Aquacultural Engineering 58 (2014) 59–68

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Aquacultural Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aqua-online

Fatigue analysis of mooring system for net cage under random loads
Tiao-Jian Xu, Yun-Peng Zhao ∗ , Guo-Hai Dong, Chun-Wei Bi
State Key Laboratory of Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Mooring system for net cage plays a pivotal role in the aquaculture industry. Much room exists for further
Received 5 June 2013 development in relation to the mooring line analysis. A statistical analysis of stress range of mooring line
Accepted 21 October 2013 is presented. The fatigue design analysis is based on the time domain analysis of net cage and mooring
system in irregular waves. The statistical properties of stress range are analyzed using the Weibull plots,
Keywords: histogram, damage plot and evaluation of its applicability in relation to simplified methods. In addition,
Fatigue analysis
the fatigue damage of mooring line is also analyzed using spectrum analysis method and compared with
S–N curve
the result from rainflow counting method. A visual inspection of Weibull plots indicates a good fit, and
Mooring system
Spectral analysis
the shape parameter is typically between 0.8 and 1.2. The fatigue damage is underestimated based on
the Weibull parameters, while it is predicted accurately based on the Rayleigh distribution. The results
also show that the fatigue damage of mooring line can be underestimated 10–30% using the spectrum
analysis method.
© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction response of net panels to environmental loading with consistent

The decline of fishery resources of near ocean and coastal
zone has caused marine cage net aquaculture to become a new
direction for future development of the world fishery indus-
try. Unfortunately, the rigorous environmental condition may
cause severe damage of the integrity of cage net structures. Most
fishermen are strongly concerned about the safety of marine
cage aquaculture. Mooring system risk analysis becomes a very
important issue. To do so, two probability distributions have to
be found. One is the probability distribution of mooring line
material strength that can be obtained by manufacturing data;
the other is the mooring line stress response probability dis-
tribution. Therefore, this study is primary focused on the latter
one.
To the best of our knowledge, many researches were conducted
to analyze the hydrodynamic behavior of net cage and mooring
system. Colbourne and Allen (2001) observed the motions and
loads in aquaculture cages from field measurements and physical
model tests. Lader et al. (2003) and Lader and Enerhaug (2005)
conducted a series of experiments to investigate the force and
deformation on a net cage in a uniform flow and discussed the
computational model of the circle 3D net structures exposed in
waves and current, in which the net was dispersed into a super ele-
ment structure. Tsukrov et al. (2003) modeled the hydrodynamic
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 411 84708950x8403; fax: +86 411 84708526.
E-mail address: Ypzhao@dlut.edu.cn (Y.-P. Zhao).
finite element concepts, and successfully applied these concepts
to the tension leg net-cage. Xu et al. (2011) analyzed the dynamic
behavior of a circle net cage under the action of regular and irreg-
ular waves, in which the net is modeled using the lumped mass
method. In addition, the mooring line tension response for a single
net cage or multi-cage structure was also analyzed. Huang et al.
(2010) developed a numerical model to simulate a single point
mooring (SPM) cage system in an unsheltered open sea, consid-
ering the environmental conditions as irregular waves combined
with a steady uniform current. Decew et al. (2010) investigated
the submergence behavior of a small volume fish cage in a single-
point mooring system under currents. Fredriksson et al. (2004)
developed a four-cage grid mooring system and used the finite
element method to analyze its hydrodynamic response to waves
and currents. Fredriksson et al. (2007) conducted a numerical sim-
ulation to calculate the mooring system tensions of a large fish
farm containing 20 net pens in waves, and compared the moor-
ing line tension calculated with the numerical model to those
obtained from load cell field data sets. Xu et al. (2013) inves-
tigated the hydrodynamic behavior of multi-cage and mooring
system under the action of waves combined with current. For
designing a safety net cage and mooring system, it is necessary
to analyze the material and mechanic performance of net cage
and mooring system. Moe et al. (2009) analyzed temporary-creep
properties, recovery of strain post-creep and post-creep tensile
properties of a selection of Raschel knitted netting material. Huang
and Pan (2010) evaluated the failure risk of mooring line of an SPM
cage system based on extended-period environmental loadings.

0144-8609/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaeng.2013.10.004
60 T.-J. Xu et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 58 (2014) 59–68

