT
-Drag Anchors
-Driven Pile
-Suction Pile
-Gravity Anchor

TURRET / MOORING
INTERFACES

MOORING
CONFIGURATION

PRELIMINARY
LAYOUT

MOORING TYPE
-Spread moored
-Single point mooring
-All Chain
-Wire/ Chain/ Wire
-Buoys / clump weights
in-line

MODEL TESTING

N
REDESIGN & RERUN
MOORING &
STRUCTURAL
ANALYSIS

Y
DESIGN &
PERFORMANCE
SATISFACTORY

FINAL DESIGN

This Section

Floating System Analysis

Main Methods of Analysis:

1. Simplified Quasi-Static Methods as per
API RP 2SK
-Suitable for preliminary design
2. Rigorous Analysis
-Frequency Domain, Time Domain
numerical solutions

Simplified Analysis
Simplified analysis is Quasi-Static What does this mean?

Dynamic wave loads are taken into account by statically offsetting the vessel
by an appropriately defined induced wave motion
Vertical fairlead motions and dynamic effects associated with mass, damping
and fluid accelerations are neglected
Research has shown this to be affected significantly by vessel, water depth, line
configuration
Simplicity has proven it useful & practical for preliminary studies

Rigorous Analysis Whats the difference?

Vessel motions affect the dynamics of the mooring tensions. Eg acceleration
effects and loads as the mooring lines pass through the water
Typical analysis simplified in so much as the vessel motions are assumed to be
unaffected by the mooring lines OK for water depths up to 500m or so.
Ultra deep mooring analysis requires that mooring effect on vessel motions
considered. In some cases even riser systems affect motions considerably

Floating System Analysis

Floating Structure Analysis

Initial
Mooring
Pattern

Prior to starting Mooring or Structure design,

we need to work out how the vessel reacts to
the environment.
Determine Environmental Effects
1.
Steady State Environmental
Forces

2.
3.

Determine Mooring
Tensions / Offsets

Loads & FoS

Typically this work is performed by specialist

engineers / naval architects.
Work is performed using analysis or obtained
from scale model tests

Determine Low Frequency

Motions
Determine Wave
Frequency Motions

Forces & Offsets

How do we predict the response

characteristics of the vessel?

Criteria

Design Criteria and

Load Cases
(Environment, allow
offsets etc)

Design Criteria /
Arrangement

Primary Considerations:
Operations considerations
Mooring / Riser interface = offset
limitations (eg 10% - 20% water
depth)
Directional Offsets
Number of Risers / Heading
Wire / Chain combinations depending
upon mooring depth, loads etc
Pretension affected by allowable
offsets

8 Leg Equispaced

Mooring

3 x 3 System

Risers

Design Cases
Basic Load Cases
Intact (all lines intact)
Damaged (one line broken)
Transient (motions after 1 line breaks)
Load cases have different Factors of Safety

Environmental Criteria

Environment = Principally wind, wave, current & tide

Key aspects for mooring design are Extreme and Operating
Environments

Extreme Environment:
These conditions have a low probability of being exceeded
within the design lifetime of the structure.
Extreme environmental responses are likely to govern the
design of a floating unit.
Eg a 20 year design life system typically uses 100 year Return
Period conditions. These have a probability of occurrence
during the 20 year design life of about 20%

Environmental Criteria
Normal Environment:
These conditions are those that are expected to occur frequently during
the construction and service life.
Since different parameters and combinations affect various responses and
limit operations differently (eg crane usage, installation etc) the designer
should consider appropriate combinations for each situation.
EG On the Banff FPSO in the North Sea, the novel
design exhibited significant roll in moderate seas.
Basically the crew were getting seasick.
Solution add bilge keels to stabilise roll = 10m in
expenses and lost revenue
Other Conditions
Phenomenon such as tsunamis, icebergs, solitons etc..
May also need consideration for a particular project

Forces and Motions

Environmental forces / motions should be calculated at the
following 3 distinct frequency bands to evaluate their effects on the
system

Steady Forces: wind, current and wave

drift are constant in magnitude for the
duration of interest
Low-Frequency cyclic loads can excite
the platform at its natural periods in
surge, sway and yaw. Typical natural
periods are 60 to 180 seconds
Wave-Frequency cyclic loads are large
in magnitude and are a major
contributor to member forces. Typical
periods are between 5 and 20 seconds

Steady Forces : Wind

Steady Wind Forces
Calculated on each part of the FPSO by summing the contribution of different areas :
F = 0.5

air.A.Vz2.

