Current observation and analysis based on mooring systems in the Andaman Sea

The basic structure and intraseasonal evolution of currents in the southeastern Andaman Sea was analyzed based on data collected in 2017 from two subsurface moorings(C1 and C5).Periodic variation in the upper ocean currents of the Andaman Sea was investigated by combining observational and satellite data.Mooring observations show that rapid changes of current speed and direction occurred in May and June,with a significant increase in current velocity at the C1 mooring.In the second half of the year,southward flow dominated at the C1 mooring,and alternating northward and southward flows were evident at the C5 mooring during the same period but the northward flow prevailed in boreal winter.In addition,analysis of the power spectra of the upper currents revealed that the tidal period at both moorings is primarily semidiurnal with weaker energy than that of the low-frequency currents.The upper ocean currents at the C1 and C5 moorings exhibited intraseasonal variation of 30-60 d and 120 d,while the zonal current at the C1 mooring exhibited a notable period of approximately 180 d.Further analysis indicated that the variability of currents in the Andaman Sea is influenced primarily by equatorial Kelvin waves and Rossby wave packets.Moreover,our results suggest that equatorial Kelvin waves from the eastern Indian Ocean entered the Andaman Sea in the form of Wyrtki Jets and propagated primarily along two distinct pathways during the observation period.In addition to coastal boundary Kelvin waves,it was found that a branch of the Wyrtki Jet that directly enters the Andaman Sea and flows northward along the slope of the continental shelf,and reflected Rossby wave packets by topography.

Intraseasonal variability of the Kuroshio observed via mooring at 18°N

Insufficient observations near the origin of the Kuroshio have led to incomplete understanding of the intraseasonal variability(ISV)of the Kuroshio.Direct measurements of the Kuroshio velocity were performed with an array of three profiler moorings(122.7°E,123°E,and 123.3°E)along 18°N from January 2018 to February 2020.The ISV of the Kuroshio at 18°N was investigated based on a combination of mooring observations and global high-resolution HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model reanalysis data.The estimated time-averaged transport in the upper 350 m across the observation transect was 6.5±2.6 Sv(1.0 Sv=10^(6)m^(3)/s).Two significant ISV peaks at 50-60 and~100 d were recognized in the power spectra of the meridional velocity and transport.Further analysis indicated that the ISV at 50-60 d was caused by westward-propagating eddies at average propagation speed of~13 cm/s and wavelength of~635 km.Another ISV peak at~100 d was mainly caused by northward-propagating eddies generated in the North Equatorial Current region.Further investigation indicated that the ISV of the Kuroshio at 18°N is dominated by meridional transport,rather than by the zonal migration of the Kuroshio main axis.Our findings provide a better understanding of the ISV of the Kuroshio east of Luzon Island.

Study on the Characteristics of A New Hybrid Mooring System for DualPlatform Joint Operations

As the sustainable exploitation of marine resources develops,dual-platform joint operation has caught increasing attention.Dual-platform joint operation requires smaller relative motion between the two sub-platforms,which is normally difficult to be satisfied by the traditional mooring system.Therefore,a new hybrid mooring system is developed and studied in this article.To ensure safety during platform movements,both the number of anchor chains and the relative motion between the two sub-platforms are reduced in the new hybrid mooring system.By performing numerical simulations based on three-dimensional potential flow theory in AQWA and physical experiments,the performances of both the new hybrid and traditional mooring systems under two different wave conditions(i.e.,working wave and freak wave conditions) are systematically investigated.Regarding the new hybrid mooring system,the relative stability between the two sub-platforms of the new system is better,and the platforms can restore stability faster when affected by freak waves.

