Nonlinear Time-Domain Theory for the Simulation of Moored Floating Body Motion

Abstract

Nonlinear wave loads can induce low-frequency and high-frequency resonance motions of a moored platform in deep water. For the analysis of the nonlinear response of an offshore platform under the action of irregular waves, the most widely used method in practice is the Cummins method, in which the second-order exciting forces in the time domain are computed by a two-term Volterra series model based on incident waves, first-order body motion response, and quadratic transfer functions (QTFs). QTFs are bichromatic waves acting on a body and are computed in the frequency domain in advance. For moving bodies, QTFs are related to the first-order body response, which is to be determined in the simulation process of body motion response but is unknown in the computation procedure of QTFs. In solving this problem, Teng and Cong (2017) proposed a method to divide the QTFs into different components, which are unrelated to the body response. With the application of the new QTF components, a modified Cummins method can be developed for the simulation of the nonlinear response of a moored floating platform. This paper presents a review of the theory.