Proceedings of The Twelfth (2002) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference Kitakyushu, Japan, May 26 31, 2002

Copyright 2002 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers ISBN 1-880653-58-3 (Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set)

Hull/Mooring/Riser Coupled Dynamic Analysis of a Tanker-Based Turret-moored FPSO in Deep Water

Y.B. Kim and M.H. Kim
Offshore Technology Research Center Department of Civil Engineering/Ocean Engineering Program Texas A&M University College Station, Texas 77843, USA

ABSTRACT
A taker-based FPSO using 12 chain-polyester-chain taut mooring lines with 13 steel catenary risers designed for 6000-ft water depth is numerically simulated to investigate the characteristics of nonlinear behaviors and hull/mooring/riser dynamic coupling. The coupled dynamic analysis is conducted in time domain by using the newly developed program, WINPOST-FPSO. The first-order wavefrequency and second-order difference-frequency wave loads, fluid added mass and radiation damping for the hull are calculated in the frequency domain from the second-order diffraction/radiation program WAMIT. The computed hydrodynamic coefficients and wave forces for vessels are then converted to proper forms in the time-domain equation of motion. The wave-current induced forces on slender members are calculated from Morison formula. An 100yr Hurricane with non-parallel wind, wave, and current is used as environmental condition. The wind and current forces are calculated from the empirical data provided by OCIMF (Oil Company International Marine Forum, 1994). Three different cases; (1) fully coupled system with Newmans approximation, (2) system (1) with mass-less riser modeling, (3) fully coupled system with full QTF, are studied to assess the effects of risers and Newmans approximation in the global motion/tension analysis of turretmoored FPSOs.

KEY WORDS: Tanker-based FPSO, turret mooring, non-parallel

environment, hull/mooring/riser coupled dynamic analysis, secondorder diffraction/radiation, riser damping, Newmans approximation

INTRODUCTION
Tanker-Based FPSO(Floating Production and Storage Offloading) units have been regarded as a promising concept for an economic oil production in deep and remote areas since they have more storage capacity (no pipelines) and wider deck space giving better layout flexibility. Recently, Minerals Management Service (MMS) has approved the use of double-hull FPSOs in the Gulf of Mexico. Therefore, more FPSO units are expected to be installed in the GOM in the coming years by offshore industry. In this regard, reliable design and analysis tools for the global performance of FPSOs are essential to insure the safe installation and operation.

Until recently, offshore industry has mainly used uncoupled quasistatic analysis or semi-coupled dynamic analysis for the design of floating offshore platforms with mooring and risers. In the former, mooring lines and risers are modeled as massless linear or nonlinear springs in calculating hull responses. Subsequently, the mooring tensions are estimated from the static-offset curve. In the latter, the first step is the same but the mooring and riser tensions are obtained from line dynamics program, in which the body motions at fairlead (top mooring point) are prescribed. However, as water depth increases, the mass portion of mooring lines and risers cannot be neglected and the dynamic interactions between vessels and slender members are expected to become increasingly important. Therefore, the reliability of the conventional uncoupled or semi-coupled methods cannot be guaranteed for deep or ultra deep compliant platforms. Furthermore, there exists no wave basin in the world, which can test ultra deepwater platforms in full length with reasonable scale. In this regard, the need of very reliable hull/mooring/riser fully coupled analysis tools cannot be emphasized too much in the coming years. The hull/mooring/riser coupled analyses automatically account for the inertia and damping effects of mooring lines and risers and their dynamic interactions with hulls, and thus can more accurately include their coupling effects. During the past decade, several companies and research institutes have tried to develop fully coupled dynamic analysis computer programs for turret-moored FPSOs in deepwater. For example, Wichers (1988) and Lee and Choi (2000) proposed simplified uncoupled methods to solve the hull motion and mooring dynamics separately. Later, Wichers and Ji (2000) further developed their analysis tools by including coupling effects between the vessel and slender members and also numerous empirical-based wind and current forces and hull viscous damping coefficients. So far, only Newmans approximation, approximating the off-diagonal terms of difference-frequency wave force quadratic transfer functions (QTFs) by mean drift forces (diagonal terms), has been used to avoid the complicated and time-consuming computation of the whole set of second-order difference-frequency wave forces in the bi-frequency domain. In the present study, the global performance of 6000-ft FPSO with taut chain-polyester-chain lines and steel catenary risers in a noncollinear 100-yr Hurricane is investigated. The vessel motions and slender-member dynamics are solved simultaneously in a combined matrix to fully account for their dynamic interactions. The use of

169

Newmans approximation is compared against more accurate results with full QTFs. The coupling and damping effects of risers on hull motions are assessed.