Motion simulation of moorings using optimized LSTM neural network

Mooring arrays have been widely deployed in sustained ocean observation in high resolution to measure finer dynamic features of marine phenomena.However,the irregular posture changes and nonlinear response of moorings under the effect of ocean currents face huge challenges for the deployment of mooring arrays,which may cause the deviations of measurements and yield a vacuum of observation in the upper ocean.We developed a data-driven mooring simulation model based on LSTM(long short-term memory)neural network,coupling the ocean current with position data from moorings to predict the motion of moorings,including single-step output prediction and multi-step prediction.Based on the predictive information,the formation of the mooring array can be adjusted to improve the accuracy and integrity of measurements.Moreover,we proposed the cuckoo search(CS)optimization algorithm to tune the parameters of LSTM,which improves the robustness and generalization of the model.We utilize the datasets observed from moorings anchored in the Kuroshio Extension region to train and validate the simulation model.The experimental results demonstrate that the model can remarkably improve prediction accuracy and yield stable performance.Moreover,compared with other optimization algorithms,CS is more efficient and performs better in simulating the motion of moorings.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Adaptive Technology for Multinode Users of Seawater Channel Based on Inductively Coupled Mooring Chain

As an important part of buoy-type ocean monitoring systems,the inductively coupled mooring chain solves the problem of data cotransmission through the multinode sensors that it carries,which is significant for the rapid acquisition of fish,hydrology,and other information.This paper is based on a seawater channel transmission model with a depth of 300 m and a bandwidth of 2 MHz.An orthogonal frequency division multiplexing(OFDM)technology is used to overcome the multipath effect of signal transmission on a seawater medium.The adaptive technology is integrated into the OFDM,and an improved joint subcarrier and bit power allocation algorithm is proposed.This algorithm solves the problem of dynamic subcarrier allocation during the cotransmission of underwater multinode user data in seawater channels.The results show that the algorithm complexity can be reduced by 0.18126×10^(-2)s during one complete OFDM system data transmission by the improved greedy algorithm,and a total of 216 bits are transmitted by the OFDM.The normalized channel capacity can be improved by 0.012 bit s^(-1)Hz^(-1).At the bit error ratio(BER)of 10^(-3),the BER performance can be improved by approximately 6 d B.When the numbers of users are 4 and 8,the improved algorithm increases the channel capacity,and the higher the number of users,the more evident the channel capacity improvement effect is.The results of this paper have an important reference value for enhancing the transmission performance of inductively coupled mooring chain underwater multinode data.

Current Status and Future Trends for Mooring Systems of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

With the increasing demand of energy and the limitation of bottom-fixed wind turbines in moderate and deep waters,floating offshore wind turbines are doomed to be the right technical choice and they are bound to enter a new era of rapid development.The mooring system is a vital system of a floating wind turbine for station-keeping under harsh environmental con­ditions.In terms of existing floating wind turbine projects,this paper is devoted to discussing the current status of mooring systems and mooring equipment.This paper also presents the mooring analysis methods and points out the technical difficulties and challenges in mooring design,in­stallation,operation and maintenance stages.Finally,the developing trends of the mooring system are summarized,aiming to provide a reference for future mooring research.

Dynamic Analysis of Semi-Submersible Production Platform Under the Failure of Mooring Lines

This paper quantitatively studies the transient dynamic response of a semi-submersible production platform with the loss of one or several positioning mooring lines.A semi-submersible platform,production risers,and positioning mooring lines are all included in the numerical simulation.Increased motion of the semi-submersible platform,tension variation of the remaining mooring lines/risers and the risk of mooring line or riser clashing are all investigated through fully coupled time-domain analysis.Combined environmental loads are selected from irregular waves and the steady current varying from very rough to extreme sea conditions.Three dimension radiation/diffraction theories and Morison’s equation are applied to calculate first-order wave force and second-order mean drift force of floating semi-submersible platform.Nonlinear time-domain finite element methods are employed to analyze the behavior of mooring lines and risers.Results show that the failure of mooring lines seriously reduce the platform’s stability performance.The tension of the rest lines is also increased accordingly.Remaining lines which are closer to the failed lines will have larger tension increase to compensate.Line-Line distance provides practical information for the risk of clashing investigation.