Thomassen and Leira (2012) conducted a statistical analysis of

stress histories for fatigue damage design of floating square fish
cages, based on time domain analysis of structure in irregular
waves.
Fatigue has not been shown to be a major failure mechanism
for mooring lines but experience with long term permanent moor-
ings is limited. As more permanent floating structures are installed,
the need to assess the fatigue performance of moorings becomes
increasingly important. The performance and dynamic response
of the taut-wire mooring system subjected to cyclic loading are
complicated due to the mechanical properties of synthetic ropes.
The fatigue performance and durability of synthetic fiber mooring
ropes will be largely affected by axial compression fatigue, creep
rupture, hysteresis heating and internal abrasion. Many researches Fig. 1. Schematic of net cage and grid mooring system.
are conducted in order to analyze the fatigue mechanisms of syn-
thetic fiber ropes, including physical model test and numerical
2. Net cage and mooring structure
simulation. Williams et al. (2002) experimentally investigated how
to account for the damage and associated lifetime and reliability
A single net cage with grid mooring system installed in 20 m
predictions of synthetic fiber mooring ropes. Flory and Banfield
water depth is analyzed in this study. The net cage and mooring
(2006) conducted a series of physical model test to analyze the
system analyzed consists of a gravity cage and a submerged moor-
deterioration of fiber rope in strength and stiffness during load-
ing grid, as shown in Fig. 1. The gravity cage is composed of a float
ing. Flory (2008) developed a criteria for assessing the residual
collar, net pen and sinker. The detailed parameters of the float col-
strength of several popular fiber ropes commonly used as moor-
lar and mooring system are given in Table 1. The cage net is made
ing lines, including nylon, polyester 8-strand and polyester and
of PE with a mass density of 953 kg/m3 . There are 1800 meshes in
HMPE (high modulus polyethylene) 12-strand. Beltran et al. (2003)
the circumferential direction and 240 in the depth direction. The
presented a formulation of a computational model for predict-
net is knotless, with a mesh size of 46.8 mm and a twine thickness
ing the response of synthetic-fiber ropes. Numerical simulations
of 1.44 mm. When mounted as diamond meshes, the net forms an
of damaged rope behavior compare well with experimental data.
open vertical cylinder with a diameter of 15.92 m and a height of
Chailleux and Davies (2005) modeled the non-linear viscoelastic
9 m. There are 10 sinkers, and the mass of each sinker is 34.5 kg.
and viscoplastic behavior of polyester fibers using the macro-
The shape of the sinker is spherical, with a diameter of 40 cm.
scopic analysis proposed by Schapery. Larsen and Mathisen (1996)
The mooring system consists of a submerged (4 m below the
applied the method of structural reliability to a probabilistic anal-
surface), pre-tensioned squared grid (40 m × 40 m in plane). The
ysis of fatigue limit state for chain and wire rope mooring lines,
mooring system includes bridle lines, grid lines and anchor lines.
in which the uncertainties related to both the fatigue loading and
The lengths of bridle lines, grid lines and anchor lines are 20 m,
fatigue strength are considered. Gao (2008) proposed an effective
40 m and 58.8 m, respectively. Gravity cage is located in the middle
frequency-domain method for fatigue analysis of a chain-wire-
of each grid square. It is connected to the submerged mooring grid
chain mooring system, which was validated by the time-domain
by four bridle lines. The grid is anchored to the bottom using eight
simulation and rainflow cycle counting method. Han et al. (2010)
anchor lines. Tension is maintained by a floater at each of the nodal
developed a time-domain computational code to determine the
points at the top of the grid and by anchors set to form a required
extreme tension and proposed a spectral analysis method for esti-
geometry. The material of mooring line is Polyethylene (PE), the
mating the fatigue life of mooring system. Olsen (2011) estimated
elasticity of mooring line is T = 670(S/S)1.132 , where T is the ten-
the annual probability of line failure using the model test and the
sion of mooring line with unit of kN, S is the elongation of mooring
computer program SIMO. Low (2011) extended a time/frequency
line, S is the initial length of mooring line. Breaking strength of fiber
domain hybrid method for the fatigue analysis of moorings and
ropes varies considerably between fiber type, construction, manu-
risers, and the fatigue damage thus calculated is found to closely
facturer and size and any detailed design must therefore be based
agree with the result from time domain analysis in conjunction
upon relevant, specific test data. For preliminary design, the break-
with rainflow counting. Several spectral fatigue techniques are also
ing strength of Polyester mooring line is equal to 250d2 , i.e. 330 kN,
compared, and these methods are significantly less accurate, thus
where d is the diameter of mooring line.
attesting to the complexity of the problem. Fatigue failure is consid-
ered to be an important limit state for mooring lines, but the lack of
a verified methodology renders a reliable analysis within an engi-
neering context virtually impossible. Previously, little investigation Table 1
into the reasons for the collapse of floating fish farms was done. Parameters of simplified fish cage and mooring grid system.
Thus, it is necessary to extend the knowledge of why fish farms fail.
Component Parameter Value
Fatigue analysis of mooring line for floating fish farms has been
General diameter (m) 16.92
conducted in this study. A statistical analysis of stress histories for
Pipe diameter (mm) 250
fatigue damage of mooring line is presented, and the fatigue dam- Outer circle
Density (kg/m) 11.36
age is calculated in the time domain using the rainflow counting Material HDPE
method and compared with that obtained in the frequency domain
General diameter (m) 15.92
using the spectrum analysis method. Pipe diameter (mm) 250
The current study is organized as follows: in Section 2, the net Inner circle
Density (g/m) 11.36
cage and mooring system is first introduced; and then the envi- Material HDPE
ronmental loading and some basic principle for fatigue analysis are Diameter (cm) 3.64
presented in Sections 3 and 4; after that, the results and discussion Density (g/cm3 ) 1.14
Mooring line
are given in Section 5; finally, some conclusion can be drawn in Breaking strength (kN) 330
Material PE
Section 6.
 T.-J. Xu et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 58 (2014) 59–68 61

Table 2 3.2. Calculation of environmental loadings on net cage and

A wave scatter diagram based on statistical data.
mooring system
No. Hs (m) Ts (s) P (%) No. Hs (m) Ts (s) P (%)

