Effects of Fiber Rope Complex Stiffness Behavior

on Mooring Line Tensions With Large Vessels Moored In Waves

Stephen Banfield John Flory

Tension Technology International Tension Technology International
69 Parkway, Eastbourne, Sussex, BN20 9DZ, UK. 4 Tower Lane, Morristown, NJ 07960
Banfield@TensionTech.com Flory@TensionTech.com

Abstract
At terminals exposed to waves, the first-order wave-induced vessel motions can cause very
high mooring line load ranges and peak tensions which can result in excessive mooring line
fatigue and breakouts. These effects can be alleviated by proper selection of fiber rope materials
and lengths for mooring lines and tails.
Fiber rope stiffness characteristics are complex. The broken-in rope stiffness is suitable for
calculating mooring line tensions with constant wind and current forces. But wave-induced
vessel motions can cause cyclic tensioning and increase the peak mooring line tension. While
the rope is cycling, it becomes stiffer. The cycling stiffness of the rope is greater than its broken-
in stiffness. This cycling stiffness should be used when calculating the peak mooring line
tensions caused by wave-induced vessel motions.
This paper describes the complex axial stiffness behavior of synthetic fiber ropes. It explains
how rope stiffness increases during cycling. It demonstrates how the rope cycling stiffness can
significantly increase peak mooring line tensions in wave environments.
Recorded mooring line load data was available from an exposed terminal where both nylon
and polyester tails are compared with loads calculated by the Optimoor Seakeeping mooring
analysis computer program. When the rope cycling stiffness was used instead of its broken-in
stiffness, good agreement was achieved between the measured and the calculated peak wave-
motion-induced mooring loads.
This paper will be of interest to fiber rope engineers, mooring operators and mooring system
designers.

INTRODUCTION
Until recently, most oil tanker and gas carrier terminals were built in harbors or behind
breakwaters which protect them from waves. Some terminals are now being installed and
operated in exposed locations which subject the moored vessel to relatively high wave heights.
At terminals exposed to waves, the first-order wave-induced vessel motions can cause very
high mooring line tension ranges and peak tensions and can result in excessive mooring line
fatigue and breakouts. These effects can be alleviated by correct selection of materials and
lengths for mooring lines and tails.
Mooring analysis has normally considered only the relatively constant forces applied by wind
and current, and sometimes by wave drift force. In such cases, only the broken-in stiffness of the
mooring rope is of concern. But first-order wave-induced vessel motions can cause short-period
cyclic tension of the mooring rope. In this case the cycling stiffness of the mooring rope is also
of concern.

978-1-4244-4333-8/10/$25.00 ©2010 IEEE

 Mooring line load data was recorded at an exposed terminal where both nylon and polyester
tails were used. The Optimoor Seakeeping mooring analysis computer program was used to
model the first-order wave-induced vessel motions and their effects on peak mooring line loads.
The axial stiffness of a synthetic fiber rope increases during cycling, and this increase can
significantly increase peak mooring line tensions in wave environments. When the rope cycling
stiffness was used in calculations instead of its original stiffness, agreement between the
measured and calculated peak wave-motion-induced mooring loads is much better.

The Optimoor Program

The Optimoor mooring analysis computer program was first introduced by Tension
Technology in the early 1990s.(ref. 1, 2)
The effects of wave-induced vessel motions were introduced into Optimoor with the
Seakeeping option in the early 2000s.(ref. 3) This was necessitated when gas carriers and
tankers began to be moored at terminals exposed to waves. Optimoor Seakeeping uses Response
Amplitude Operator (RAO) functions to calculate the vessel motions induced by waves and
swell. It calculates the stretch in mooring lines caused by these motions. It adds this wave-
motion induced stretch to the stretch caused by wind, current, and wave drift forces. Optimoor
then calculates the peak and trough mooring line tensions caused by these motions.
Recent research (ref 4, 5, 6) has confirmed that synthetic fiber rope stiffness increases
significantly while the rope is being cycled. The terms broken-in and cycling stiffness are used
here to describe these different stiffnesses. Sometimes they are called static and dynamic
stiffness, but those terms are misleading. The rope actually moves as it is tensioned and
untensioned. There are no dynamic phenomena, such as mass or acceleration, associated with
cycling stiffness.
The cycling stiffness was recently introduced into Optimoor in order to better match the
wave-motion-induced peak mooring line tensions measured at exposed terminals.