.(MOORING LINES) Designation Water depth Pre-tension Number of lines Degree between the 3 lines Length of mooring line Radius of location of chain stoppers on turn table Segment 1(ground section): Chain Length at anchor point Diameter Dry weight Weight in water Stiffness AE Mean breaking load (MBL) Segment 2: wire (Polyester) Length Diameter Dry weight Weight in water Stiffness AE Mean breaking load (MBL) Segment 1(ground section): Chain Length at anchor point Diameter Dry weight Weight in water Stiffness AE Mean breaking load (MBL) Unit ft kips deg. ft ft Quantity 6,000 320 4*3 5 8,700 23

MAIN PARAMETERS OF TURRET-MOORED FPSO

The prototype FPSO used in this study is a 200,000 DWT tanker moored in 6,000-ft water depth by a taut chain-polyester-chain mooring system with turret. The internal turret is located 208.5 ft away from the forward perpendicular and its diameter is 52 ft. The main parameters of the turret-moored FPSO are given below. Designation Production level Storage Vessel size Length b/w Perpendiculars Breadth Depth Draft Length beam ratio Beam draft ratio Displacement Block coefficient Center of buoyancy Forward section10 Water plane area Water plane coefficient Center of water plane area forward section10 Center of gravity above Base Metercentric height Transverse Metercentric height Longitudinal Transverse radius of Gyration in air Longitudinal radius of Gyration in air Yaw radii of gyration Wind area front Wind area side Turret in centerline Behind Fpp (20.5% Lpp) Turret elevation below tanker base Turret diameter Symbol Unit bpd bbls kDWT ft ft ft ft Quantity 120,000 1,440,000 200 1017 154.8 92 62 6.57 2.5 240,869 0.85 21.65 144,239 0.9164 3.28 43.7 18.96 1324.9 48.46 254.17 260.17 10,890 40,600 208.5 5 52
Liquid producti on risers

Lpp B H T L/B B/T Cb FB A Cw FA KG MGt MGl Kxx Kyy Kzz Af Ab

ft in lb/ft lb/ft kips kips ft in lb/ft lb/ft kips kips ft in lb/ft lb/ft kips kips

400 3.75 127.17 110.64 205,044 1,698 8,000 6.3 11.56 3.02 42,000 1,670 300 3.75 127.17 110.64 205,044 1,698

ton ft ft2 ft ft ft ft ft ft ft ft2 ft2 ft ft ft

(RISERS)
Top tensi on kips 4 500 OD in 17.5 AE kips 4.12E+06 EI Kips ft2 667 W (dry/ wet) Ibs/ft 132/71 1 Cdn

Designa tion

The FPSO has a length between perpendiculars of 1017 ft, a width of 154.8 ft, a depth of 92 ft with a full loaded draft of 62 ft. When OCIMF data was used for wind and current loading, cylindrical bow with full loading condition was selected.

Gas produc tion risers

Water injection risers Gas injection risers Gas export risers Total length of risers

275

15.2

2.43E+06

274

117/36

2 2 1

910 610 205

20.9 11.3 13.5

4.18E+06 7.06E+05 1.94E+06 12000 ft

542 155 172

192/130 124/80 93/ 29

1.414 1.414 1

PARTICULARS OF MOORING LINES AND RISERS

The particulars of the mooring lines and risers are given in the next tables. The FPSO has 12 chain-polyester-chain mooring lines and 13 steel catenary risers. The polyester lines may have a range of stiffness under different loading conditions but they are assumed to be elastic in this study with a representative Youngs modulus. The