1 0.53 4 1.2 20 3.54 7 1.9 To calculate the hydrodynamic forces acting on the net cage sys-
2 0.83 4 1 21 1.71 8 3.5 tem, the entire cage system is divided into many small elements
3 1.22 4 0.8 22 2.26 8 3.8 that are subjected to wave loadings, as shown in Fig. 2. Based on
4 1.71 4 0.3 23 2.85 8 2.7 the lumped-mass method, the external forces on each element are
5 0.83 5 4.7 24 3.54 8 2.4
calculated first and then evenly distributed to the corresponding
6 1.22 5 4.9 25 0.83 9 0.6
7 1.71 5 3.1 26 1.22 9 1.1 nodes. To simplify numerical simulations, each element is treated
8 2.26 5 1.9 27 1.71 9 1.2 as a small body since the element size is relatively small compar-
9 2.85 5 1.2 28 2.26 9 1.4 ing to the characteristic wavelength. This means that the scattering
10 0.83 6 6.5 29 2.85 9 1.2
effect between the element and the flow field can be neglected.
11 1.22 6 8.8 30 3.54 9 1
12 1.71 6 7.1 31 0.83 10 0.2 Thus, it is appropriate to apply the Morison type equation with rel-
13 2.26 6 4.7 32 1.22 10 0.3 ative motion to each element, and given as the following equation:
14 2.85 6 2.5 33 1.71 10 0.3
15 0.83 7 4.4 34 2.26 10 0.5
1  
16 1.22 7 6.8 35 2.85 10 0.4 F= CD A u − Ṙ · (u − Ṙ) + V0 a + Cm V0 (a − R̈), (4)
17 1.71 7 7.0 36 3.54 10 0.4 2
18 2.26 7 5.7 37 2.85 11 0.3
19 2.85 7 4.0 38 3.54 11 0.2 where u is the fluid particle velocity at the element center, Ṙ is the
 is the fluid particle acceleration at the
central velocity of element, a
element center, R̈ is the central acceleration of element,  is the
3. Environmental loadings density of water, V0 is the water displaced volume of an element;
A is the effective projected area, and CD and Cm are the drag and
Following previous works (Xu et al., 2011, 2012, 2013), this added mass coefficients, respectively.
study adopts the self-developed numerical model based on the
lumped-mass method and rigid body kinematics principle to ana- 4. Fatigue analysis design
lyze the maximum tension of the mooring line. The numerical
model has been validated by physical model test in our previous The aquaculture construction includes the design of net cage
research. A brief description of numerical model is given here. structures and mooring lines. The fiber rope is commonly used as
the mooring line for net cage structures, and mooring system is used
3.1. Brief description of wave field to hold the net cage structures in a relative stable position. Unlike
the ship and other ocean engineering structure, the net cage and
In the open sea, wave load is the main environmental load act- mooring system cannot be dragged back to the harbor to avoid the
ing on the net cage structure. The environmental load due to the storm, it has to be stayed at the offshore area in the entire service
wind is ignored here, because a small part of floating net cage is life, the fatigue damage of the mooring line will occur due to the
exposed in the air. The modified Jonswap spectrum is used as the cycle tension response. If the fatigue failure of fiber mooring line
input spectrum, as follows: occurs, the net cage may be swept, and thus the fish farmer will
−4 2
/22 ] subject to a large economic loss. Therefore, the fatigue failure of
S(f ) = ˇJ Hs2 TP−4 f −5 exp[−1.25(TP f ) ] ·  exp[−(f/fP −1) (1)
mooring lines should be considered in the design of the open sea
where Tp is the spectral dominant period, fish farming.
Tp = Ts /(1 − 0.132( + 0.2)−0.559 ); Hs and Ts are the significant Mooring lines are complicated structures, particularly from a
wave height and period, respectively; f is the wave frequency; fatigue point of view. Mooring lines under cyclic loading will
fp is the spectral peak frequency;  is the peak shape factor, experience fatigue damage. This study is focused on the fatigue per-
 = 0.07(f ≤ fp ),  = 0.09(f > fp ),  is the peak enhancement factor formance/service lifetime of mooring lines. The fatigue is defined as
and normally a value of 3.3 can be used. the ability to resist progressive damage from cyclic loading of long
For the random waves, the velocity of water particles is cal- term static loading. The fatigue mechanism for fiber rope includes
culated as the superposition of multiple monochromatic waves. tensile fatigue, creep rupture, hysteresis heating, and axial com-
pression, etc. Damage from external mechanisms outside the rope

n structure is not considered fatigue. These would include: external
cos h(ki (z + h)) abrasion, cutting, abrasive wear in terminations, heat from sources
u(x, z, t) = Ai · 2fi cos (ki x − 2fi t + εi ) (2)
sin h(ki h) outside the rope, chemical attack, and overloading. Tensile fatigue
i=1
is defined as repeated loading and unloading that results in inter-
fiber abrasion and filament breakage leading to loss of strength;

n
sin h(ki (z + h))
w(x, z, t) = Ai · 2fi sin (ki x − 2fi t + εi ) (3) Under the periodic action of sea waves, the fiber mooring lines for
sin h(ki h) net cage structures may experience tensile fatigue. The definition of
i=1
creep is a gradual change in fiber length. Creep of fiber may be either
The present work aims at the fatigue analysis of the mooring sys- recoverable (primary creep) or non-recoverable (secondary creep).
tem for net cage in the open sea. A full dynamic and fatigue analysis It is the latter that is relevant to fatigue failure of fiber ropes. Tests
is conducted for a circle net cage and its mooring system. Long- by Mandell (1987) indicate that for cyclic loading, the creep effect
term environmental condition is discreted to several short-term is the same as if the peak load had been applied continuously. Creep
sea states with which the time domain dynamic mooring analysis rupture occurs when the creep limit of the fiber material is reached.
is carried out to obtain the tension response. The long-term envi- Under relatively high tensions and frequency cycling of the load,
ronmental conditions are represented by 38 short-term sea states. ropes will raise in temperature due to hysteresis. This phenomenon
All the environmental parameters are presented in Table 2, where is called hysteresis heating. This kind of weakening seldom occurs
Hs is the significant wave height, Ts is the significant period, and P in marine mooring lines due to the surrounding water, which cools
is the occurrence probability of each sea state. the fibers. The final cause of fatigue considered in this study is axial
62 T.-J. Xu et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 58 (2014) 59–68

