PHD Thesis - Federico Gaggiotti

Universit Politecnica delle Marche
Dipartimento di Meccanica
Dottorato di Ricerca in Sistemi Artificiali Intelligenti
nellIngegneria dellInformazione e nellIngegneria Industriale
Deep Water Pipe Laying: from
Mooring-Based Station Keeping to
Dynamic Positioning
Ph.D. Dissertation of:
Federico Gaggiotti
Advisor:
Prof. Massimo Callegari
Supervisor of the Ph.D Program:
Prof. Sauro Longhi
VIII Edition - New Series
Dottorato di Ricerca in Sistemi Artificiali Intelligenti
nellIngegneria dellInformazione e nellIngegneria Industriale
Deep Water Pipe Laying: from
Mooring-Based Station Keeping to
Dynamic Positioning
Ph.D. Dissertation of:
Federico Gaggiotti
Advisor:
Prof. Massimo Callegari
Supervisor of the Ph.D Program:
Prof. Sauro Longhi
VIII Edition - New Series
Via Brecce Bianche 60131 Ancona, Italy
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project was developed with the Department of Mechanics
of the Polytechnic University of Marche, Ancona, Italy and Saipem
Energy Services, Fano, Italy. I wish to thank Prof. Massimo Callegari
for the opportunity to participate in such an important experience,
Roberto Bruschi and Luigino Vitali from the offshore department
in Fano for the opportunity to develop a project in contact with
industry, and for the continuous technical support.
Many people contributed to the successful completion of this
work: Paolo Monti and his group in Milan, Michele Rattin in partic-
ular for his work on the tensioner model and inverse ltering of rst
order motion, Stefano Meggio for the precious contribution to the
simulator that made possible to test the new Wave Feed-Forward
approach proposed.
I also wish to thank the other people I worked with, in Saipem
and at the University, who shared their experiences and made the
efforts spent at work fun and less wearing.
i
CONTENTS
introduction 1
I basics 3
1 pipelaying technology 5
1.1 Main pipelaying technologies 5
1.1.1 Onshore welded pipelines 6
1.1.2 Offshore welded pipelines 7
1.2 Pipelaying in deep water 9
1.3 Pipe structural model 10
1.3.1 Pipe stiffness 11
1.4 Tensioner 12
2 environment 21
2.1 Basic potential theory 22
2.1.1 Kinematic Boundary Conditions 23
2.1.2 Dynamic Boundary Conditions 23
2.2 Regular wave theory 24
2.2.1 Particle trajectories 29
2.3 Sea state modeling 33
2.3.1 Wave spectra 33
2.3.2 Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum 37
2.3.3 JONSWAP spectrum 38
2.3.4 Torsethaugen spectrum 40
2.4 From spectra to time series 41
2.4.1 Sampling at constant frequency intervals 43
2.4.2 Random frequency sampling 43
2.4.3 Constant energy sampling 43
2.5 Statistics on water elevation time histories 44
2.6 Directional wave distribution 46
2.7 Wave spectra approximation 48
2.8 Software for sea state modeling 51
2.9 Wind spectra 56
3 seakeeping 59
3.1 Ship motion and degrees of freedom 59
3.1.1 First and second order motion 60
3.2 First order motion by means of RAOs 62
3.2.1 Statistical approach to rst order motion cal-
culation 63
iii
3.3 Drift forces 66
3.3.1 Newmans approximation 67
3.3.2 Simplied method for drift force calculation 68
3.3.3 Frequency domain analysis of drift forces 69
3.4 Software for ship dynamics modeling 70
3.4.1 First order motion 70
3.4.2 Second order forces and motion 71
II from moorings to dynamic positioning 79
4 moorings 81
4.1 Mooring-based pipelaying 81
4.2 Static catenary solution 82
4.2.1 Mooring stiffness 84
4.3 Spread mooring systems 86
5 dp basics 89
5.1 DP architecture 89
5.2 Observer 91
5.2.1 Kalman lter in dynamic positioning 91
5.3 Controller 95
5.4 Thrust allocation logic 99
5.4.1 Pseudo-inverse algorithm, xed-azimuths 102
5.4.2 Nonlinear programming 105
5.4.3 Simulation 106
5.5 Simplied performance assessment 110
5.5.1 Filtering delay 113
5.6 Acceleration feedback 116
6 measurement systems 123
6.1 Absolute position 123
6.1.1 GPS 125
6.1.2 DGPS 129
6.2 Underwater positioning 132
6.2.1 USBL systems 132
6.2.2 LBL systems 133
6.3 Vessel accelerations 134
6.4 Sea state 135
6.4.1 Wave radar 135
6.4.2 Ship motions-based estimate 136
7 wave feed-forward 137
7.1 Literature 137
7.2 Real-time estimate 139
7.2.1 Performance in Positioning 142
iv
7.3 Data Analysis 147
7.3.1 Motivation for predictive approach 152
7.4 Neural networks 152
7.4.1 Neuron model 154
7.4.2 Basic network architectures 155
7.5 ANNs for drift force prediction 158
7.5.1 Feed-forward input time-delay back-propagation
network 159
7.5.2 Recurrent input time-delay network 162
7.5.3 Pattern recognition network 164
7.5.4 Multiple input recurrent time-delay network 165
7.5.5 Network architecture selection 168
7.6 Integration of neural networks into DP algorithm 168
7.7 Future developments 170
conclusions 173
bibliography 175
index 183
v
LI S T OF FI GURES
Figure 1.1 Surface tow method 6
Figure 1.2 Mid-depth tow method 7
Figure 1.3 Mid-depth tow method 8
Figure 1.4 S- and J-lay modes 9
Figure 1.5 Static pipelay analysis, deformed shape in 20 m
water depth 12
Figure 1.6 Pipe displacement-tension variation relation-
ship 13
Figure 1.7 Picture of a tensioning device manufactured
by RE.MAC.UT. 14
Figure 1.8 Tensioner transfer function, input is pipe ten-
sion, output is pipe payout 16
Figure 1.9 The system resonant period diverges to in-
nite 17
Figure 1.10 The system resonant period converges to a -
nite value 18
Figure 2.1 Prole of quantities describing a wave over a
wave length 28
Figure 2.2 Different methods of prole extension over the
mean free surface 30
Figure 2.3 Particle trajectories in shallow water 31
Figure 2.4 Particle trajectories in deep water 32
Figure 2.5 Irregular sea with spreading as superposition
of regular waves 34
Figure 2.6 Representation of a sea state as a wave spec-
trum 35
Figure 2.7 Location of the WAVESCAN buoy in Mahn,
Menorca (ES) 36
Figure 2.8 Extract from recorded signicant wave height
and wind speed signals in july 2009, Mahn
buoy 37
Figure 2.9 Relation between wind speed and signicant
wave height 37
wave height 38
vi
wave height, with the wind time history de-
layed of 3 h 39
Figure 2.12 Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum for H
s
= 3.5 m,
T
p
= 10 s 40
Figure 2.13 JONSWAP spectra for H
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s
and some values, compared with a Pierson-
Moskowitz spectrum with the same parame-
ters 41
Figure 2.14 Torsethaugen spectra for H
s
= 3.5 m and vari-
ous peak periods 42
s
= 3.5 m,
T
p
= 10 s, sampled at constant frequency in-
tervals 44
s
= 3.5 m,
T
p
= 10 s, sampled at random frequencies in-
side constant frequency intervals 45
s
= 3.5 m,
T
p
= 10 s, sampled at constant energy inter-
vals 46
Figure 2.18 Water elevation time history, generated by a
constant energy sampling of a JONSWAP spec-
trum, H
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s, = 3.3, 200 har-
monic components 48
Figure 2.19 Directionality functions plotted for different n
values 49
s
= 3.5 m,
T
p
= 10 s, with spreading factor n = 2, main
direction East 50
s
= 3.5 m,
T
p
= 10 s, with spreading factor n = 8, main
direction East 51
Figure 2.22 JONSWAP spectrum for H
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s,
= 3.3 values, compared with linear approxi-
mation tted by least-squares algorithm 52
Figure 2.23 SIMULINK model for wave time history gen-
eration and water elevation measurement at a
generic location 53
vii
Figure 2.24 Water elevation time history, generated by a
constant energy sampling of a JONSWAP spec-
trum, H
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s, = 3.3, 100 har-
monic components, with the SIMULINK model
represented in Figure 2.23 56
Figure 2.25 Harris wind spectrum for 12 ms
1
mean wind
speed 57
Figure 3.1 Reference system and degrees of freedom 60
Figure 3.2 Components of the motion of a vessel subject
to waves 61
Figure 3.3 Response Amplitude Operator as a black box 62
Figure 3.4 Example of RAO functions for a semisubmer-
sible (Ultramarine, Inc., 2008) 64
Figure 3.5 Roll response spectrum of a vessel subject to
a sea state represented by a JONSWAP spec-
trum with H
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s and =
3.3 65
Figure 3.6 Hsu and Blenkarn (1970) simplied method
for drift force calculation 68
Figure 3.7 Drift force spectral densities for different sea
states 70
Figure 3.8 SIMULINK model for rst order motion calcu-
lation 71
Figure 3.9 Sub-system of the MSS Motion RAO block, mod-
ied for zero speed 72
Figure 3.10 Simulated rst order motion for a tanker, H
s
=
3.5 m, T
p
= 20 s, = 3.3, quartering sea 73
Figure 3.11 SIMULINK model for second order force cal-
culation 74
Figure 3.12 SIMULINK model for second order force cal-
culation, Newman algorithm 76
Figure 3.13 SIMULINK model for second order forces, ac-
cording to Newman formulation 77
Figure 3.14 Simulated second order forces for the case of
a tanker, H