Motion Performance and Mooring System of a Floating Offshore Wind Turbine

The development of offshore wind farms was originally carried out in shallow water areas with fixed （seabed mounted） structures. However, countries with limited shallow water areas require innovative floating platforms to deploy wind turbines offshore in order to harness wind energy to generate electricity in deep seas. The performances of motion and mooring system dynamics are vital to designing a cost effective and durable floating platform. This paper describes a numerical model to simulate dynamic behavior of a new semi-submersible type floating offshore wind turbine （FOWT） system. The wind turbine was modeled as a wind block with a certain thrust coefficient, and the hydrodynamics and mooting system dynamics of the platform were calculated by SESAM soRware. The effect of change in environmental conditions on the dynamic response of the system under wave and wind loading was examined. The results indicate that the semi-submersible concept has excellent performance and SESAM could be an effective tool for floating wind turbine design and analysis.

Research on the Viscoelasticity of Polyester Mooring Lines Using the Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation

The taut mooring system using synthetic fiber ropes has overcome the shortcomings such as the large self-weight of the mooring lines and provides better mooring performance for the floating structures.The polyester rope has attracted much attention among numerous synthetic fiber rope materials due to its lightweight,low price,corrosion resistance,and high strength.Thus,the mooring characteristics of it are worth studying.Polyester mooring lines are flexible in deep water,when a marine structure is moored by them,the geometric nonlinearity such as large displacement,large stretch,and large bending deformation,and the material nonlinearity like viscoelastic of the polyester ropes become complex integrated problems to be studied.Considering the nonlinear phenomenon,the simulation and calculation of a polyester line were carried out by the absolute nodal coordinate formulation(ANCF)in this paper since the ANCF method has advantages in dealing with the significant deformation problems of the flexible structures.In addition,a chain mooring line was also simulated for comparison,and the results show that the polyester ropes reduce the self-weight of the mooring lines and provide sufficient mooring strength at the same time,and the nonlinear phenomenon of the polyester ropes is different from that of the chain mooring lines.

Investigation on the Dynamic Responses of a Truss Spar Platform for Different Mooring Line Groups

The dynamic responses of any floating platform arc dependent on the mass, stiffness and damping characteristics of the body as well as mooring system. Therefore, it is very essential to study the effect of individual contributions to the system that can finally help to economise their cost. This paper focuses on the effect of mooring stiffness on the responses of a truss spar platform, obtained by different grouping of lines. The study is part of our present researches on mooring systems which include the effect of line pretension, diameter and azimuth angles. The platform is modelled as a rigid body with three degrees-of-freedom and its motions are analyzed in time-domain using the implicit Newmark Beta technique. The mooring lines restoring force-excursion relationship is evaluated using a quasi-static approach. It is observed that the mooring system with lines arranged in less number of groups exhibits better performance in terms of the restoring forces as well as mean position of platform. However, the dynamic motions of platform remain unaffected for different line groups.

Dynamics of Large-Truncated Mooring Systems Coupled with A Catenary Moored Semi-Submersible

With the floating structures pushing their activities to the ultra-deep water, model tests have presented a challenge due to the limitation of the existing wave basins. Therefore, the concept of truncated mooring system is implemented to replace the full depth mooring system in the model tests, which aims to have the same dynamic responses as the full depth system. The truncated mooring system plays such a significant role that extra attention should be paid to the mooring systems with large truncation factor. Three different types of large truncation factor mooring system are being employed in the simulations, including the homogenously truncated mooring system, non-homogenously truncated mooring system and simplified truncated mooring system. A catenary moored semi-submersible operating at 1000 m water depth is presented. In addition, truncated mooring systems are proposed at the truncated water depth of 200 m. In order to explore the applicability of these truncated mooring systems, numerical simulations of the platform’s surge free decay interacting with three different styles of truncated mooring systems are studied in calm water. Furthermore, the mooring-induced damping of the truncated mooring systems is simulated in the regular wave. Finally, the platform motion responses and mooring line dynamics are simulated in irregular wave. All these simulations are implemented by employing full time domain coupled dynamic analysis, and the results are compared with those of the full depth simulations in the same cases. The results show that the mooring-induced damping plays a significant role in platform motion responses, and all truncated mooring systems are suitable for model tests with appropriate truncated mooring line diameters. However, a large diameter is needed for simplified truncated mooring lines. The suggestions are given to the selection of truncated mooring system for different situations as well as to the truncated mooring design criteria.