Fig. 2. Schematic of mass-spring model for net pen and mooring line.

compression, in which elements within a rope, such as fibers, yarns,
or strands, will buckle in slack conditions. This problem is usually
addressed with two plastic hinges, commonly called ‘kinkbands,’
that form a Z-shaped kink in the element. Twisting or very tight
jackets are common sources of kinkbands (McKenna et al., 2004).
Berryman et al. (2007) have discussed the durability of polyester
deepwater mooring lines. Based on their investigation and testing,
the creep rupture, hysteresis and compression fatigue are no longer
concerns for polyester rope, therefore, only the fatigue failure due
to the wave-induced cyclic loading is considered here.
Fatigue analysis can be carried out by fracture mechanics or S–N
approach. The former method allows detailed modeling of the crack
propagation, while S–N approach is based on an S–N curve estab-
lished by use of laboratory tests under constant amplitude loads.
Both methods commonly predict linear cumulative damage when
dealing with variable amplitude loading. In this study, the fatigue
damage is analyzed using the S–N approach.
aquaculture constructions are often made of strand (three strands)
rather than six strand or braided ropes. According to Van Leeuwen
(1981), considering case Nos. 1 and 2 shown in Table 3, only the
construction of fiber rope is different. The results show that the
construction of fiber rope has a small influence on the fatigue per-
formance. It is clear that the fatigue performance of fiber ropes is
conservatively bounded by the API six-strand wire rope S–N curve
and this latter curve has indeed been used in design studies for
evaluation of fatigue of polyester ropes. The figure also confirms
the acceptability of the API RP2SK six-strand wire rope S–N curve
for use in fatigue design of polyester ropes.
An S–N approach is normally used for the mooring system. In
general the S–N curves take the following form:
 m
S
N = K, (5)
Sref

where N is the number of cycles of stress range S to failure, Sref is

4.1. S–N approach
the reference breaking stress, K is the number of cycles to failure
of stress range equal to the reference break stress, and the stress
The S–N approach needs the following information to calculate
range S is taken to be twice the amplitude. In Barltrop and Adams
the fatigue damage, i.e. distribution of the effective stress ranges,
(1991), m is 4.09 and K is equal to 10(3.20–2.79Lm) , Lm refers to the
S–N curve and damage accumulation law. Since the stress history of
ratio of mean tension to reference break strength, Lm is equal to
a mooring line is random, the counting method is required to iden-
0.05 here.
tify the number of cycles and stress range. ASTM (1985) introduces
Fatigue analysis of mooring lines needs to consider the damage
several types of counting methods, but the rainflow cycle count-
effect of each load cycle and to determine whether structural fail-
ing method is known to be the most accurate. Therefore, this study
ure occurs or not due to the cumulative damage over a period of
uses the rainflow cycle counting method to obtain stress ranges. The
interest. The rainflow counting method allows the application of
fatigue life is estimated by comparing the long-term cyclic loading
Miner’s rule in order to assess the fatigue life of a structure subject
in a mooring line component with the resistance of that compo-
to complex loading.
nent to fatigue damage. Winkler and McKenna (1995) and Mandell
(1987) presented the fatigue data of polyester marine rope from
several testing programs in Europe and the U.S., Fig. 3 shows the
wet polyester rope fatigue S–N data, and the symbols in Fig. 3 are
identified in Table 3. The fiber rope mooring lines used for marine

Table 3
Identification of symbols in Fig. 3.

No. Symbol Construction Diameter (mm)

1 . . .. . . 3ST 18
2  DB 18
3  DB 24
4  DB 24
5  DB 24
6  8ST 40
7  DB 61
8 ♦ DB 64
9 夽 8ST 81
Fig. 3. Normalized wet polyester rope fatigue S–N data plotted against cycles to
Data extracted from Mandell (1987). failure (symbols defined in Table 3).
3ST, three strands; DB, double braided. Following Mandell (1987).
 T.-J. Xu et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 58 (2014) 59–68 63

4.2. Miner-Palmgren law

Almost all available fatigue data for design purposes is based

on constant amplitude tests. However, in practice, the alternating
stress amplitude may be expected to vary or change in some way
during the service life when the fatigue failure is considered. Based
on a single-slope S–N curve and the effective stress range distri-
bution, the accumulated fatigue damage can be estimated from
all individual stress cycles by adopting the Miner-Palmgren rule.
The annual fatigue damage is summed up from the fatigue dam-
age arising in a set of environmental states chosen to represent the Fig. 4. Time histories of mooring line tension response for 100 s.
long-term environment that the mooring system is subjected to.
The fatigue damage accumulated in a period  for the jth sea state
the spectrum analysis method can be used to calculate the fatigue
can be calculated by
life and reduce the calculation time.