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s, = 3.3, beam
sea 78
Figure 4.1 Catenary line reference scheme for analytical
model 85
Figure 4.2 Equilibrium of an innitesimal length of cate-
nary mooring line 85
viii
Figure 4.3 Example mooring line conguration 86
Figure 4.4 Mooring system 87
Figure 5.1 DP system overview 90
Figure 5.2 Steady-state Kalman lter example of transfer
function, input is total motion and output is
second order motion 96
Figure 5.3 Wind speed time history, raw and ltered with
50 s time constant low-pass lter 98
Figure 5.4 Drag and lift coefcients as a function of the
angle of attack for a typical rudder 101
Figure 5.5 SIMULINK model for pseudo-inverse thrust
allocation 108
Figure 5.6 Global generalized forces on vessel, demanded
and obtained 111
Figure 5.7 Demanded and obtained thrust for each single
propeller 112
Figure 5.8 Demanded and obtained azimuth for each az-
imuthal thruster 113
Figure 5.9 Polar plot of extreme surge response 114
Figure 5.10 Polar plot of extreme sway response 115
Figure 5.11 Polar plot of extreme surge response with 10 s
delay, comparative results 116
Figure 5.12 Polar plot of extreme sway response with 10 s
delay, comparative results 117
Figure 5.13 Low-pass mass frequency-domain characteris-
tic 119
Figure 5.14 Force to velocity transfer function of a mass-
damper system without and with acceleration
feedback 121
Figure 6.1 Positioning error due to wrong geodetic refer-
ence system 125
Figure 6.2 Dilution of Precision: low DOP and high DOP
situations 128
Figure 6.3 Dilution of Precision map for September 16
th
,
2009, made by GPS Operations Center 128
Figure 6.4 SIMULINK model for GPS simulation 129
Figure 6.5 Simulated GPS trace for a stationary receiver,
apparent motion due to noise 130
ix
Figure 6.6 Errors in x and y directions during a 10 min
long simulation, obtained autocorrelations com-
pared with the theoretical one 131
Figure 6.7 Differential GPS scheme 131
Figure 6.8 USBL transceiver 132
Figure 6.9 USBL transceiver 133
Figure 6.10 LBL operational scheme 134
Figure 7.1 Approximation of the inverse heave RAO by
means of parametric lter 141
Figure 7.2 SIMULINK model for real-time drift force es-
timation 143
Figure 7.3 Simulated and estimated water elevation time
history 144
Figure 7.4 Simulated and estimated sway drift force time
history 144
Figure 7.5 Performance comparison between simulations
with and without wave feed-forward 145
Figure 7.6 Sway offset and velocity compared with lat-
eral thrust force 148
Figure 7.7 Cross-correlations between sway, sway veloc-
ity and lateral thrust signals. 149
Figure 7.8 Sway offset and velocity compared with lat-
eral thrust force from thrusters feedback, with
WFF (0.5 gain) 150
Figure 7.9 Cross-correlations between sway, sway veloc-
ity and lateral thrust signals, with WFF (0.5
gain) 151
Figure 7.10 Neuron model 155
Figure 7.11 Examples of activation functions 156
Figure 7.12 Single-layer feed-forward network 157
Figure 7.13 Feed-forward network with an hidden layer
and two outputs 157
Figure 7.14 Recurrent network with an hidden layer 158
Figure 7.15 Tapped delay line for prediction use 159
Figure 7.16 Feed-forward input time-delay backpropaga-
tion network 160
Figure 7.17 Network performance and training time (fac-
tor with respect to single-pass training) as a
function of the number of passes 161
x
Figure 7.18 Example of prediction performance with single-
pass incremental training, compared with a 10
passes training 161
Figure 7.19 Recurrent input time-delay network 162
Figure 7.20 Example of prediction performance with 10
passes incremental training, 10 s advance pre-
diction 163
Figure 7.21 Pattern recognition network 164
Figure 7.22 Pattern recognition network results 165
Figure 7.23 Multiple input recurrent time-delay network
with three inputs and a single output 166
Figure 7.24 Example of prediction performance with 10
passes incremental training, 20 s advance pre-
diction 167
Figure 7.25 Performance comparison between real-time and
neural network wave feed-forward 169
Figure 7.26 Simulated and estimated sway drift force time
history, by means of neural networks 171
LI S T OF TABLES
Table 1.1 Pipe data 12
Table 1.2 Iterative procedure does not converge to a -
nite resonant period 18
Table 1.3 Iterative procedure converges to a nite reso-
nant period, decoupling not effective 19
Table 2.1 Analytical expressions from linear wave the-
ory, general equations and simplied for deep
water 27
Table 2.2 Particle movement in deepwater, with respect
to wave amplitude 31
Table 2.3 Most probable largest wave heights for differ-
ent numbers of observed waves 47
xi
Table 4.1 Axial cable tension at upper end as a func-
tion of water depth, for a horizontal pull of
300 kN 87
Table 6.1 WGS84 and ED50 coordinate systems 124
Table 7.1 Performance improvement achieved with wave
feed-forward, H
s
= 3.0 m 146
Table 7.2 Performance improvement achieved with wave
feed-forward, H
s
= 3.5 m 146
Table 7.3 Motion-actuation lags for maximum correla-
tion during simulated beam sea without wave
feed-forward, with regard to sway degree of
freedom 149
Table 7.4 Motion-actuation lags for maximum correla-
tion during simulated beam sea with wave feed-
forward at 0.5 gain, with regard to sway de-
gree of freedom 151
LI S T OF LI S TI NGS
Listing 2.1 Example of initialization code for wave spec-
trum parameters 53
Listing 2.2 JONSWAP spectrum, algorithm for sampling
at constant energy intervals 53
Listing 5.1 MATLAB code for pseudo-inverse thrust allo-
cation 107
NOMENCLATURE
Fraction of system mass added as acceleration feedback
xii
t Sampling interval
Small constant number
Wave spectrum shape parameter, see Section 2.7
Weight matrix for the change of azimuth angles
i
Resonant circular frequency in i-th degree of freedom
p
Wave peak circular frequency
P
j
Mean quadratic transfer for j-th degree of freedom
Velocity potential function
p
Low-frequency heading
w
Wave-frequency heading
Fluid density
Weight of manoeuvrability requirement in quadratic pro-
gramming thrust allocation
b
Range error due to GPS receiver clock error
i
GPS receiver range from the satellite i
U
Wind speed standard deviation
Filter-induced delay
() Neuron activation function
0 Null matrix/vector
Array of azimuth angles
0
Fixed azimuth angle vector
0
Vector of azimuth angles at previous time step
p
Low-frequency position vector
w
Wave-frequency position vector
Vector of Lagrange multipliers
Low-frequency velocity vector
xiii
Thrust vector
env
Generalized force vector exerted by all environmental ac-
tions
ext
Vector of generalized external forces
See Eq. 5.1
A State matrix
a Array of polynomial coefcients of A(s)
B Damping matrix
b Array of polynomial coefcients of B(s)
B
DP
Linear damping introduced by DP
c Current velocity vector
c Wave number vector
C
DP
Stiffness introduced by DP
D Input matrix
e
pos
Position error
e
vel
Velocity error
f Thrust vector
f
e
Extended thrust vector
H Output matrix
I Identity matrix
K
D
Derivative gain matrix
K
I
Integral gain matrix
K
P
Proportional gain matrix
K
w
Wave spectrum gain matrix, see Section 5.2.1
M Mass matrix
M
A
Hydrodynamic added mass
xiv
M
AF
Acceleration gain
Q Slack weight matrix
r
i
Position of the satellite i
r
u
Position of the GPS user
s Slack vector
T Thrust matrix
T
e
Extended thrust matrix
u Measurement noise vector
v Fluid velocity eld
W Thrusters weight matrix
x Vessel state vector, see Eq. 5.1
Water elevation
i
Fraction of critical damping in i-th degree of freedom
a
Wave amplitude
a Logistic function slope parameter
a Semi-major axis of ellipsoid
A(s) Denominator of parametric lter
A
i
Vessel projected area along direction i
b Semi-minor axis of ellipsoid
B(s) Numerator of parametric lter
b
k
Bias of the k-th neuron
C Cost function for thrust allocation
c Speed of light
C
D
() Drag coefcient
C
f
Cost function for parametric lter optimization
C
L
() Lift coefcient
xv
f Ellipsoid attening
f Frequency
F
(w)
i
Aerodynamic force on ship along degree of freedom i
F
t
Thrust force
f
t
Propeller rotational velocity (fraction of maximum rpm)
g Gravity acceleration
H Wave height
h Water depth
H
s
Signicant wave height
k Wave number, see Table 2.1
K
I
Integral gain
K
P
Proportional gain
K
t
Proportionality constant between actuation signal and thrust
K
eq
Equivalent stiffness
K
pi pe
Pipe stiffness
L Length of catenary line
L Wave length
L
U
Integral length scale
M Mass
M
n
Spectral moment of order n
N
t
Number of available thrusters
p Pressure
P
i
Power consumption weight coefcient for the i-th thruster
r Low-frequency heading change rate
T Period
t
b
Time lag due to GPS receiver clock error
xvi
T
f
Acceleration feedback cut-off period
T
I
Integral time constant
T
i
Natural period for i-th degree of freedom
T
n
Natural period
T
p
Wave peak period
t
u
GPS user reception time
T
z
