A Numerical Solution for Modelling Mooring Dynamics, Including Bending and Shearing Effects, Using a Geometrically Exact Beam Model

Abstract

During the operation of moored, floating devices in the renewable energy sector, the tight coupling between the mooring system and floater motion results in snap load conditions. Before snap events occur, the mooring line is typically slack. Here, the mechanism of energy propagation changes from axial to bending dominant, and the correct modelling of the rotational deformation of the lines becomes important. In this paper, a new numerical solution for modelling the mooring dynamics that includes bending and shearing effects is proposed for this purpose. The approach is based on a geometrically exact beam model and quaternion representations for the rotational deformations. Further, the model is coupled to a two-phase numerical wave tank to simulate the motion of a moored, floating offshore wind platform in waves. A good agreement between the proposed numerical model and reference solutions was found. The influence of the bending stiffness on the motion of the structure was studied subsequently. We found that increased stiffness increased the amplitudes of the heave and surge motion, whereas the motion frequencies were less altered.