N()
 nij N()  m Dynamic mooring response consists of two frequency compo-
1 Sij
Dj = = (6) nents, i.e. wave frequency (WF) component mainly induced by the
Ni (Sij ) K Sref first order wave forces and low-frequency (LF) component caused
i=1 i=1
by the slowly varying environmental forces. Using assumptions
where N() is the total number of stress cycles for the jth sea state of narrow-band, the RMS (root-mean-square) value, zero-crossing
in a period , Ni (Sij ) is the number of cycles to failure at stress range period and fatigue damage in lower frequency range can be calcu-
Sij , nij is the number of cycles at stress range Sij . In this formulation lated as follows:
it is assumed that the accumulated damage Dj is independent of 
flow
the sequence in which stress cycles occur.
Slf = S(f ) df , (10)
The cumulative damage in time  can be calculated by summing
0
up the contribution of each sea state, as follows:


count
Slf
D= Dj pj , (7) Tz, lf =  , (11)
flow
j=1 0
S(f ) × f 2 df

where Dj is the fatigue damage under the jth sea state, pj is the  m 
occurrence probability of the jth sea state, count is the number of TL √ Slf m

sea states. Dlf = 2 2  1+ , (12)
K × Tz,low f Sref 2

4.3. Simplified fatigue analysis
The repetitive load effects for fatigue limit states of mooring
lines are described by the distribution of stress ranges, S (see e.g.
Almar-Næss, 1985). The Weibull distribution is used to represent
the distribution of stress ranges of mooring system. A damage cal-
culation from application of the Weibull distribution is used as
the basis for a simplified fatigue analysis (e.g. Almar-Næss, 1985;
Moan, 2001). The number n(S) of stress ranges is given by a Weibull
distribution:
    −1
S S
n(S) = n0 f (S) = n0 exp
tory of mooring line as a basis of the fatigue analysis. The fatigue
where n0 is the number of cycles as defined in relation to the stress
range S,
= S0 /(ln n0 )1/ is the scale parameter (P[S ≥ S0 ] = 1/n0 ),
is the shape parameter, and S0 is the maximum stress range.
The damage D in a period  with n cycles is then
where Slf is RMS value of stress for the spectra area of low-
frequency, S(f) is stress spectrum density, f is frequency, flow is the
upper limit of low frequency zone, Tz,lf is zero crossing period of low
frequency stress, Dlf is fatigue damage caused by low-frequency
stress, TL is the time over which damage is computed, m is neg-
ative inverse slope of S–N curve and K is intercept of S–N curve
with the log N axis. Damage due to the high-frequency stress can
be calculated similarly.
5. Results and discussion
 v
− , (8) Numerical simulation is performed to provide the tension his-
analysis of mooring lines is conducted in the time domain and
frequency domain. The rainflow counting method and spectrum
analysis method are used to estimate the fatigue damage of moor-
ing line in the time domain and frequency domain, respectively.
 n(S )  ∞  m
i 1 S 5.1. Weibull probability paper
D= = n(S) dS
N(Si ) 0
K Sref
i The time histories of tension forces on anchor line located
 m/ m  upstream are calculated by numerical simulation. Fig. 4 shows a
n (S0 /Sref )
=  +1 , (9) 200 s plot of time histories of mooring line tension force for No.
K ln n0 4 wave state (Hs = 1.71 m, Ts = 4 s). The figure shows the mooring
line tension response is narrow-banded. The tension histories of
mooring line for three different analysis durations (1 h, 5 h and
4.4. Spectrum analysis method 10 h) are used. In fatigue analysis, the stress range is taken to be
twice the stress amplitude (the tension amplitude divided by the
The fatigue damage can be estimated in the time domain and fre- cross-sectional area). The rainflow counting method is used to cal-
quency domain. The rainflow counting method in the time domain culate the stress range. The probability paper is used to evaluate
can give an accurate estimation of fatigue damage of mooring line, the degree of fit to a particular distribution. The three stress range
however, it is a time consuming method. In the frequency domain, histories are plotted in Weibull probability paper, as shown in Fig. 5.
64 T.-J. Xu et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 58 (2014) 59–68

Table 4
Properties of three stress range histories used for the statistical evaluation.

Fig. 5. Weibull plots of the stress range histories for three different analysis dura-
tions.
Visual inspection of the plots indicates a fairly good fit, i.e., based
on the Weibull paper, the Weibull distribution appears to be rea-
sonable. The point representing the smallest stress range deviates
most from the fitted linear line. The points to the far left (repre-
senting the smallest stress ranges) are below the fitted linear line.
Increasing analysis duration gives smaller minimum values.
5.2. Stress range histogram and damage plots
The histogram of the stress range and corresponding fatigue
damage are shown in Fig. 6. The intervals of the histogram have
Fig. 6. Histogram and damage plot for mooring line stress range.
No. t (h) Drf  0,rf (MPa)
1 1 0.0079 121.8 25.513 1.117
2 5 0.0074 131.8 25.311 1.099
3 10 0.0076 132.5 25.462 1.112
equal length and the number of intervals is the value of the maxi-
mum stress range (measured in MPa), i.e. each interval has a width
of approximately 1 MPa and there are approximately 120–130
intervals. On the basis of the total number of observations n and the
S–N curve, the fatigue damage attribute to each interval is found.
The fatigue damage is normalized to 1-year duration.
The damage plots indicated that the stress range less than
30 MPa gives very little damage, thus the small stress ranges is
probability of limited importance to the fatigue damage. The fatigue
damage plots display a clear peak around 50–60 MPa. The stress
range level Sp that contributes most to damage D corresponds to the
value that yields the maximum fatigue damage dD that is propor-
tional to f(S)Sm . The stress range Sp is found to be S = S0 [(m + − 1)/(
ln n0 )]1/ and calculated to be 54 MPa for No. 4 wave state, which is
close to the exact value 55 MPa shown in Fig. 6. On the low part of
this peak, the damage plot is very smooth. However, for the higher
stress range intervals, the damage plot is very jagged because the
number of observations of the histogram gets very low. Because
each observation at these stress ranges results in noticeable fatigue
damage, the jaggedness is more visible in the damage plot than in
the histograms.
The results indicate that the jaggedness can be reduced signifi-
cantly by increasing the analysis duration and the fatigue damage
is assumed to converge to a smooth curve for very long durations.
Table 4 presents the total damage caused by all stress ranges for
three analysis durations. The total damage Drf (damage calculated
by rainflow counting method) for the three different analysis dura-
tions is 7.9 × 10−3 , 7.4 × 10−3 and 7.6 × 10−3 , respectively. Despite
the observed jaggedness of the shortest duration, the total fatigue
damage is relatively stable, i.e. even the considerable jaggedness
 T.-J. Xu et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 58 (2014) 59–68 65

Table 5
Parameters from fit of Weibull and Rayleigh distribution to the stress range distributions resulting from 1 h analysis.