Zero up-crossing period
t
si
GPS signal sending time by the satellite i
u Low-frequency longitudinal velocity
u
c
Slope of catenary line
U
10
10 min mean wind speed
v Low-frequency transversal velocity
v
k
Induced local eld
v
n
GPS error at time increment n
v
19.4
Wind speed at 19.4 m height
w
c
Linear weight of catenary line
w
k
Weight of frequency w
k
in parametric lter optimization
w
n
Gaussian white noise at time increment n
w
k,j
Synaptic weight of the j-th input of the k-th neuron
x
j
j-th input of neural network
x
p
Low-frequency longitudinal position
x
w
Wave-frequency longitudinal position
y
k
Output of the k-th neuron
y
p
Low-frequency transversal position
y
w
Wave-frequency transversal position
s Complex Laplace variable
xvii
- Dove ce li ha, gli occhi, il mare?
- . . .
- Perch ce lha, vero?
- S.
- E dove cavolo sono?
- Le navi.
- Le navi cosa?
- Le navi sono gli occhi del mare.
(A. Baricco, Oceano Mare)
I NTRODUCTI ON
Trunklines projects as strategic carriers of hydrocarbons across
the sea are currently moving to the depths, and to locations where
very rough weather conditions insist over signicant periods of the
year. Competition factors in the offshore construction market tend
to maximise production. S-lay technology is brought to a new light
thanks to its productivity, with the requirement of optimization for
deep water and harsh environment.
Dynamic positioning opposed to mooring-based positioning is
highly desirable, unique solution for deep water projects. Mooring-
based positioning is characterised by operative concerns due to com-
plexity of move-up and area interested by spread mooring systems.
The Dynamic Positioning capability is therefore a strict requirement
for production maximisation. Positioning performance and safety
with respect to weather conditions must be optimised, rising new
need during design phase. The Dynamic Positioning control sys-
tem, pipe lay equipment, and operational procedures are now part
of an integrated design.
The simulation tools developed for the design of next generation
pipelayers shall be able to integrate most of the aspects involved.
Further, a exible simulation environment shall be designed with
sufcient modularity to allow for substitution of components based
on the scope of the analysis. Detailed models are needed for com-
ponents on which the study is focused, while simplied models are
valuable tools for sensitivity analyses and to speed up calculation
when insight view is not needed. Most interesting is the possibility
to use the simulation model as a test environment for new features
studies. When a proper modular model is available, substituting
components with improved versions offers an immediate way to
evaluate the performance improvement, if present.
In this work the components needed to build a complete sim-
ulation environment are presented, and the obtained tool is used
to test a proposal for enhancement of Dynamic Positioning perfor-
mance based on prediction of incoming wave groups by means of
vessel motion measurements and neural networks.
Part I contains a basic introduction of pipelaying technology, en-
vironment modeling and seakeeping problems connected to posi-
1
2 List of Listings
tioning. Part II deals with positioning systems: moorings are briey
presented before a detailed description of the Dynamic Positioning
components and models is given. Further, measurement systems
for current and future applications are presented and a new control
strategy is proposed.
A summary of the content of each chapter follows. Chapter 1
presents the main pipelaying technologies, with the differences and
elds of application. A specic device designed to hold the pipe
on the barge while laying is described in detail with regard to its
dynamic response, due to the implications in Dynamic Positioning
operation. Chapter 2 presents the models for description and sim-
ulation of the environmental conditions. Chapter 3 discusses the
loads induced on the ship by the environment, which constitute the
perturbing loads counteracted by the Dynamic Positioning system.
Chapter 4 gives an brief introduction on the mooring systems for
positioning, particularly in pipelay applications. Chapter 5 describes
the architecture an principles of operations of the Dynamic Position-
ing systems, which guarantee the correct positioning of the vessel
by proper actuation of the thrusters, without any constraint as the
mooring lines. In Chapter 6 the sensors on which the Dynamic Po-
sitioning systems currently rely are described, and some other are
presented for future applications like the Wave Feed-Forward which
is discussed in detail and validated through simulation in Chapter 7.
Simulation models are described all along the mentioned chapters
to give a pretty complete picture of the developed components.
Part I
BAS I CS
1
PI PELAYI NG TECHNOLOGY
Contents
1.1 Main pipelaying technologies 5
1.1.1 Onshore welded pipelines 6
1.1.2 Offshore welded pipelines 7
1.2 Pipelaying in deep water 9
1.3 Pipe structural model 10
1.3.1 Pipe stiffness 11
1.4 Tensioner 12
This chapter contains an introduction to the problem of offshore
pipe laying and the technologies connected to the problem itself. In
particular, an historical introduction shows the various laying tech-
niques, and the vessels developed on purpose. Then an overview
is given on the currently applied methods for positioning (moor-
ing lines vs. dynamic positioning) and on other devices interesting
for automation and control problems (i.e. the tensioner, the stinger
rollers).
1.1 main pipelaying technologies
Offshore pipeline projects gained a crucial importance as strate-
gic carriers of hydrocarbons across seas world-wide. The pipelaying
technologies can be divided in two groups:
onshore welded pipelines The pipe segments are assembled
onshore in strings of suitable length and then carried with
different methods in place for installation.
offshore welded pipelines The pipelaying barge carries short
pipe segments, which are then assembled during laying oper-
ations. This method is the only one suited for practical instal-
lation of very long pipelines.
5
6 pipelaying technology
1.1.1 Onshore welded pipelines
This group includes towing and reeling methods: both imply the
welding and control of the joints onshore, while the transportation
method is different.
The towing methods envisage the pipe strings being transported Towing
to the offshore location of installation by means of one or more tug
boats, while being kept in a suitable conguration by a combination
of pull cables, oaters and ballast weights.
In Figure 1.1 the surface-tow method is depicted. The pipe string
is kept in tension between two tug boats to guarantee to be able to
control its conguration against lateral bending, while the oaters
control the pipe shape along the vertical plane. This way of opera-
tion forces the pipe to withstand the actions from waves, if present,
and therefore cannot be used in situations where signicant rough
weather is expected.
tug boat tug boat
oaters
pipe
seabed
Figure 1.1: Surface tow method
The mid-depth tow uses oaters or weights to make the pipe string
nearly neutrally buoyant, such that the conguration can be con-
trolled by the pull applied by the tug boats connected at the two
ends, see Figure 1.2. The objective is to keep the pipe string suf-
ciently in depth not to be excited by the action of waves, should
they be present somewhere during the route.
The bottom tow method is adopted when the pipe has sufcient
specic gravity
1
to guarantee stability on the seabed, see Figure 1.3a.
A tow head is applied on a single end and the string is pulled while
dragging the seabed. The off-bottom method is slightly different,
requiring two tug boats to guarantee alignment, see Figure 1.3b.
Tow methods are only practical for short lines, often in remote
areas where transit costs of conventional pipelayers could be overly
expensive.
The reeling technology is based on onshore bars assembling as Reeling
1 The specic gravity of an object is dened as the ratio between the weight submerged
in water and the buoyancy
1.1 main pipelaying technologies 7
tug boat tug boat
trim chains
pipe
seabed
Figure 1.2: Mid-depth tow method
well. The strings obtained away from the installation location are
wrapped around a reel which is then mounted on the vessel deck,
with horizontal or vertical rotational axis. The laying operations are
very rapid because there is not any welding and controlling cycle,
but the method is limited to small diameter pipelines: the bending
radius is the parameter which determines the stress envisaged dur-
ing reeling and straightening, and if of course limited by the reel
size to be tted on-board.
1.1.2 Offshore welded pipelines
This group of technologies is employed in most strategic trunk-
