Vessel/mooring/riser coupled dynamic analysis of a turret-moored FPSO compared with OTRC experiment

A vessel/mooring/riser coupled dynamic analysis program in time domain is developed for the global motion simulation of a turret-moored, tanker based FPSO designed for 6000-ft water depth. The vessel and line dynamics are solved simultaneously in a combined matrix for the given environmental and boundary conditions. The vessel global motions and mooring tension are tested at the OTRC wave basin for the non-parallel wind-wave-current 100-year hurricane condition in the Gulf of Mexico. The same case is also numerically simulated using the developed coupled dynamic analysis program. The numerical results are compared with the OTRC 1:60 model-testing results with truncated mooring system. The system's stiffness and line tension as well as natural periods and damping obtained from the OTRC measurement reasonably match with numerically simulated static-offset and free-decay tests. The numerically predicted global vessel motions are also in good agreement with the measurements. It is underscored that the dynamic mooring tension can be underestimated when truncated mooring system is used. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.