SC S0,w S0,w /S0,rf Dw Dw /Drf S0,R S0,R /S0,rf DR DR /Drf

w w
R

1 48.0 2.2 0.0001 8.1 21.0 0.98 0.00002 1.3 4.70 0.84 7.70
2 70.0 1.9 0.0008 4.9 35.0 0.94 0.0001 1.2 9.20 0.96 13.1
3 103 1.6 0.0042 3.7 56.0 0.85 0.0012 1.1 15.9 1.04 21.2
4 143 1.2 0.0183 2.3 88.0 0.73 0.0082 1.0 25.5 1.12 33.6
5 71.0 1.9 0.0008 4.3 37.0 0.99 0.0003 1.2 10.1 0.98 14.4
6 103 1.7 0.0040 3.1 61.0 0.98 0.0015 1.2 17.0 1.06 23.3
7 159 1.6 0.0235 2.9 94.0 0.97 0.0094 1.2 26.5 1.07 36.2
8 211 1.4 0.0845 2.1 138 0.91 0.0444 1.1 40.1 1.15 53.4
9 326 1.4 0.3212 1.8 257 1.09 0.1945 1.1 56.3 1.15 77.0
10 71.0 1.8 0.0007 3.5 50.0 1.27 0.0003 1.2 11.2 1.05 15.2
11 114 1.8 0.0050 3.6 81.0 1.26 0.0017 1.2 17.8 1.03 24.5
12 174 1.7 0.0270 3.2 125 1.25 0.0100 1.2 27.4 1.04 38.0
13 248 1.6 0.1120 2.8 183 1.20 0.0464 1.1 40.0 1.06 55.5
14 342 1.5 0.4130 2.6 256 1.10 0.1825 1.1 55.0 1.06 77.81
15 83.0 1.4 0.0012 1.8 64.0 1.00 0.0007 1.0 15.2 1.25 18.84
16 119 1.7 0.0136 10. 83.0 1.20 0.0019 1.4 14.3 0.80 25.2
17 182 1.7 0.0618 7.6 129 1.20 0.0112 1.4 23.2 0.84 39.2
18 272 1.8 0.3614 9.2 189 1.20 0.0522 1.3 33.6 0.81 57.5
19 365 1.6 0.8100 5.2 262 1.20 0.1966 1.3 50.0 0.89 80.3
20 510 1.4 3.4408 5.3 370 1.00 0.8065 1.2 68.4 0.87 113.9
21 176 1.4 0.0280 3.4 101 0.82 0.0100 1.2 26.5 0.98 40.1
22 263 1.4 0.1385 3.5 149 0.78 0.0492 1.2 37.7 0.95 59.2
23 354 1.3 0.4763 3.0 209 0.76 0.1922 1.2 52.3 0.97 82.8
24 511 1.3 2.0174 3.4 289 0.73 0.7268 1.2 69.3 0.93 114.6
25 77.5 1.8 0.0008 5.0 41.0 0.94 0.0003 1.3 10.2 0.91 16.2
26 148 2.1 0.0112 9.0 66.0 0.93 0.0017 1.4 15.2 0.81 26.2
27 218 2.0 0.0550 7.4 102 0.92 0.0102 1.4 23.2 0.83 40.6
28 307 1.9 0.2271 6.4 150 0.92 0.0486 1.4 33.6 0.84 59.4
29 453 2.1 1.0731 8.0 208 0.94 0.2160 1.6 44.8 0.80 82.5
30 488 1.7 3.9046 8.2 359 1.20 0.6702 1.4 61.4 0.80 113.2
31 68 1.6 0.0004 2.7 51.0 1.20 0.0003 1.2 12.0 1.07 16.6
32 117 1.6 0.0053 4.1 82.9 1.10 0.0015 1.2 18.2 0.96 27.0
33 179 1.5 0.0323 4.0 129 1.10 0.0096 1.2 27.6 0.95 42.1
34 269 1.5 0.2261 5.7 192 1.10 0.0483 1.2 37.7 0.87 62.1
35 362 1.4 0.6717 4.3 270 1.10 0.1961 1.4 53.0 0.90 87.7
36 502 1.5 1.7862 3.2 300 0.88 0.7214 1.3 73.8 0.95 120.9
37 358 1.3 0.8515 5.6 271 1.00 0.1976 1.3 48.5 0.83 88.6
38 484 1.3 2.7969 5.1 374 1.00 0.7338 1.3 66.5 0.84 122.4

for the 1 h analysis duration is likely to produce reasonable results method. The shape parameter of Weibull distribution for all sea
for fatigue damage. states is typically between 0.8 and 1.2. The ratios of Dw and S0,w to
For the simplified fatigue analysis, the scale parameter
and Drf and S0,rf from rainflow counting method are calculated. It shows
shape parameter of Weibull distribution is important for estima- that the fatigue damage and maximum stress range are overesti-
tion of fatigue damage. The scale parameter
and shape parameter mated vastly based on the Weibull distribution. In spite of the good
are calculated using the maximum likelihood method and shown fit to histogram plot (Fig. 5), the Weibull distribution gives poor
in Table 4 for three different durations. The results indicate that results for estimation of fatigue life as well as maximum stress
there is not a significant difference in the scale parameter
, the range.
shape parameter and the maximum stress range S0,rf (maximum
stress range calculated by rainflow counting method) for three
analysis durations. This means it is acceptable to calculate the
fatigue damage of mooring lines based on 1 h analysis duration.