Discrete Element Simulations of Ice Load and Mooring Force on Moored Structure in Level Ice

Moored structures are suitable for operations in ice-covered regions owing to their security and efficiency.This paper aims to present a new method for simulating the ice load and mooring force on the moored structure during ice-structure interaction with a spherical Discrete Element Method(DEM).In this method,the level ice and mooring lines consist of bonded sphere elements arranged in different patterns.The level ice model has been widely validated in simulation of the ice load of fixed structures.In the mooring line simulation,a string of spherical elements was jointed with the parallel bond model to simulate the chains or cable structure.The accuracy of the mooring line model was proved by comparing the numerical results with the nonlinear FEM results and model towing experiment results.The motion of the structure was calculated in the quaternion method,considering the ice load,mooring force,and hydrodynamic force.The hydrodynamic force comprised wave-making damping,current drag,and buoyancy force.Based on the proposed model,the interaction of a semi-submersible structure with level ice was simulated,and the effect of ice thickness on the ice load was analyzed.The numerical results show that the DEM method is suitable to simulate the ice load and mooring force on moored floating structures.

Design Curves for Mooring Lines of Turret Mooring Systems

This paper presents a series of design curves to aid in the selection of turret mooring systems for tankers based Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) systems. These curves are appropriate to water depths ranging from 100 m to 600 m. The curves can be used as a preliminary design tool, allowing the designer to quickly evaluate alternative mooring system configurations, including the number of mooring lines, the characteristics of chain and wire rope to be deployed and the. initial tension. With a knowledge of the total environmental force and vessel motion characteristics, the designer can determine the appropriate system for closer evaluation.

Polyester mooring stiffness modeling for deepwater floating system

Polyester mooring has become increasing popular to serve as permanent station-keeping system for deepwater floating system during recent years. Comparing to the traditional steel wire mooring,polyester mooring provides significant benefits in deepwater,such as reduced installed capital expenditure (CAPEX) and smaller vertical loads on host platform. Polyester rope is a visco-elastic material,and its stiffness is nonlinear and affected by mean load,load range,loading period and loading history. There is a perception that the polyester stiffness model has significant impact on the floating system's performance. This paper presents a detailed description and comparison of two stiffness models and three analytic approaches,and provides a systematic study of the impact of polyester mooring stiffness modeling on the deepwater floating system performance.

Internal tides in the northern South China Sea from 20-day in-situ mooring observations in 1998

20-day in-situ ADCP current and CTD data are used to investigate the characteristics and energy of the internal tides in the northern South China Sea （NSCS）. The results show that the O1, K1, M2 and S2 constituents of internal tides are energetic and diurnal constituents （O1 and K1） are dominating. In the observational period, the current vectors of these four constituents all rotate clockwise and the maximum semi-major axe of internal tidal ellipses is more than 14 cm/s. The variation of ocean temperature shows that the internal tides present obvious quasi-diurnal oscillation and the average amplitude reaches 50 m. Furthermore, these internal tides carry high energy and appear to be intermittent. The maximum values of KE （PE） during the observational period are up to 2 （3.5） k J/m^2 for diurnal internal tides, and up to 1 （1.5） k J/m^2 for semidiurnal internal tides.

Experimental Study of Mooring Type Effect on the Hydrodynamic Characteristics of VLFS

Mooring system is a significant part of very large offshore floating structures(VLFS).In this paper,a single module pontoon type VLFS model considering four mooring types is studied through physical model tests to determine the effects of mooring conditions on the hydroelastic response,mooring force,incident coefficient,reflection coefficient and energy dissipation coefficient.Eight mooring cables are symmetrically arranged on both sides of the model.The floating body model satisfies the similarity of stiffness and gravity,while the cable satisfies the similarity of elasticity and gravity.The results show that the effect of mooring type on mooring force is greater than that on hydroelastic response.Increasing the initial tension of the mooring cable will reduce the amplitude of the leeward of the VLFS model.The mooring angle of the mooring cable will affect the maximum mooring force and the initial tension of the mooring line will affect the wave period in which the maximum mooring force occurs.The transmission coefficient and wave energy dissipation coefficient will change regularly with different mooring types.These results may provide a reference to facilitate the mooring design of VLFS.