170

12 mooring lines are arranged in four groups. Each group is 90degree apart and consists of 3 legs 5-degree apart. In the dynamic analysis of slender members, tangential drag forces are neglected. The seafloor is modeled as elastic bed with quadratic spring. The particulars of hull, mooring lines, and risers are almost identical to those of the standard case set up by DEEPSTAR Offshore Industry Consortium (Wichers and Devlin, 2001) except the two cases. The first one is the angle of mooring lines at the fairlead; here 43 degrees were used instead of 48.8 degrees. The second difference is the angle of riser top connection; 77 degrees were used here instead of 80.9 degrees

The wind and current force coefficients on the vessel are read from OCIMF data. The dynamic wind loading was generated from the wind velocities obtained from API wind spectrum. The yaw wind moments are increased by 15% considering the effects of superstructures. Static-Offset Tests (in calm water without current) The surge static offset test was conducted by pulling vcg (vertical center of gravity) in the horizontal direction in calm water. Typical results for surge offsets are shown in Fig.3. The surge static-offset test shows weakly softening trend, which is contrary to the typical hardening behavior of catenary lines. The surge static offset curves with risers are in general greater than those without risers due to the contribution of riser tension. On the other hand, the effects of risers on individual mooring tension are less appreciable. Free-decay Tests (in calm water without current) To see the effects of risers (mostly the amount of damping from risers) in the free-decay tests more clearly, a simpler riser model was developed i.e. all the 13 risers are replaced by a single equivalent massless riser at the center with the same total tension. The resulting surge/sway stiffness at the turret is then approximately calculated and added to the hydrostatic matrix. Fig.4 shows typical free-decay test results for surge, heave, roll, and pitch modes. Table 1. Natural periods from free-decay tests Surge Full draft (with risers) Full draft (w/o risers) 209.8 s 225.9 s Heave 18.7 s 18.7 s Roll 13.0 s 13.4 s Pitch 18.6 s 18.6 s

NUMERICAL MODELING OF FPSO HULL, MOORING LINES, AND RISERS

The added mass and radiation damping, first-order wave-frequency forces, and second-order mean and difference-frequency forces are calculated from the second-order diffraction/radiation program WAMIT (Korsmeyer et al., 1988; Lee et al, 1991). Fig.1 shows the distribution of panels on the body surface and free surface. Taking advantage of symmetry, only half domain is discretized (1684 panels for hull and 480 panels for free surface). All the hydrodynamic coefficients were calculated in the frequency domain, and then the corresponding forces were converted to the time domain using two-term Volterra series expansion (Ran and Kim, 1997). The frequency-dependent radiation damping was included in the form of convolution integral in the time domain equation. The wave drift damping was expected to be small and thus not included in the ensuing analysis. The methodology for hull/mooring/riser coupled statics/dynamics is similar to that of Ran and Kim, 1997 and Kim et al., 1999. The mooring lines are assumed hinged at the turret and anchor position. The near-vertical riser is also hinged at the turret, and therefore, the riser tension is included in the vertical static equilibrium of the hull. The calculated platform mass for the given condition is

2.3686 10 8 kg at 62-ft draft. The empirical coefficients for the

viscous damping of the same FPSO hull in normal direction were obtained from the model test by Wichers(2000). The wave force quadratic transfer functions are computed for 9 wave frequencies, ranging from 0.24 to 1.8 rad/sec and the intermediate values for other frequencies are interpolated. The hydrodynamic coefficients and wave forces are expected to vary appreciably with large yaw angles and the effects should be taken into consideration for the reliable prediction of FPSO global motions. Therefore, they are calculated in advance for various yaw angles with 5-degree interval and the data are then tabulated as inputs. The second-order diffraction/radiation computation for a 3D body is computationally very intensive especially when it has to be run for various yaw angles. Therefore, many researchers avoided such a complex procedure and have instead used simpler approach called Newmans approximation i.e. the off-diagonal components of the second-order difference-frequency QTFs are approximated by their diagonal values (mean drift forces and moments). The approximation can be justified only when the relevant natural frequency is very small and the slope of QTFs near the diagonal is not large. In this paper, the full QTFs are calculated and the validity of Newmans approximation is tested against more accurate results with complete QTFs.