lines, being able to lay linepipe along very long routes (currently
even longer than 1000 km), with increasingly high diameters.
Submarine pipelines are assembled then launched and laid on
the seabed by dedicated mono-hull (keel or at-bottom) or semi-
submersible vessels. On these vessels there is a ring line along
which line pipe joints are brought, aligned and coupled, welded
and controlled, then held and carefully released moving up the ves-
sel for launching in the depths. The integrity of the pipeline during
installation, see Figure 1.4, is a crucial task due to the intended oper-
ational targets, as far as the safe-life and leak-less carrying capacity
of the pipeline over the design lifetime is concerned. Pipe laying
technology (Bruschi, 2002) for such strategic life-lines (20 in to 48 in
diameter, 20 to 40 mm wall thickness) includes:
s-lay The pipe is assembled along a horizontal welding or ring
line, it leaves the lay vessel as supported by a curved launch-
ing ramp that moves the conguration from horizontal to in-
clined to the depths, it crosses the water column to reach the
tug boat tug boat
tow head
pipe
seabed
(a)
tug boat tug boat
trim chains
pipe
seabed
(b)
Figure 1.3: Mid-depth tow method
seabed in a S shape, it is borne and kept within pipe curvature
allowance limits by a lay pull applied by the tensioner placed
at the end of the ring line, Figure 1.4a.
j-lay The pipe is assembled in a vertical tower, it leaves the lay ves-
sel vertically towards the depths, it crosses the water column
and smoothly bends to reach the sea-bed due to a weak hori-
zontal pull applied by the lay vessel, particularly by propellers,
it is borne by the tensioning device placed on the tower after
the welding station, usually on tracks, sometimes assisted by
active clamps, Figure 1.4b.
In both pipe-lay modes, the horizontal lay pull is applied by moor-
ing lines or/and propellers, which guarantee station keeping and
regular pipe pay-out at the end of each welding cycle (Anselmi and
Bruschi, 1993). This work is focused on the conguration without DP pipelaying
mooring lines, classied as dynamically positioned pipe-lay vessels.
In the early stage of the Oil & Gas industry, DP was mainly adopted
for drilling ships (the earliest in the 70ies) and vessels assisting off-
shore operations i.e. diving or ROV survey of the seabed or subsea
infrastructure. Offshore projects are currently moving to the depths,
particularly strategic trunklines (Bianchi and Bruschi, 2008). DP will
be unique solution for station keeping and move-up of pipe lay
1.2 pipelaying in deep water 9
vessels, and in a few circumstances even in shallow waters across
brown elds or in presence of features that advice against mooring
spread (unexploded weapons).
(a) (b)
Figure 1.4: S- and J-lay modes
1.2 pipelaying in deep water
The recent market evolution lead to larger diameters and deeper
installations for the new strategic trunklines. The pipe wall thick-
ness approaches the manufacturing limits, being also tightly linked
to material specications. The characteristics of the pipes and the
installation depth imply a huge weight of the suspended span to be
held by the tensioning machine onboard the vessel and by the pro-
pellers system. For these reasons, the availability of holding capacity
is a factor in the optimization process to be carried out in project
design, together with conditions determining ow properties, as
pressure, diameter and number of lines. The design approach tends
nowadays to integrate specic studies on barge capability, such that
suitable analytic tools need to be developed (De Hartog et al., 2009).
Due to its productivity, the S-lay technology is being pushed S-lay in
deepwater
to achieve safe installation in deeper water, meaning that longer
stingers with complex structures and machines are being developed.
In this renewed scenario, operation in DP is required, due to poor
performance of long mooring lines and simplied operative proce-
dures.
The requirements on a DP lay vessel performance can be sum-
marised as follows:
a. DP station keeping and pipeline pay-out control capacity;
b. Pipeline response to signicant slow-drift displacements, tak-
ing into account the conguration at the seabed and over the
stinger, as well as reactions on rollers, in particular at the
stinger exit;
c. First order vessel response, stress/strain state induced on the
pipe span, and loads on equipment.
Particular attention must be paid to environmental loads espe-
cially in ship-shaped vessels, where beam seas are the main concern,
due to the large area exposed to the action of waves. The problem
is relevant due to the limited weather vaning capability in S-lay, Weather vaning
where the heading is mainly constrained by the pipeline route. The
weather vaning is tolerated for signicant angles in J-lay, and the
benets are such that the design of suitable procedures is under
evaluation also for S-lay. Should the environmental conditions, com-
bined with the allowable vessel heading with respect to weather,
become critical, the abandon procedure must be initiated: an aban-
don head is tted on the upper pipe end, hooked with a cable and
laid down with a winch controlling the pay-out. The same head is
then pulled on-board when the weather conditions allow to recover
the pipe and continue operation.
1.3 pipe structural model
Modeling a pipe lay span, particularly in deep water, despite of
the quite simple geometry, is not a trivial task due to a number of
non-linearities that be included.
The most evident non-linearity regards the large displacements
that the slender pipeline undergoes from the straight undeformed
shape to the S or J shape assumed during laying. The contacts with
the rollers on the stinger and the seabed are monolateral constraints,
inherently non-linear. Further, the constitutive law of the pipe mate-
rial is often assumed to be elastic non-linear or, even worse for calcu-
lation complexity, elasto-plastic. For concrete-coated pipelines, also
stress intensication factors at the uncoated eld joints must be con-
sidered (Bruschi et al., 1995). The problems connected to these non-
linear effects are solved by iteration, such that general-purpose nite
element codes make the calculation very time-consuming. Speci-
cally designed codes (Bruschi et al., 1994) are able to guarantee con-
1.3 pipe structural model 11
vergence in a limited number of iterations thanks to proper initial-
ization and design oriented at the particular problem.
Analytical methods have been developed that deal with the prob-
lem by using different formulations in different segments of the lay
span. See Lenci and Callegari (2005) where the catenary solution is
adopted from the stinger exit point up to the sagbend region where
bending becomes signicant and the beam formulation is used.
For the dynamic positioning problem, the main concern is the
pipe stiffness that, if not correctly decoupled from low-frequency
barge motion, can lead to instability.
1.3.1 Pipe stiffness
An important characteristic relevant to the pipelaying activity to
take into account in a specic DP system design is the pipe stiffness,
as it behaves like a mooring line for the vessel. The stiffness param-
eter is associated with the whole laying span, rather than the beam
section, as it is strongly inuenced by the deformed shape. As can
be easily noted, the span stiffness varies very much with the water
depth.
From a practical point of view, the stiffness can be calculated by - Computation
nite element models, changing the tensioner pull from an optimized
value and measuring the displacement occurring at the barge. Static
analyses are enough for the purpose, while non-linear bending-
curvature relationships are needed for accurate results. The pipe
stiffness K
pi pe
is easily computed as the ratio between the tension
variation T and the barge displacement x. A non-linear relation-
ship is expected, that can be linearised around a particular setting
identied by the stress/strain allowance limits.
Consider e.g. a 36 in diameter pipe, laid in 20 m water depth, see
Table 1.1. The static shape under the action of the laypull is plotted
in Figure 1.5, as per nite element analysis. The distance from the
tensioner to a node constrained on the seabed can be measured by
the same model, and its variation logged when the laypull at ten-
sioner is varied around the setpoint. The displacement-force vari-
ation plot in Figure 1.6 is easily produced, with the least squares
linear approximation that indicates the pipe stiffness with regard to
the vessel surge degree of freedom, around the conguration result-
ing from the laypull in Table 1.1.
As indicated in Figure 1.6 the coefcient of the least squares linear
approximation is the stiffness that the pipe introduces with respect