How Wave-Induced Motion Affect Mooring Line Tension

At moorings which are protected from waves, the principal concerns are wind and current
forces on the vessel. These static applied forces are distributed among the mooring lines.
When the moored vessel is exposed to waves, it moves - surge, sway, yaw, roll, pitch, and
heave. These wave-induced motions cause the vessels fairleads to move. These fairlead motions
increase the distance between the fairlead and the mooring point on the pier. As a result, the
mooring line must stretch.
Figure 1 shows how wave-induced vessel motions increase the mooring line length. Figure 2
shows how this wave-induced change in line length increases the tension in the line.
The mooring line is mounted on a winch on the vessel, passes through the fairlead on the
vessel side, and connects to a mooring point on the pier. The length of that line between the
fairlead and the mooring point when stretched by applied wind and current forces is designated
by Line Length 1. When wave-induced motions cause the vessel fairlead to move further from
the mooring point, the line stretches to Line Length 2, as depicted in the figure. Delta Length
designates the resulting line length increase.
The non-linear stretch characteristic of a typical nylon rope is illustrated. Rope tension due to
the applied wind and current forces initially stretches the rope to Line Length 1. The rope
tension increases when wave-induced vessel motions stretch the rope to Line Length 2. Because
of the non-linear stretch characteristic, the increase caused by wave-induced vessel motions can
be relatively high.
The Optimoor Seakeeping program, which was used in these analyses, carries out these
calculations to depict the effects of wave-induced vessel motions.

Importance of Cycling Stiffness

There are three fundamental stiffness properties of interest:
The stiffness on the first loading of the rope to a high load is called original stiffness. (In
Optimoor this is called new stiffness.) Construction stretch is taken out of the rope on this first
loading.
Figure 3 shows an example of rope stiffness after construction stretch has been removed.
After the first loading, the rope is stiffer. This stiffness is called broken-in stiffness. Broken-in
stiffness is shown in dark blue in Figure 3.
During cyclic loading, when the rope is loaded to a given mean load and then cycled for the
first time above that mean load to the cyclic peak load, it follows the broken-in-stiffness curve.
This is shown as a dashed yellow line in the figure.
When the rope is then unloaded, it a stiffer, concave curve down to the cyclic trough load.
This is shown as a dashed green line in the figure. As cycling continues and the load again
increases, the rope follows a stiffer, convex curve, shown as a solid green line. The strain at the
top of the cycle is slightly more than that at the beginning of the cycle.
After the first unloading cycle, the stiffness during the half cycle from trough to peak load is
called 1st cycle stiffness. The area enclosed between the concave down curve and the convex up
curve is hysteresis energy. It is energy which is absorbed by the polymer material during
cycling.
As cycling continues the slopes of both the unloading and the uploading curves increase, both
curves become more linear, and the hysteresis area enclosed between the curves decreases. After
many cycles, the shape of the line becomes essentially straight, and the rope follows the same
stiffness path during both loading and unloading. This is shown as a red line in the figure.
At the peak load of each cycle, additional strain takes place, such that the peak strain point
shifts further to the right along the strain axis. But the rate of this shift decreases with cycles and
eventually becomes insignificant. This increase in peak strain during cycling is called working
strain.
Also during cycling, the hysteresis area between the curves becomes insignificant. This area
represents energy stored in the polymer. After cycling stops and load is removed from the rope,
the working strain is relieved, and the rope returns to its length before cycling.
The rope stiffness during cycling is called cycling stiffness. It typically takes around a
hundred cycles for the rope to progress from the 1st cycle stiffness to the cycling stiffness. The
cycling stiffness is typically about twice that of the broken-in stiffness.