In most cases, the damping is larger for larger oscillation amplitudes. With no riser model, the surge damping is appreciably reduced especially at large dynamic amplitude. Whereas, the heave, roll and pitch damping are only slightly reduced. In heave and pitch, the radiation damping is expected to be much greater than the riser damping near their respective natural frequencies. From this result, it is seen that the damping effects from risers can be significant for surge/sway responses in deeper water. It is expected to be more pronounced in the presence of currents. Table 2. Damping from free-decay tests estimated from the first 4 peaks assuming linear damping Surge 11.0 % (-97.5 ~ -12.2 m) 5.8 % (-96.7 ~ -32.7 m) Heave 6.5 % (10.9 ~ 3.2 m) 6.1 % (10.4 ~ 3.3 m) Roll 0.86 % (5 ~ 4.2 deg) 0.68 % (5 ~ 4.4 deg) Pitch 6.7 % (5 ~ 1.4 deg) 6.0 % (5 ~ 1.6 deg)

Full draft (with risers) Full draft (w/o risers)

TIME-DOMAIN CONDITION

SIMULATION

FOR

HURRICANE

The current is assumed to be steady and the irregular wave uni-directional. A JONSWAP spectrum of significant wave

171

parameter =2.5 was selected to represent a typical 100-yr storm in the Gulf of Mexico. Table 3. Time-domain simulation results for full load (unit: m , deg.)
Condition Newmans Approx. (with risers) Newmans Approx. (w/o risers) Full QTF (with risers) Newmans Approx. (with risers) Newmans Approx. (w/o risers) Full QTF (with risers) Newmans Approx. (with risers) Newmans Approx. (w/o risers) Full QTF (with risers) Newmans Approx. (with risers) Newmans Approx. (w/o risers) Full QTF (with risers) Newmans Approx. (with risers) Newmans Approx. (w/o risers) Full QTF (with risers) Newmans Approx. (with risers) Newmans Approx. (w/o risers) Full QTF (with risers) Mea n
-13.9

height H s =40ft, peak period

T p =14s, and overshoot

left of waves. API wind spectrum is used for the generation of time-varying wind forces. The drag coefficients for wave forces are 1.0 for mooring lines, 1.0 to 1.414 for risers. The low- and wave-frequency regions are defined as 0-0.2 rad/s and 0.2-1.3 rad/s, respectively. The time-domain simulation results are summarized in Table 3.
Table 4. The resultant tensions on the mooring lines and risers for full load (unit: kN) Condition Mean 2160 2157 2201 903 943 901 2345 2343 1253 1254 4284 4383 2744 2746 960 961 Total rms 424 583 479 249 349 296 272 262 278 265 403 391 234 227 166 166 Max 3529 4252 3639 1860 2319 2077 4941 5393 3509 3213 7629 6923 4082 4054 1804 1781

Lowfreq. Rms.
6.98

Wave -freq. Rms.

0.49

Total rms
7.0

Max

-34.6

Surge (m)

-13.9 -14.7 4.7

10.32 8.42 2.50

0.44 0.44 0.49

10.3 8.4 2.5

-46.7 -39.5 13.4

Mooring Line #2

Sway (m)

4.6 4.8 0

2.84 3.04 0.04

0.45 0.46 3.36

2.8 3.1 3.4

13.8 16.9 10.9

Mooring Line #8

Heave (m)

0.03

3.46

3.5

-12.1

Liquid production riser #13

0.1 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 15.3 13.7 15.1

0.07 0.16 0.15 0.38 0.02 0.02 0.04 2.74 2.57 3.86

3.37 0.98 1.26 1.22 1.33 1.39 1.34 0.28 0.31 0.28

3.4 1.0 1.3 1.3 1.3 1.4 1.3 2.6 2.7 3.9

11.1 3.5 4.3 5.5 -4.3 4.7 -4.5 22.7 22.3 24.3 Gas export riser #25 Gas production riser #20

Roll (deg.)

Water injection riser #22

Pitch (deg.)