5.3. Application of simplified fatigue analysis

In order to calculate the fatigue damage using the simplified

fatigue analysis method, the shape parameter and scale param-
eter
are estimated. The stress histories for No. 4 wave state (i.e.
longest analysis durations and thus most smooth histogram) are
used in a case study. Fig. 7 shows the histogram plots and Weibull
plots for stress range distribution. In the higher part, the entire
curve is plotted. In the lower part, only the high stress range part is
plotted to magnify the interval most important for fatigue damage.
The results indicate that the Weibull distribution underestimate
the histogram for stress range interval between 15 and 60 MPa,
whereas the lower part and higher part are overestimated.
Table 5 shows the estimated fatigue damage Dw and maximum
Fig. 7. Histogram plots and Weibull plots for stress range distributions; (Hs = 1.71 m,
stress range S0,w based on the scale parameter and shape param- Ts = 4 s); analysis duration 10 h: (a) full stress range (0–140 MPa) and (b) high stress
eter of Weibull distribution using the simplified fatigue analysis range (40–140 MPa).
66 T.-J. Xu et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 58 (2014) 59–68

Fig. 8. Spectrum density function of wave elevation and mooring line stress (Hs = 1.71 m, Ts = 4 s).

To find a more suitable distribution for estimating the fatigue
damage and maximum stress range, the assumed Rayleigh distri-
bution for the high stress range is attempted. Based on the above
analysis, the contribution of small stress range to the fatigue dam-
age is small. By removing the stress range below the cut-off limit
Sc , the shape parameter for Weibull distribution will increase. The
Rayleigh distribution is obtained when the shape parameter is
equal to 2. As shown in Fig. 7, the Rayleigh distribution shows a
very close fit to the histogram of stress range for S > 20 MPa. The
estimated fatigue damage DR and maximum stress range S0,R based
on the Rayleigh distribution are also presented in Table 5. It indi-
cates that the Rayleigh distribution is more accurate for estimating
the fatigue damage and maximum stress range than the Weibull
distribution by using Eq. (9). The total damage of mooring line for
all sea state is calculated to be 0.064 using Eq. (7), and thus the
fatigue life is 15.5 years, which is enough for the mooring line in
the fish farm.
5.4. Fatigue damages due to high-frequency and low-frequency
tensions
Under the actions of waves, current and wind, the dynamic ten-
sion response of mooring line can be excited at both wave frequency
(WF) and low frequency (LF). The wave spectrum and the stress
spectrum of mooring line are shown in Fig. 8. The Jonswap spectrum
applied here is a unimodal spectrum. However, the stress spectrum
of mooring line is multimodal spectrum. It also indicates that the
wave spectrum and the tension spectrum of mooring line have the
same peak frequency. The fatigue damage of mooring line is esti-
mated according to the stress spectrum of mooring line. Based on
the narrow band spectrum assumption, the contribution of low fre-
quency (LF) and wave frequency (WF) stress range to the fatigue
damage is analyzed.
In general, the fatigue damage due to low frequency stress
response is significantly smaller than that due to the wave fre-
quency stress response. The contribution of low frequency stress
response to the fatigue damage is increased with the increase in
wave height.
The fatigue damage of mooring line calculated using the spec-
trum analysis method is compared with that calculated using the
rainflow counting method. The ratio of (Dlf + Dwf )/Drf is calculated
and shown in Tables 6–7. The results indicate that the ratio of
(Dlf + Dwf )/Drf increases with the decrease in the wave height, which
is close to 1 for the smallest waves. However, this ratio has not sig-
nificant relationship with the wave period. Sum of the low and high
frequency damage is almost identical to the damage Drf calculated
using the rainflow counting method for small sea states, but would
underestimate the total damage by 10–30% for high sea states. The
fatigue damage calculated using the spectrum analysis method is
conservative. It may be due to the nonlinear of wave increases with
the increase in wave height, and thus the spectrum analysis method
becomes inaccurate for high waves.
In addition, the sensitivity of fatigue damage to wave period
and wave height is also investigated. The fatigue life of mooring
line for 1.71 m wave with period ranging from 4 s to 8 s is 127, 125,
118, 122 and 122 years, respectively. However, the fatigue life of
mooring line for 8 s waves with height of 1.71 m, 2.26 m, 2.85 m
and 3.54 m is 122, 25, 6 and 2 years, respectively. It indicates that
the sensitivity of fatigue damage of mooring line to wave height
Hs is more significant than the sensitivity to wave period Ts , thus a
subdivision of the Hs axis in the scatter diagram is more important
than that of the Ts axis.
5.5. Sensitivity of fatigue damage to pre-tension
The level of pre-tension will affect the tension response of moor-
ing lines. Hence, it is of necessity to investigate the effects of the
pre-tension on the fatigue damage. Three levels of pre-tension are
assumed to carry out the fatigue analysis, including 16.5 kN, 9.8 kN
and 3 kN.
At different levels of pre-tensions, the histogram of stress range
of mooring line is shown in Fig. 9. If the pre-tensions are given as
16.5 kN, 9.8 kN and 3 kN, the maximum stress range of mooring line

Table 6
Fatigue damage due to WF and LF stress response for different wave period.