to the surge degree of freedom. In the present example the stiffness
is 1907 kNm
1
. This value will be used in Section 1.4 to assess the
tensioner response and in can be used to show by time simulation
and frequency domain techniques the problem of DP instability in-
duced by coupling with the pipe stiffness.
Table 1.1: Pipe data
Parameter Value Unit
Outside diameter 36 in
Wall thickness 25.2 mm
Concrete coating thickness 75 mm
Weight in air 12 465 N/m
Submerged weight 3356 N/m
Axial force at tensioner 1000 kN
Longitudinal coordinate (m)
x
V
e
r
t
i
c
a
l
c
o
o
r
d
i
n
a
t
e
(
m
)
z
seabed
200 100
10
10
Figure 1.5: Static pipelay analysis, deformed shape in 20 m water depth
1.4 tensioner
The tensioner is a machine designed to link the pipe being laid
with the vessel, applying the correct tension and providing suited
handling during move-up. These machines, see Figure 1.7 are based
1.4 tensioner 13
Displacement (m)
x
T
e
n
s
i
o
n
v
a
r
i
a
t
i
o
n
(
k
N
)
T
0.0200.0150.0100.005 0.020 0.015 0.010 0.005
100
200
300
100
200
300
T = 1907x
Figure 1.6: Pipe displacement-tension variation relationship
on a couple of tracks, tted with suitable friction pads, pushed one
against the other by an actuator acting along a vertical axis
2
. The
tracks rotation is powered by electrical motors, controlled in ten-
sion or current during different phases of laying operations. Often a
pipelaying vessel is equipped with more than one tensioner, sharing
the total load. This practice, besides the ability to apply higher lay
pull without any damage to the pipe coating, provides redundancy
on such a critical machinery.
The control characteristics of a tensioning machine in a dynami- Dynamic
response
cally positioned vessel, especially in shallow waters, must be able to
decouple the ship from the pipe, which would act as a stiff mooring
rising the problem of instability due to resonance.
The tension control loop behaves according to a PI law, with the
integral term much predominant over the proportional one. The
input is the pipe tension, and the output is the track speed, with
the following transfer function:
h(s) = K
P
_
1 +
1
T
I
s
_
(1.1)
2 RE.MAC.UT. S.r.l., Rivoli, Turin, Italy, http://www.remacut.com
Figure 1.7: Picture of a tensioning device manufactured by RE.MAC.UT.
1.4 tensioner 15
where T
I
= K
P
/K
I
is the integral time constant, dened as the ra-
tio of the proportional and integral gains. The transfer function be-
tween pipe tension and pipe payout is immediately determined by
an integration:
g(s) = K
P
_
T
I
s +1
T
I
s
2
_
(1.2)
The Bode plot of the transfer function in Eq. 1.1 is displayed in
Figure 1.8, for typical values of the gains.
Being the proportional term small, the transfer function of Eq. 1.1
is simplied to:
h(s) =
K
P
T
I
s
(1.3)
The transfer function where the output is the pipe payout coordinate
instead of speed is easily determined multiplying by 1/s:
g(s) =
K
P
T
I
s
2
(1.4)
The tensioner acts as a spring between the pipe and the vessel.
Looking globally at the system, we notice therefore that the vessel
is linked to the ground by two springs in series: one is the tensioner,
the other one is the pipe itsel, see e.g. the pipe analysed at Sec-
tion 1.3.1. The tensioner transfer function should behave in a way
such that the dynamic positioning system does not interfere with
the pipe stiffness, to avoid resonance.
Consider as an example the linearised pipe stiffness determined Example
for the scenario described by Table 1.1 and Figure 1.6, a proportional
gain set to 1 10
5
, and an integral time constant of 0.8 s. Coupled
with the vessel mass, an equivalent resonant period is calculated as:
T
n
= 2
M
K
pi pe
= 2
_
80 000 t
1907 kNm
1
= 40.7 s (1.5)
The inverse of the tensioner stiffness at that period is calculated as
the magnitude of its transfer function:
g
_
2
40.7
rad/s
_
= 5.284 10
4
mkN
1
(1.6)
Frequency (Hz)
f
M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e
(
m
/
k
N
)
|h(s)|
10
2
10
1
10
4
10
3
10
2
10
1
Frequency (Hz)
f
P
h
a
s
e
(
)
h(s)
10
2
10
1
180
90
90
Figure 1.8: Tensioner transfer function, input is pipe tension, output is pipe
payout
1.4 tensioner 17
such that the overall stiffness of the series of springs is:
K
eq
=
1
1
1907 kNm
1
+5.284 10
4
mkN
1
= 949.891 kNm
1
(1.7)
The system natural period is then updated to
T
n
= 2
M
K
eq
= 2
_
80 000 t
949.891 kNm
1
= 57.7 s (1.8)
The tensioner stiffness must then be evaluated at the new resonant
period to obtain a new equivalent stiffness, in an iterative proce-
dure. It is possible to verify that, if the proportional gain K
P
of the
tensioner is sufciently high, the iterative procedure does not con-
verge to a nite period, thus ensuring that the resonance is avoided,
see Figure 1.9 and Table 1.2. If the K
P
gain is lowered by e.g. one
third, the tensioner is less reactive, and may not able to decouple
anymore the vessel from the dynamics of the pipe being laid, see
Figure 1.10 and Table 1.3.
Iteration number
i
R
e
s
o
n
a
n
t
P
e
r
i
o
d
(
s
)
T
n
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
100
200
300
400
Figure 1.9: The system resonant period diverges to innite
The decoupling action exerted by the tensioner is fundamental
for the stability of the dynamic positioning control system. It can be
shown using the simplied system model described in Section 5.2,
that when a stiffness due to the pipe being laid with a blocked ten-
sioner is activated, the system behaviour changes completely. The
state-space model proposed in following chapters of this work make
Table 1.2: Iterative procedure does not converge to a nite resonant period
Iteration Natural Period T
n
(s)
g
_
2
T
n
_
(m/kN) K
eq
(kN/m)
1 40.7 5.284 10
4
949.891
2 57.7 1.057 10
3
632.460
3 70.7 1.585 10
3
474.044
4 81.6 2.114 10
3
379.091
5 91.3 2.642 10
3
315.829
6 100.0 3.170 10
3
270.662
7 108.0 3.699 10
3
236.797
8 115.5 4.227 10
3
210.464
9 122.5 4.755 10
3
189.401
10 129.1 5.284 10
3
172.171
. . . . . . . . . . . .
50 288.8 2.642 10
2
37.115
Iteration number
i
R
e
s
o
n
a
n
t
P
e
r
i
o
d
(
s
)
T
n
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
20
40
60
80
Figure 1.10: The system resonant period converges to a nite value
1.4 tensioner 19
Table 1.3: Iterative procedure converges to a nite resonant period, decou-
pling not effective
Iteration Natural Period T
n
(s)
g
_
2
T
n
_
(m/kN) K
eq
(kN/m)
1 40.7 3.522 10
4
1140.733
2 52.6 5.871 10
4
899.714
3 59.2 7.436 10
4
788.630
4 63.3 8.480 10
4
728.654
5 65.8 9.176 10
4
693.493
6 67.5 9.640 10
4
671.879
7 68.6 9.949 10
4
658.202
8 69.3 1.016 10
3
649.390
9 69.7 1.029 10
3
643.645
10 70.0 1.038 10
3
639.871
. . . . . . . . . . . .
50 70.7 1.057 10
3
632.454
evident the presence of system roots with positive real part, when
the pipe is stiffer than the dynamic positioning system.
2
ENVI RONMENT
Contents
2.1 Basic potential theory 22
2.1.1 Kinematic Boundary Conditions 23
2.1.2 Dynamic Boundary Conditions 23
2.2 Regular wave theory 24
2.2.1 Particle trajectories 29
2.3 Sea state modeling 33
2.3.1 Wave spectra 33
2.3.2 Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum 37
2.3.3 JONSWAP spectrum 38
2.3.4 Torsethaugen spectrum 40
2.4 From spectra to time series 41
2.4.1 Sampling at constant frequency intervals 43
2.4.2 Random frequency sampling 43
2.4.3 Constant energy sampling 43
2.5 Statistics on water elevation time histories 44
2.6 Directional wave distribution 46
2.7 Wave spectra approximation 48
2.8 Software for sea state modeling 51
2.9 Wind spectra 56
This chapter provides information regarding the modeling tech-
niques to represent the sea states which cause the perturbing loads
to counteract in Dynamic Positioning studies and seakeeping anal-
yses. After a basic introduction to wave theory, the most popular
wave spectra are presented, together with suitable techniques to ob-
tain wave elevation time histories for time-domain simulation. Wind
spectra and simulation techniques are also briey mentioned. The
key role of this part of the complete system model is evidenced as
it is the basis for a correct simulation of the effects exerted by the
environment on the barge and for advanced prediction techniques
implementation.
21
22 environment
2.1 basic potential theory
When dealing with sea waves modeling, the water can be as-
sumed as inviscid and incompressible, therefore irrotational ow con-
ditions hold, and the potential function can be used to represent the
uid velocity eld. Representing with v = v(x, y, z, t) the vectorial
velocity eld and with = (x, y, z, t) the scalar potential function,
the following relation holds:
v = =
_
z
_
_
(2.1)
For an irrotational ow the vorticity is everywhere equal to zero:
v = 0 (2.2)
and the incompressibility implies that
v = 0 (2.3)
which combined with Eq. 2.1 states that the potential satises the Laplace equation
Laplace equation:
2
=