Gas injection riser #23

Newmans Approx. (with risers) Newmans Approx. (w/o risers) Full QTF (with risers) Newmans Approx. (with risers) Newmans Approx. (w/o risers) Full QTF (with risers) Newmans Approx. (with risers) Full QTF (with risers) Newmans Approx. (with risers) Full QTF (with risers) Newmans Approx. (with risers) Full QTF (with risers) Newmans Approx. (with risers) Full QTF (with risers) Newmans Approx. (with risers) Full QTF (with risers)

Yaw (deg.)

The storm induced current flows from 30-deg. right of wave direction. The current velocity is assumed to be 3.5ft/s between 0-200ft and reduced to 0.3ft/s at 300ft-3000ft. The wind speed used is 92mph@10m and its direction is 30-deg.

From this result, it is clearly seen that slowly varying components are dominant in horizontal-plane motions (surge, sway, yaw), while wave-frequency responses are more important in vertical-plane motions (heave, roll, pitch). It is also found that the effect of riser damping is very important in the surge, particularly its slowly varying component. When riser damping is absent, the surge rms and maximum values are overestimated by about 47% and 35%, respectively. For the other modes, the effect of riser damping is less significant. If riser damping is not accounted for, the total rms

172

tension values on taut(#2) and slack(#8) mooring lines are overestimated by 38% and 40%, respectively. The simulation results for mooring lines and risers are summarized in Table 4. There also exist significant differences in rms and maximum tension of individual risers, which indirectly shows the importance of fully coupled analysis. In Table 3 and 4, the comparison between the Newmans approximation and the full QTF is also shown. As expected, only horizontal-plane motions are appreciably affected. In general, the horizontal-plane motion amplitudes (slowly varying parts) are under-estimated by using Newmans approximation but the differences are not large. The error caused by mass-less riser modeling appears to be much more serious than that caused by Newmans approximation in this example.

Colby, C., Sodahl, N., Katla, E., Okkenhaug, S. (2000), Coupling effects for a deepwater spar OTC#12083, Houston Halkyard, J.E. (1996), Status of spar platforms for deepwater production systems Proc. of ISOPE96, Los Angeles Kim, M.H., Ran, Z., & Zheng, W. (1999), Hull/mooring coupled dynamic analysis of a truss spar in time domain Proc. of ISOPE99, Brest, France Korsmeyer, F.T., Lee, C.H., Newman, J.N., & Sclavounos, P.D. (1988), The analysis of wave effects on TLP Proc. of OMAE88, Houston Lee, C.H., Newman, J.N., Kim, M.H. & Yue, D.K.P. (1991), The computation of second-order wave loads Proc. of OMAE91, Stavanger, Norway Ma, W., Lee, M.Y., Zou, J., and Huang, E.W. (2000), Deepwater nonlinear coupled analysis tool OTC#12085, Houston Newman (1974), Second-order slowly-varying forces on vessels in irregular waves Symp. On Dynamics of Marine Vehicles and Structures in Waves, London Ran, Z. & Kim, M.H. (1997), Nonlinear coupled analysis of a tethered spar in waves J. of Offshore & Polar Engrg. Vol.7, No.2, 111-118 Ran, Z., Kim, M.H., Niedzwecki, J.M. & Johnson, R.P. (1995), Responses of a spar platform in random waves and currents (experiment vs. theory) Proc. of ISOPE95, Hague, Netherlands OCIMF 1994 Prediction of wind and current loads on VLCCs. 2nd ed., Witherby & Co. Ltd., London, England Wicher, J.E.W. 1988 A simulation model for a single point moored tanker. Ph.D. Dissertation, Delft University of Technology. Lee, D.H & Choi, H.S (2000), A dynamic analysis of FPSO-shuttle tanker system, Proc. of ISOPE 2000, Seattle, 302-307. Wicher, J.E.W. & Ji. C. 2000 On the coupling term in the lowfrequency viscous reation forces moored tankers in deep water. Proc. of Offshore Technology Conference, OTC 12086 [CD-ROM], Houston, Texas. Wicher, J.E.W. & Devlin, P.V. 2001 Effect of coupling of mooring lines and risers on the design values for a turret moored FPSO in deep water of Gulf of Mexico. Proc. of 11th Intl. Offshore & Polar Engr.,Vol.3, 480-487. Baar, J.J.M., Hely, C.N. & Rodenbusch, G. 2000 Extreme responses of turret moored tankers. Proc. of Offshore Technology Conference, OTC 12147 [CD-ROM], Houston, Texas. Ward, E.G., Irani, M.B. & Johnson, R.P. 2001 The behavior of a tanker-based FPSO in hurricane waves, winds, and currents. Proc. of 11th Intl. Offshore & Polar Engr.,Vol.4, 650-653.