Investigation of Internal Turret Mooring System for Oil Production Storage Vessels

The internal turret mooring system for oil production storage vessels is a developing type ofoffshore floating production system suitable for deep water and harsh environmental application. In this paper, some achievements in our research work are presented. The description includes: dynamic analysis of mooring system, research on performance of turret assembly, influence of vessel dimensions and hull forms on mooring performance, model tests under combined action of environmental forces in basin, and hull structural strength analysis.

Evaluation of the Safe and Failure Zones of Mooring and Riser Systems in a CALM Oil Terminal

The mooring and riser system is the most critical part of an ofshore oil terminal.Traditionally,these two parts are designed separately without considering the nonlinear interaction between them.Thus,the present paper aims to develop an inte-grated design process for riser systems with a lazy-S confguration and mooring systems in the ofshore catenary anchor leg mooring(CALM)oil terminal.One of the important criteria considered in this integrated design is the ofset diagram and safe operation zone(SAFOP)related to the mooring system and the riser,respectively.These two diagrams are obtained separately by diferent analyses;therefore,codes or standards are available separately for two components.In this methodol-ogy,the diagrams of both risers and mooring lines are incorporated into a single spiral,thus identifying the safe and failure zones of risers and the mooring lines of the oil terminal.This,in turn,leads to substantial benefts in terms of overall system response,cost reduction,and safety to the ofshore oil terminal.To implement this process,three diferent riser lengths with the lazy-S confguration are considered at three diferent sea depths at the terminal installation site.For each condition,the integrated design of the mooring system and riser is executed according to the derived procedure.Then,coupled dynamic models,wherein both buoys and hoses are included,are developed using OrcaFlex.Results show that the criteria of the relevant regulations are not satisfed by reducing the length of the riser relative to the designed size.Further,as water depth increases,this type of riser confguration shows good coupled performance while interacting with the mooring system.In the cross ofset mode,the maximum margin is created between the ofset diagram and the SAFOP diagram,while the most critical dynamic response of the tanker and terminal system occurs in the near and far modes.Therefore,with this method,the best position for the riser direction with the tanker direction is 90°in the best case.

Fatigue Life Prediction of Mooring Chains for a Floating Tidal Current Power Station

As a kind of clean and renewable energy,tidal current energy is becoming increasingly popular all over the world with the shortage of energy and environmental problems becoming more and more severe.A floating tidal current power station is a typical type of tidal current power transformers which can sustain the loads of wind,waves,and current,and even the extreme situation of a typhoon.Therefore,the mooring system must be reliable enough to keep the station operating normally and to survive in extreme situations.The power station examined in this paper was installed at a depth of 40 m.A 44 mm-diameter R4-RQ4 chain was chosen,with a 2 147 kN minimum break strength and 50 kN pretension.Common studless link chain was used in this paper.Based on the Miner fatigue cumulative damage rule,S-N curves of chains,and MOSES software,a highly reliable mooring system was designed and analyzed.The calculation results show that the mooring system designed is reliable throughout a 10-year period.It can completely meet the design requirements of American Petroleum institution（API）.Therefore,the presented research is significant for advancing the design of this kind of power station.

A Numerical Study on Optimization of Side-by-Side Mooring System of Floating LNG Bunkering Terminal with LNG Carrier in Operation Condition

In this study, we perform a series of numerical calculations on two vessels in the time domain. One vessel maintains its position using an internal turret and catenary mooring lines, while the other is moored to the former vessel via an STS （ship-to-ship） mooring system. We obtain hydrodynamic forces using the HOBEM （higher-order boundary element method）. Then, we determine their coefficients using the convolution function method in the time domain. We model the catenary mooring lines using the finite element method, and the STS mooring lines are treated as linear SPs （springs） with constraints. To optimize the STS system, we conduct parametric studies on STS mooring systems. Finally, we compare the motion and structural responses of the initial and modified configurations.