Area 3

Cs

(kN)

where,

Area 1

Vz = 1 hour mean wind velocity at specified

height z

Area 2

SHAPE

Cs

Vz = Vh (z/H)0.125

Large Flat Surface (hull, deckhouse)

1.00

Vh = reference wind speed at 10m height

Exposed beams, girders

1.30

A= projected area (m2)

Isolated shapes (cranes, booms etc)

1.50

Cs = Shape coefficient

Clustered deck houses

1.10

air = 0.00125 Tonnes/m3

Cylindrical

0.50

OR - use method of API RP2SK

Steady Forces : Current

Steady Current Forces
Forces on the hull of an FPSO can be estimated by the following equations:
Force on Bow or Stern of FPSOs:
Fcx = Ccx .S.Vc2 (kN)
where,

Vc = Design Current Speed (m/s)

S= Wetted surface area of the hull (m2)
Ccx = current force coefficient on the bow
= 0.00289 kNsec2/m4
Force on Beam of FPSOs:
Fcy = Ccy .S.Vc2 (kN)
where,
Ccy = current force coefficient on the beam
= 0.07237 kNsec2/m4

WETTED SURFACE
AREA = S

Low Frequency Wave

Forces & Motions
SIMPLE METHOD Calculate Wave Loading using tables in API RP 2SK.
Other Methods: Analytical Software & Model Tests
Adjust Low frequency motions based upon factoring mooring stiffness value
from the graph by the ratio of : (nominal stiffness / actual stiffness)1/2
1.0 Choose
Vessel Length

2.0 Chose
Wave Height

3.0 Read off values of

# Low Freq. Single
Amplitude Motion

4.0 Read off values

5.0 Adjust Values for

# Mean drift Force

Mooring Stiffness
Significant & Maxima

Wave Frequency
Forces & Motions

Wave-Induced Vessel
Motion Responses
1st Order: Motions at wave frequencies
(periods approx 5secs to 20 secs) that
are obtained by computer analysis or
model tests. These are the motions that
we are all familiar with (eg roll, pitch,
heave, surge, sway, yaw).

Predicting 1st Order Response (1)

Vessel : Wave Frequency

Response

How do we find vessel response?

The vessels response functions are called Response
Amplitude Operators (RAOs) and are different for
all 6 degrees of freedom (surge, sway, heave, roll,
pitch and yaw)
That is, in simplified form:Vessel Response = Fn( Seastate , RAOs)
RAO's : 30 degree heading
4

Surge
3

Heave

Am plitude

Typical RAOs for a 100m long vessel with heading

30 degrees to waves for roll, heave, pitch and surge
are shown:
Heave & Surge : metres motion/metre wave height
Pitch and Roll : degrees per metre wave height
(ie for 2m regular waves at 10 second period, roll is
approx 5 degrees and heave is 1.8m)

Roll

Pitch

0
0

10

15

20

Period (seconds)

25

30

Vessel : Wave Frequency

Response
Predicting 1st Order Response (2)
3 main calculation methods

AQWA Model

Time domain
Frequency Domain
Model tests

FREQUENCY DOMAIN
These methods are much simpler and less computationally intensive. Most of these methods use
STRIP THEORY in which the vessels motions are treated as forced, damped, low amplitude
sinusoidal motions.
Vessel is divided into a number of transverse sections (or strips)
Hydrodynamic properties are computed assuming 2D inviscid flow with no interference
from upstream sections
Coefficients of the equations of motions may be found
TIME DOMAIN
Time Domain methods model the wave passing a hull. At small incremental steps the net force on the
hull is calculated by integrating the water pressure and frictional forces on each part of the hull. Using
Newtons Second Law the acceleration on the hull is computed, then this is integrated over the time
step to compute the new vessel velocity and position
>> Although procedure is relatively straight forward, these methods are not routinely used.
Software / Hardware advances are making this method more common:
Used for non-standard vessels such as Semi-submersibles & Spars
Examples of Software: AQWA , MOSES (Aquamarine),WAMIT (DnV)

Diffracted Water
Surface Contours

Vessel : Wave Frequency

Response
Predicting 1st Order Response (3)
MODEL TESTS
Still used today why?
Because it works!!! basically numerical computation is good, but still needs work to be suitable
Test 138

1.500

Wave Probe at Wall (CoG)