CONCLUSION
The global motions of a turret-moored FPSO with 12 chainpolyester-chain mooring lines and 13 steel catenary risers in a nonparallel wind-wave-current environment are investigated in the time domain using a fully coupled hull/mooring/riser dynamic analysis program. This case is similar to the relevant study in DEEPSTAR Offshore Industry Consortium and the overall comparison looks reasonable. In horizontal-plane motions, slowly varying components are dominant, and therefore, the reliable estimation of the second-order mean and slowly varying wave forces and the magnitude of total system damping is very important. For vertical-plane motions, wave-frequency responses are dominant and even the first-order potential-based theory can do a good job in heave and pitch. The coupling effects are also minimal in vertical-plane motions. In the present study, we particularly addressed two points, the effects of riser coupling/damping and the validity of Newmans approximation. The riser damping is found to be important in surge/sway modes, particularly in surge. The use of Newmans approximation slightly under-estimates the actual horizontal-plane motions but seems to be adequate in practical applications. However, when input wave spectrum is not narrow-banded or double-peaked, care should be taken. In a fully coupled simulation in time domain, the behaviors of vessel, risers, and mooring lines can be directly seen on the screen through graphics-animation software, which will greatly enhance the understanding of the relevant physics and the overallperformance assessment of the system.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research was financially supported by the Minerals Management Service (MMS), Offshore Technology Research Center (OTRC), and also partly by Joint Industry Project (BPAmoco, Conoco, CSO-Aker, B&R Halliburton, Sea Engineering.).

REFERENCES

173

Y Z X

Z Y

Fig. 1 Discretization of hull of FPSO and free surface

Fig. 2 Configuration of FPSO hull

+x2 (North)
100 80 60 40 20 0 -20 -40 -60 -80 -100 -120 0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

Full Load (w. risers) Full Load (w/o risers)

#6 #5 #4
Surge [m]

Time [sec]

#7 #8 #9

#3 #2 #1

+x1 (East)

15 10 Heave [m] 5 0 -5 -10

Full Load (w. risers) Full Load (w/o risers)

# 10 # 11 # 12

20

40

60

80

100 Time [sec]

120

140

160

180

200

(Definition of the earth fixed orientation of the mooring system)

174

1.8E+07 1.6E+07 1.4E+07

Full Load(w. risers) Full Load(w/o risers)

6 4 2

Full Load (w. risers) Full Load (w/o risers)

Surge force

1.2E+07 1.0E+07 8.0E+06 6.0E+06 4.0E+06 2.0E+06 0.0E+00 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Roll [deg]
Offset [m]

0 -2 -4 -6

8.0E+06

0
Full Load (w. risers) Full Load (w/o risers)

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

Mooring line#2 tension

7.0E+06 6.0E+06 5.0E+06 4.0E+06 3.0E+06 2.0E+06 1.0E+06 0.0E+00 0 10

Time [sec]

6 Full Load (w. risers)

20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Full Load (w/o risers)

Offset [m]

1.6E+06

Pitch [deg]

2 0 -2 -4 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200

Mooring line#8 tension

1.4E+06 1.2E+06 1.0E+06 8.0E+05 6.0E+05 4.0E+05 2.0E+05 0.0E+00 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Full Load (w. risers) Full Load (w/o risers)

Time [sec]

70

80

90

100

Offset [m]

Fig. 3 Static offset curve for surge

Fig.4 Free-decay test results for surge, heave, roll and pitch modes

175