Heave-roll-pitch coupled nonlinear internal resonance response of a spar platform considering wave and vortex exciting loads

Abstract

Many studies have been done on the heave-pitch unstable coupling response for a spar platform by a 2-DOF model. In fact, in addition to the heave and pitch which are in one plane, the nonlinear unstable motion will also occur in roll. From the results of the experiments, the unstable roll motion plays a dominant role in the motion of a spar platform which is much stronger than that of pitch. The objective of this paper is to study 3-DOF coupling response performance of spar platform under wave and vortex-induced force. The nonlinear coupled equations in heave, roll and pitch are established by considering time-varying wet surface and coupling. The first order steady-state response is solved by multi-scales method when the incident wave frequency approaches the heave natural frequency. Numerical integration of the motion equations has been performed to verify the first-order perturbation solution. The results are confirmed by model test. There is a saturation phenomenon associated with heave mode in 3-DOF systems and all extra energy is transferred to roll and pitch. It is observed that sub-harmonic response occurs in roll and pitch when the wave force exceeds a certain value. The energy distribution in roll and pitch is determined by the initial value and damping characteristics of roll and pitch. The energy transfers from heave to pitch and then transfers from pitch to roll. Due to the influence of the low-frequency vortex-excited force, the response of roll is more complicated than that of pitch.