Average

Heave & Wave Height (m)

1.000

0.500

0.000
0.00

10.00

20.00

30.00

-0.500

-1.000

Time (secs)

40.00

50.00

60.00

Quasi Static Analysis:

Mooring Tensions & Vessel Offset
Mean offset is defined as the vessel displacement due to
the combination of current, mean wave drift and mean
wind forces.
Maximum Offset is defined as mean offset plus
appropriately combined wave frequency and low
frequency vessel motions.
Mean
static
Offset
Steady Forces

dynamic
offset +/Maximum
Offset

Quasi Static Analysis:

Offset Definition
How do we calculate Maximum Offset?
Let

Smean
Smax
Swfmax
Swfsig
Slfmax
Slfsig

If Slfmax>Swfmax , then:
If Swfmax>Slfmax , then:

= mean vessel offset

= max vessel offset
= max wave frequency motion
= significant wave freq. motion
= maximum low freq. motion
= significant low freq. motion
Smax
Smax

= Smean+ Slfmax+Swfsig
= Smean+ Swfmax+Slfsig

Note : it has been shown statistically that this method of combining wave frequency and low
frequency motions defined in this manner would be exceeded on average once in every 3 hr
storm. An alternative to this approach is a time domain simulation, usually several
simulations performed with statistical establishment of maximums

Quasi Static Analysis:

Statistics of Peak Values
Significant Value = 2 (RMS Value)
Max Value = Sqrt [2(ln N)] (RMS value)
where N = number of waves during the storm = T / Ta
T= specified storm period in seconds (usually 3hrs)
Ta = average zero crossing period in seconds
eg for 3 hr storm, Tz=10seconds, Maximum =1.86

Low frequency components - Ta can be taken as the natural

period of the vessel Tn which can be estimated by:
Tn = 2 Sqrt (m/k)
m= vessel displacement
k = mooring system stiffness at mean position

Quasi Static Analysis:

Line Tension Definition
Mean Tension is defined as the tension corresponding to the mean offset of
the vessel.
Maximum Tension is defined as mean tension plus appropriately
combined wave frequency and low frequency tensions.
Let
Tmean
= mean tension
Tmax
= maximum tension
Twfmax = maximum wave frequency tension
Twfsig
= significant wave frequency tension
Tlfmax = maximum low frequency tension
Tlfsig
= significant low frequency tension
If Tlfmax>Twfmax , then:
Tmax
= Tmean+ Tlfmax+Twfsig
If Twfmax>Tlfmax , then:
Tmax
= Tmean+ Twfmax+Tlfsig

Quasi Static Analysis:

Line Tension Definition
Where do we get Mooring Tensions and Anchor
Load from?
Need to calculate force verses offset curves for
the mooring system as a whole as well as
individual line tensions.
For most highly loaded lines, need to determine
the suspended catenary distance
Catenary calculations normally performed by
software. Can be done by hand (see over for
catenary formulae)
PREPARE GRAPH OF TENSION Vs
OFFSET (& SUSPENDED LINE LENGTH)

Line Tension

Catenary equation
z+h =

wx
Th
cosh

1
w
Th

Maximum tension

Tmax = Th + wh

Suspended (Minimum) length

lmin

T
= g 2 max 1
wh

Notation:
T- line tension (N)
h water depth (m)
w line weight in water (N/m)

Line Tension
Definition
1. From Total force & vessel
restoring force curve
determine
2. Mean offset
3. Determine Smax as a function
of Low frequency & Wave
frequency offsets
4. From Smax & Most loaded line
tension force curve determine
Maximum Mooring force
1
4

Anchor Load
Definition
Where do we get Anchor Load from?
Max. Anchor Load = Max Line Tension (unit submerged weight
of mooring line ) x (water depth) - friction
between mooring line and seabed
Where:
Friction between mooring and seabed = friction coefficient x unit
submerged weight of mooring line x Length
on seabed

Mooring Line Design

Criteria
Mooring Line Design Checks:

Anchor Point Criteria

Anchor Point Design Checks:

Factors of safety for various
anchors, conditions and analysis
methods

Recap
Design Criteria
(Environment,
allowable offsets etc)

Initial Mooring Pattern

Determine Environmental Effects

1.
Steady State Environmental Forces

2.
3.

Determine Low Frequency

Motions
Determine Wave Frequency
Motions

Determine Mooring
Tensions / Offsets