Hs (m) Ts (s) Slf (MPa) Tz,lf (s) Swf (MPa) Tz,wf (s) Drf Dlf /Drf (%) Dwf /Drf (%) (Dlf + Dwf )/Drf (%)

1.71 4 3.32 15.3 11.7 3.96 0.00789 0.14 89.2 89.34

1.71 5 2.32 15.7 12.7 4.95 0.00803 0.03 96.7 96.72
1.71 6 1.61 21.2 13.1 5.71 0.00845 0.005 93.04 93.05
1.71 7 1.25 25.3 13.6 6.45 0.00822 0.0014 96.10 96.11
1.71 8 1.07 29.9 13.7 7.16 0.00818 0.0006 92.98 92.98
2.85 5 10.91 16.97 25.64 5.00 0.18235 0.67 75.2 75.9
2.85 6 7.22 21.37 26.12 5.78 0.16158 0.11 79.3 79.4
2.85 7 5.66 23.19 27.32 6.53 0.15480 0.04 88 88.1
2.85 8 4.59 29.67 27.84 7.27 0.15729 0.01 84 84.0
2.85 9 3.09 38.37 27.81 8.09 0.13417 0.002 88.2 88.2
 T.-J. Xu et al. / Aquacultural Engineering 58 (2014) 59–68 67

Table 7
Fatigue damage due to WF and LF stress response for different wave height.

Hs (m) Ts (s) Slf (MPa) Tz,lf (s) Swf (MPa) Tz,wf (s) Drf Dlf /Drf (%) Dwf /Drf (%) (Dlf + Dwf )/Drf (%)

0.53 4 0.27 10.9 2.74 3.89 0.00002 0.003 99.99 100

0.83 4 0.53 12.55 4.6 3.99 0.00015 0.005 99.99 100
1.22 4 1.24 13.77 7.46 3.99 0.00114 0.018 97.56 97.58
1.71 4 3.32 15.3 11.7 3.96 0.00789 0.14 89.2 89.34
1.71 8 1.07 29.9 13.7 7.16 0.00818 0.0006 92.98 92.98
2.26 8 2.33 29.0 20.1 7.21 0.04002 0.003 88.24 88.25
2.85 8 4.59 29.7 27.8 7.27 0.15785 0.013 83.72 83.73
3.54 8 8.95 30.2 38.0 7.34 0.59095 0.05 79.17 79.22

Fig. 9. Histogram of stress range for different initial tension force (Hs = 1.71 m, Ts = 4 s).

are 127.8, 140.0 and 150.1 MPa, respectively. It indicates that the
maximum stress ranges of mooring line are quite sensitive to the
pre-tension of mooring line. The maximum stress range of mooring
line increases with the decrease in pre-tension. The results also
show that the histogram of stress range of mooring line have the
same trend for different pre-tensions.
The fatigue damage is calculated using S–N approach, and the
value of K in S–N equation is equal to 10(3.20–2.79Lm) . For the three
different levels of pre-tension, the fatigue damage is 0.0079, 0.0087
and 0.006. The sensitivity of fatigue damage to pre-tension is less
than that of maximum stress range. It is because both the value of K
and maximum stress range of mooring line are increased with the
decrease in pre-tension.
w , w the scale parameter and shape parameter of Weibull
6. Conclusions
R the scale parameter of Rayleigh distribution.
The stress response of mooring line for net cage under the action
of irregular waves is calculated by numerical simulation validated
in our previous research. The stress range histories are plotted on
Weibull paper and the two Weibull parameters are estimated using
maximum likelihood method. A visual inspection of the short-term
Weibull plots indicates quite good fit, and the shape parameter
is typically between 0.8 and 1.2. However, calculating fatigue life
and maximum stress range of mooring line based on the estimated
Weibull parameters results in overestimation of the stress range
and underestimation of the fatigue life.
An assumed Rayleigh process is estimated by filtering out the
smaller stress ranges until a Weibull fit yields a shape parameter
of = 2. Calculating maximum stress range and fatigue life for the
individual sea states gives a very good fit to results from the direct
calculations.
Sum of the low and high-frequency damage is almost identical
to the damage calculated by the rainflow counting method for small
sea states, but would underestimate the total damage by 10–30%
for high sea states. The fatigue damage calculated using spectrum
analysis method is generally conservative. The sensitivity of fatigue
damage of mooring line to wave height Hs is more significant than
the sensitivity to wave period Ts , thus a subdivision of the Hs axis
in the scatter diagram is more important than that of the Ts axis.
The relationship between the fatigue damage and pre-tension is
not significant.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
S0,R the estimated maximum stress range using the Rayleigh
distribution parameters.
S0,W the estimated maximum stress range using the Weibull
distribution parameters.
S0,rf the maximum stress range calculated using the rainflow
counting method.
DR , Dw the fatigue damage of mooring line based on Rayleigh
and Weibull distribution.
Drf the fatigue damage of mooring line calculated using the rain-
flow counting method.
distribution.
Slf , Swf the RMS (root-mean-square) value of low and high-
frequency stress, respectively.
Tz,lf , Tz,wf the zero-crossing period of low and wave frequency
stress, respectively.
Dlf , Dwf the fatigue damage caused by low and wave frequency
stress, respectively.
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation (NSFC) Project No. 51239002 and 51221961
and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
(DUT13LK55).
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