ANALYSIS OF MEASURED MOORING TENSIONS

Tension Technology International was asked to analyze mooring line tensions recorded at a
tanker terminal in an exposed location. Mooring line tensions had been recorded over one day.
During this period the wind, wave, and current environments remained essentially constant.
During this period, polyester tails were changed to nylon tails. This presented an unusual
opportunity to compare the mooring line loads experienced with polyester and nylon tails under
essentially the same environment conditions.
 The mooring line layout used at the terminal is shown in Figure 4. There were several
mooring hooks on each dolphin, and each mooring hook was instrumented. The winch mounted
mooring lines were HMPE. The pretensions applied to the mooring lines are not known.
At the start of the recording period, 22 m polyester tails were used on each line. During the
span of the record, these polyester tails were replaced with 22 m nylon tails.
The wave environment remained constant during this period as shown in Figure 5. The long
period waves (swell) were generally about 1 m (3 ft) significant wave height, peaking at 1.2m.
The short period waves (local wind generated) were generally about 0.5 m (1.5 ft) throughout,
but these waves were too short to cause any motions.

Mooring Line Tension Records

Figures 6 through 11 show the mooring tensions recorded at the terminal. Three mooring
lines were generally attached to each breast line dolphin. Two mooring lines were attached to
each spring line dolphin. On the mooring line records, the time at which the nylon tails were
substituted for the polyester tails on the respective hooks is evident by the dramatic reduction in
tensions.
Figure 6 shows the mooring line tensions recorded on forward breast dolphin A. Mooring
hooks H2, H3 and H4 were used. Just after 06:00 hours a 22m polyester tail was removed from
H2. At around 07:00 a 22m nylon tail was attached to H2 and retensioned. The H3 tail was
changed at about the same time. The H4 tail was changed just prior to 10:00.
Figure 7 shows the tensions recorded on forward breast dolphin B. Polyester tails were
originally used on hooks H2, H3, and H4, with the line tension records starting at 18:00. At
about 02:00 a mooring line with polyester tail was added to H1. The tail on H2 was changed to
nylon around 04:00 and the tails on H1, H3 and H4 were changed around 11:00.

Summaries of Peak and Mean Recorded Mooring Line Tensions

The Optimoor Seakeeping program calculates the probable maximum peak wave-motion-
induced mooring line load during a three-hour period, using statistical techniques. To
correspond with the period over which Optimoor calculates peak mooring tensions, the peak
tension recorded on each mooring hook was determined during a 3-hour period both with 22m
polyester tail and with 22m nylon tail.
These peak 3-hour recorded mooring line tensions are shown in Table 1. Note that there are
generally three lines to each of the breasting dolphins and two lines to each of the spring
dolphins. The indicated ranges are between the highest and lowest peak recorded tensions on the
respective hooks and are not the ranges between peak and trough tensions.
With 22m polyester tails the 3 hour peak tensions were approximately 80 to 110 tonnes on
hook A and approximately 80 to 112 tonnes on hook B. For the aft lines the 3hr maximum
tension was around 32 to 65 tonnes depending on hook. The peak tensions in the forward breast
lines were significantly higher than those in the aft breast lines. The peak tensions in the aft
springs were lower than those in the forward springs.
The peak line tensions recorded with 22m long nylon tails were about a third of those recorded
with 22m polyester tails.
Table 1. Peak line tensions (tonnes) from the measured hook tensions for 22m polyester and nylon tails
Dolphin A Dolphin B Dolphin C Dolphin D Dolphin E Dolphin F
Forward Forward Forward Aft Aft Aft
Breast Breast Spring Spring Breast Breast
Polyester 80 – 100 80-112 43-63 36-56 32-65 45-54
Nylon 28-37 22-41 13-22 14-33

Table 2 lists the corresponding mean tensions. The mean tensions of the forward breast lines
were significantly higher than the aft lines, possibly due to line pretensions.