2
x
2
+

2
y
2
+

2
z
2
= 0 (2.4)
Bernoullis equation describes the eld of pressure p, being in the
following expression z the vertical direction, positive upward. When
the only force applied on the uid is gravitational:
p + gz +
t
+
1
2
v v = C (2.5)
The time dependency of C can be taken into account in potential
function , such that C becomes a constant related to the pressure at
the free surface (atmospheric pressure). The free surface is supposed
to be located at z = 0.
The velocity eld can be determined with appropriate boundary
conditions. In particular, for gravity waves, the boundary conditions
are
a. Kinematic Boundary Conditions
b. Dynamic Boundary Conditions
2.1 basic potential theory 23
2.1.1 Kinematic Boundary Conditions
These boundary conditions, as the name suggests, are related to
the movement of the uid particle.
At the seabed, taken as at, horizontal and located at z = h,
where h is the mean water depth, a non-penetration condition is
formulated: Non-penetration
condition
z
= 0 on z = h (2.6)
To formulate adequate boundary conditions at the free surface,
recall the meaning of the substantial derivative of F = F(x, y, z, t):
DF
Dt
=
F
t
+v F (2.7)
In this case the function F can be dened as:
F(x, y, z, t) = z (x, y, t) (2.8)
where (x, y, t) describes the wave amplitude in a dened location,
in a dened time instant. Under the hypothesis that a water particle
on the surface remains on the surface during the wave cycle, the
following condition holds:
DF
Dt
= 0 on z = (x, y, t) (2.9)
Using the denition of substantial derivative given by Eq. 2.7 it is
possible to write
t
+

