Analysis of Mooring System for a Floating Production System

Abstract

Understanding the behavior of a mooring line that is connected to a Suezmax vessel is a crucial requirement for our industry. Thus, we should model and analyze such a mooring line under a variety of environmental conditions. The output of modeling and analysis are useful to determine if the given mooring line is suitable for that environment or not.

In the first part of this project a brief description about floating production platforms and mooring systems has been given and different material used for mooring systems has been discussed. All loads acts on mooring systems have been described and design methods used for mooring system analyses with relevant equation have been summarized. Brief descriptions about standards and guidelines used for mooring analysis have been given.

Since we will use RIFLEX software for mooring line analysis, a brief introduction about the concept of the software will be provided. A single mooring line is studied that consists of two material compositions and is connected to Suezmax vessel. In the last part of this thesis, static and dynamic analysis in two regular wave cases will be performed for given mooring lines. We will do the analyses under three tensions 15%, 30% and 45% MBL (Minimum Breaking Load) in two vessel conditions (i.e. ballasted and loaded). The main focus is on effective tension and line displacement determination, that a given mooring line experiences. The results have been discussed.