Table 2. Mean line tensions (tonnes) from the measured hook tensions for 22m polyester and nylon tails.
Dolphin A Dolphin B Dolphin C Dolphin D Dolphin E Dolphin F
Forward Forward Forward Aft Aft Aft
Breast Breast Spring Spring Breast Breast
Polyester 40 40 28 22 20 20
Nylon 15 20 8 8

Optimoor Mooring Analysis

The mooring system was analyzed using the Optimoor Seakeeping mooring analysis
computer program. The calculated peak mooring line tension is shown in Tables 3, 4, 5 and 6.
The winch pull-in represents line tending and refers to the amount of rope length pulled in when
positive and paid out when negative.
Table 3 shows the calculated peak line loads when the broken-in stiffness characteristics of
22m polyester tails were used. Table 4 shows the calculated peak loads for 22m broken-in nylon
tails. The calculated peak mooring line tensions were about half the measured values when these
broken-in stiffness properties were used.

Table 3. Optimoor analysis results using broken-in curve compared to measured peak line tensions for
22m polyester tails

Winch Dolphin A Dolphin B Dolphin C Dolphin D Dolphin E Dolphin F

Pull-In Forward Forward Forward Aft Aft Aft
Meters Breast Breast Spring Spring Breast Breast
Measured 80 – 100 80-112 43-63 36-56 32-65 45-54
Optimoor 0.4 38-42 33-40 25 24 38-46 41-45
calculated

Table 4. Optimoor analysis results using broken-in curve compared to measured peak line tensions for
22m nylon tails
Winch Dolphin A Dolphin B Dolphin C Dolphin D Dolphin E Dolphin F
Pull-In Forward Forward Forward Aft Aft Aft
Meters Breast Breast Spring Spring Breast Breast
Measured 28-37 22-41 13-22 14-33
Optimoor 1.0 20 20 17 19
calculated
 Table 5 shows the calculated peak line loads when the cycling stiffness characteristics of 22m
polyester tails were used. The calculated peak mooring line tensions are about 60% greater with
cycling stiffness than with non-cycling stiffness. They much more closely match the recorded
peaks.
The actual pretensions applied to the various mooring lines are unfortunately not known. The
results with several alternative pretensions are shown in Table 5. The first run was conducted
with a 10 tonne winch pre-tension applied to all lines, which results from a 0.4m winch pull-in.
The Optimoor calculated aft line peak tensions were too high compared to the recorded values.
Likewise the spring lines had much higher peak tension. With some minimal line tending on the
forward lines by paying out 0.4m, to 0m, the peak line tensions trend towards a closer match.
By 0.7m winch pay-out, the peak line tension matched very closely with the recorded values

Table 5. Optimoor analysis results using cyclic tensioning curve compared to measured peak line
tensions for 22m polyester tails
Winch Dolphin A Dolphin B Dolphin C Dolphin D Dolphin E Dolphin F
Pull-In Forward Forward Forward Aft Aft Aft
Meters Breast Breast Spring Spring Breast Breast
Measured 80 - 100 80-112 43-63 36-56 32-65 45-54
Optimoor 0.4 75-84 65-83 59-60 52-53 77-96 83-93
calculated 0.0 71-81 62-79 63 50 63-80 70-80
-0.3 67-76 59-74 64-65 51 56-72 62-74
-0.7 66-74 57-73 64-65 51 41-55 47-59

Table 6 shows the calculated peak mooring line loads using the cycling stiffness of 22 m
nylon tails. Achieving a10 tonne pretension requires a greater pull-in of 1.0m due to the higher
stretch nylon tails. Very good agreement with measured line tensions was found with 0m line
payout.