x
x
+

y
y

z
= 0 on z = (x, y, t) (2.10)
2.1.2 Dynamic Boundary Conditions
The dynamic boundary condition is valid at the free surface, and
regards the pressure equilibrium as stated by Eq. 2.5. If the constant Pressure
equilibrium
C is equal to the ambient pressure p
0
, then the boundary condition
is expressed by:
g +

t
+
1
2
_
_
x
_
2
+
_
y
_
2
+
_
z
_
2
_
= 0 on z = (x, y, t)
(2.11)
24 environment
2.2 regular wave theory
It can be seen that the boundary conditions expressed by Eqs. 2.10
and 2.11 are non-linear since they depend on the knowledge of the
free surface geometric description, which is not known until the
problem is solved. In most cases the conditions can be linearised, Linearising
boundary
conditions at the
free surface
assuming that the velocity potential is proportional to the wave am-
plitude, which is a valid hypothesis when the wave amplitude is
small compared with the wavelength and the body dimension. The
free surface conditions are moved to the mean free surface level
(z = 0).
The following Eqs. 2.12 and 2.13 express the linearised kinematic
and dynamic boundary conditions, respectively:
t
=

z
on z = 0 (2.12)
gz +

t
= 0 on z = 0 (2.13)
Once determined the velocity potential, the water surface elevation
can be determined by Eq. 2.13, while deriving the same equation
with respect to time and combining with Eq. 2.12 it is found:
t
2
+ g
z
= 0 on z = 0 (2.14)
that, if the potential is assumed to be a harmonic function with
circular frequency , can be written as
2
+ g
z
= 0 on z = 0 (2.15)
With these linearised boundary conditions, the Airy linear wave
theory can be developed for regular waves (Airy, 1841). The hypoth- Airy linear wave
theory
esis that wave is repeating periodically equal to itself leads to the
following guess for the velocity potential:
=
0
(z) sin(kx t) (2.16)
where k =
2
L
is said wave number (L is the unknown wave length),
and =
2
T
is the circular frequency (the wave period T is known).
We assume that the wave is propagating along the x direction, such
that Eq. 2.4 can be rewritten as
x
2
+

2
z
2
= 0 (2.17)
2.2 regular wave theory 25
Substituting the velocity potential expression as per Eq. 2.16:
_
k
2
0
(z) +

2
0
(z)
z
2
_
sin(kx t) = 0 (2.18)
and, being sin(kx t) in general not equal to zero
k
2
0
(z) +

2
0
(z)
z
2
= 0 (2.19)
The solution is a function like:
0
(z) = Ae
kz
+ Be
kz
(2.20)
with A and B to be determined with the boundary conditions.
Recall the non-penetration condition on the seabed (Eq. 2.6), that
becomes for this specic expression Boundary
conditions at the
seabed
Ake
kz
= Bke
kz
=
1
D
(2.21)
such that
0
(z) = D
_
e
k(z+h)
+ e
k(z+h)
_
= Dcosh [k(z + h)] (2.22)
and
= Dcosh [k(z + h)] sin(kx t) (2.23)
On the free surface, it is possible to write, as a consequence of Boundary
conditions at the
free surface
Eqs. 2.13 and 2.16:
(t) =
H
2
cos(kx t) (2.24)
with H the wave height. Then, substituting Eqs. 2.24 and 2.23 in
Eq. 2.13, the following is determined:
Dcosh [k(z + h)] cos(kx t) + g
H
2
cos(kx t) = 0 (2.25)
and nally, considering that this relation holds on the free surface
(z = 0)
D =
gHT
4
_
1
cosh(kh)
_
(2.26)
In the previous equation the substitution T =
2
has been made.

26 environment
The nal solution for velocity potential is therefore: Solution for
velocity potential
=
gHT
4
cosh [k(z + h)]
cosh(kh)
sin(kx t) (2.27)
The relation between k and T is still to be determined, and the
required equation can be determined substituting the velocity po-
tential expression in Eq. 2.14:
tanh [k( + h)] =

2
kg
(2.28)
that, with the hypothesis that + h h becomes
tanh
_
2h
L
_
=
2L
gT
2
(2.29)
The previous Eq. 2.29 is solved by numerical iteration, or by an
approximation valid in deep water: if 2h L, then
tanh
_
2h
L
_
= 1 (2.30)
and therefore
L
0
=
gT
2
2
(2.31)
In Table 2.1 the equations to determine the most interesting quanti-
ties characterising the wave are summarised, according to the linear
theory as developed in the previous pages. Note that the substitu-
tion
a
= H/2 has been made, since it is more straightforward to
work with wave amplitudes rather than with wave heights when
dealing with sine waves. In Figure 2.1 the proles of the some in-
teresting quantities are plotted to make clear the phasing linking
them.
The described linear wave theory was developed by Airy, pub-
lished in 1841. Higher order wave theories include the cnoidal one, Higher order
wave theories
the Stokes second, third and fth order theories (Stokes et al., 1880).
These are not described in this document, but some notes are here
reported about how to extend the equations derived from linear
wave theory outside of the mean water plane. In fact, the hypoth-
esis on which the linear wave theory is founded is that the free
surface remains on the mean water plane, which is valid only when
T
a
b
l
e
2
.
1
:
A
n
a
l
y
t
i
c
a
l
e
x
p
r
e
s
s
i
o
n
s
f
r
o
m
l
i
n
e
a
r
w
a
v
e
t
h
e
o
r
y
,
g
e
n
e
r
a
l
e
q
u
a
t
i
o
n
s
a
n
d
s
i
m
p
l
i
e
d
f
o
r
d
e
e
p
w
a
t
e
r
G
e
n
e
r
a
l
E
q
u
a
t
i
o
n
s
D
e
e
p
W
a
t
e
r
V
e
l
o
c
i
t
y
p
o
t
e
n
t
i
a
l
=
g
c
o
s
h
[
k
(
z
+
h
)
]
c
o
s
h
(
k
h
)
s
i
n
(
k
x
t
)
=
g
e
k
z
s
i
n
(
k
x
t
)
R
e
l
a
t
i
o
n
b
e
t
w
e
e
n
k
a
n
d
2
g
=
k
t
a
n
h
(
k
h
)
2
g
=
k
R
e
l
a
t
i
o
n
b
e
t
w
e
e
n
a
n
d
T
=
g
2
T
2
t
a
n
h
2
=
g
2
T
2
W
a
t
e
r
e
l
e
v
a
t
i
o
n
a
c
o
s
(
k
x
t
)
a
c
o
s
(
k
x
t
)
D
y
n
a
m
i
c
p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e
p
D
=
a
c
o
s
h
[
k
(
z
+
h
)
]
c
o
s
h
(
k
h
)
c
o
s
(
k
x
t
)
p
D
=
a
e
k
z
c
o
s
(
k
x
t
)
H
o
r
i
z
o
n
t
a
l
p
a
r
t
i
c
l
e
d
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t
s
x
=
a
c
o
s
h
[
k
(
z
+
h
)
]
s
i
n
h
(
k
h
)
s
i
n
(
k
x
t
)
s
x
=
a
e
k
z
s
i
n
(
k
x
t
)
V
e
r
t
i
c
a
l
p
a
r
t
i
c
l
e
d
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t
s
z
=
a
s
i
n
h
[
k
(
z
+
h
)
]
s
i
n
h
(
k
h
)
c
o
s
(
k
x
t
)
s
z
=
a
e
k
z
c
o
s
(
k
x
t
)
H
o
r
i
z
o
n
t
a
l
p
a
r
t
i
c
l
e
v
e
l
o
c
i
t
y
v
x
=
a
c
o
s
h
[
k
(
z
+
h
)
]
s
i
n
h
(
k
h
)
c
o
s
(
k
x
t
)
v
x
=
a
e
k
z
c
o
s
(
k
x
t
)
V
e
r
t
i
c
a
l
p
a
r
t
i
c
l
e
v
e
l
o
c
i
t
y
v
z
=
a
s
i
n
h
[
k
(
z
+
h
)
]
s
i
n
h
(
k
h
)
s
i
n
(
k
x
t
)
v
z
=
a
e
k
z
s
i
n
(
k
x
t
)
H
o
r
i
z
o
n
t
a
l
p
a
r
t
i
c
l
e
a
c
c
e
l
e
r
a
t
i
o
n
a
x
=
a
c
o
s
h
[
k
(
z
+
h
)
]
s
i
n
h
(
k
h
)
s
i
n
(
k
x
t
)
a
x
=
a
e
k
z
s
i
n
(
k
x
t
)
V
e
r
t
i
c
a
l
p
a
r
t
i
c
l
e
a
c
c
e
l
e
r
a
t
i
o
n
a
z
=
a
s
i
n
h
[
k
(
z
+
h
)
]
s
i
n
h
(
k
h
)
c
o
s
(
k
x
t
)
a
z
=
a
e
k
z
c
o
s
(
k
x
t
)
28 environment
Length along propagation direction
Potential
Dynamic pressure
x-displacement
z-displacement
x-velocity
z-velocity
x-acceleration
z-acceleration
Figure 2.1: Prole of quantities describing a wave over a wave length
the wave height is much smaller than the wave length. The equa-
tions listed in Table 2.1 are therefore not suited to determine what
happens over z = 0.
The rst effect to take into account is that waves, especially the
higher ones, tend to extend over the water surface more than half
the nominal wave height: this is accounted for in non-linear wave
theories, but not in the linear one. It is commonly assumed that a
wave will extend up to z = 0.6 0.7H. Next, the prole has to be Prole extension
extended over the z = 0 plane up to the maximum height reached
by water. Different strategies can be used, the most common being
(Journe and Massie, 2001):
extrapolation The same equations from linear wave theory are
simply extended for z > 0. This leads to very conservative
estimation of drag and hydrodynamic inertia forces, linked to
wave velocity and acceleration.
constant extension This simple method simply extends the
same values found at the mean free surface for all the heights
above. This yields a constant prole over the z = 0.
wheeler profile stretching The water motion is calculated
at the vertical coordinate z
, with h z
0, in place of a
real vertical coordinate z, with h z (Wheeler, 1969).
The quantities calculated for z
are simply moved to another