Table 6. Optimoor analysis results using cycling curve compared to measured peak line tensions for 22m
nylon tails
Winch Dolphin A Dolphin B Dolphin C Dolphin D Dolphin E Dolphin F
Pull-In Forward Forward Forward Aft Aft Aft
meters Breast Breast Spring Spring Breast Breast
Measured 28-37 22-41 13-22 14-33
Optimoor 1.0m 32-33 27-30 32 33 32-36 33-36
calculated 0m 28-30 25-27 37 30 15-17 16-18

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

When a vessel is moored in a constant environment, e.g. steady wind and current, the broken-
in stiffness characteristics of its mooring lines (including tails) can be used to calculate the vessel
movements and the average mooring line tensions.
When a vessel is moored alongside a pier exposed to waves, the resulting short-period wave-
induced motions can cause additional stretch in the mooring lines and thus significantly increase
the peak mooring line loads.
Continuous cycling of a synthetic-fiber rope causes its stiffness to temporarily increase. This
cycling stiffness should be used instead of the broken-in stiffness to calculate the peak mooring
line loads caused by wave-induced vessel motions.
 Because polyester tails are much stiffer than nylon tails, the peak wave-motion-induced
tensions can be much higher when nylon tails are replaced with polyester tails.
Longer polyester tails were not investigated in this study. Increasing the length of polyester
tails can make their stretch characteristics similar to that of short nylon tails, and thus benefit
from polyester rope’s much better cyclic fatigue characteristics. Longer polyester tails may not
fit at many terminals due to the restricted length between vessel and jetty, so the only solution
may be nylon tails.

July 30, 2010

References:

1. Flory, J.F., and A. Ractliffe, ”The Importance of Properly Representing Line Stiffness in
Mooring Analysis”, MTS/IEEE Oceans 2005 Conference Proceedings, IEEE,
Piscataway, NJ and MTS, Columbia, MD, 2005
2. Flory, J.F., “The Effect of Rope Elasticity on Distribution of Mooring Line Loads”, MTS
Ocean Community Conference ‘98, MTS, Washington, DC, 1998.
3. Flory, J.F and S.J Banfield, “Improved Mooring Line Technology for Tankers and Gas
Carriers at Exposed Berths”, MTS/IEEE Oceans 2009 Biloxi Conference, Piscataway, NJ
and MTS, Columbia, MD, 2009
4. Flory, J.F., V. Ahjem, and S.J. Banfield. “A New Method of Testing for Change-in-
Length Properties of Large Fiber Rope Deepwater Mooring Lines”, OTC 18770, 2007
Offshore Technology Conference Proceedings, OTC, Richardson, TX, 2007,
5. Flory, J.F., C.M. Leech, S.J. Banfield and D. Pertruska, Computer Model to Monitor
Long-Term Performance and Integrity of Fiber Rope Mooring Lines 2005 Offshore
Technology Conference paper OTC-17592.
6. S. Banfield, J.W.S. Hearle, C. M. Leech, R. Tebay, and C.A. Lawrence “Fibre Rope
Modeller (FRM) : A CAD program for the Performance Prediction of Advanced Cords
and Ropes under Complex Tensioning Environments. TECHTEXTIL 23-26 APRIL
2001.
Figure 1 Effect of Wave-
Induced Vessel Motion on
Mooring Line Length

Figure 2 Effect of Wave-

Induced Vessel Motion on
Mooring Line Tension

Figure 3 Broken-In Stiffness

and Cycling Stiffness
Figure 4 Tanker Mooring Arrangement at Terminal

Figure 5 Wave Height Record During Mooring Line Load Recordings

Figure 6. Mooring Line Tensions Measured On Forward Breast Dolphin A

Figure 7. Mooring Line Tensions Measured On Forward Breast Dolphin B

Figure 8. Mooring Line Tensions Measured On Aft Breast Dolphin E

Figure 9. Mooring Line Tensions Measured On Aft Breast dolphin F

Figure 10. Mooring Line Tensions Measured On Aft Spring Dolphin D

Figure 11. Mooring Line Tensions Measured On Forward Spring Dolphin C