height z. Wheeler proposes the following relation between the
two coordinates:
z
= qz + h(q 1) with q =
h
h +
(2.32)
The results obtained with the different methods are qualitatively
plotted in Figure 2.2.
2.2.1 Particle trajectories
The equations for the horizontal and vertical displacements in Ta-
ble 2.1 can be combined exploiting the well-known relation sin
2
+ Particle
trajectory in
shallow water
cos
2
= 1, to nd the trajectory described by a particle placed at
(x
p
, z
p
):
(s
x
x
p
)
2
_
a
cosh
_
k(z
p
+ h)
sinh(kh)
_
2
+
(s
z
z
p
)
2
_
a
sinh
_
k(z
p
+ h)
sinh(kh)
_
2
= 1 (2.33)
30 environment
Prole
V
e
r
t
i
c
a
l
C
o
o
r
d
i
n
a
t
e
(
m
)
z
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
10
Constant Ext.
Extrapolated
Wheeler
Figure 2.2: Different methods of prole extension over the mean free sur-
face
which describes an ellipsoid. Moving to deep water Eq. 2.33 is fur- Particle
trajectory in deep
water
ther simplied:
(s
x
x
p
)
2
+ (s
z
z
p
)
2
=
_
a
e
kz
p
_
2
(2.34)
then the trajectory is a circle. The different particle trajectories can
be seen in Figures 2.3 and 2.4 for shallow and deep water, respec-
tively. Note that in shallow water, the particles still have and hori-
zontal movement at the seabed, while in deep water the radius of
the circle decreases rapidly at increasing distances from the free sur-
face. In particular, as shown in Table 2.2, the radius of the circular
particle trajectory becomes negligible at a depth equal to the wave-
length.
seabed
Figure 2.3: Particle trajectories in shallow water
Table 2.2: Particle movement in deepwater, with respect to wave amplitude
Depth/ Particle movement/
a
0.00 1.000
0.25 0.208
0.50 0.043
0.75 0.009
1.00 0.002
32 environment
Figure 2.4: Particle trajectories in deep water
2.3 sea state modeling 33
2.3 sea state modeling
The waves that appear on the surface of a sea under the action
of winds can be modelled as being originated by the superposition
of regular waves. A sea state is generally described by its spectrum,
which can be derived from measurements on a specic region, or
from some spectrum shape functions. These shape functions are
themselves derived from measurements, but can be used to describe
a wide variety of sea states rather than the single sea state observed
in a specic region at a specic time.
A brief discussion on the most widely used spectra follows, but it
can be anticipated that in this work the JONSWAP one will be used
when not specied. The following spectra are dened for a fully
developed sea, which is a sea where no more energy is transferred by
the wind from the atmosphere to the water. This condition is not
likely to be achieved in seas delimited by narrow borders, but is
realistic for oceans.
Wave spectra are generally single-peaked, as this is the condition Single and
double-peaked
spectra
most frequently observed. However, after the wind has stopped, a
decaying sea is formed, with a shift towards lower frequencies. This
is called swell and sometimes can interact with the waves developed
by another storm, generating therefore a low-frequency peak. Also
tidal waves can generate a similar effect, and thats why also double-
peaked spectral forms have been developed.
After the different spectra have been presented, also the tech-
niques to develop a water elevation time history are explained, to-
gether with the rules that govern the propagation over water sur-
face.
2.3.1 Wave spectra
A sea state can be considered to be stationary for a duration up to
36 hours, and under this condition a state can be characterized by a Sea state
characterising
parameters
limited amount of parameters. The most common are the signicant
wave height H
s
, the peak period T
p
, and the zero up-crossing period T
z
.
significant wave height It is dened as the average height of
the highest
1
3
waves, and it is a measure of the total energy
represented by the spectrum
peak period It is the wave period at which the wave spectra shows
its maximum value
34 environment
Regular waves
Irregular waves
Figure 2.5: Irregular sea with spreading as superposition of regular waves
zero up-crossing period The mean time interval between two
consecutive instants when the sea surface moves upward across
the mean sea level.
Although wave spectra are experimentally determined by dedi-
cated measurement campaigns, analytical formulations are widely
used to approximate those data and provide a straightforward tool
for analysis and simulation.
The link between the characterising parameters and the analyti- Spectral moments
cal wave spectra formulations are the spectral moments. The spectral
moment of order n is given by:
M
n
= (2)
n
_

0
f
n
S( f ) df =
_

0
n
S() d (2.35)
The signicant wave height H
s
is therefore practically calculated
as
H
s
= 4
_
M
0
(2.36)
while the zero up-crossing period T
z
is:
T
z
= 2
M
0
M
2
(2.37)
Other relations are collected in DNV-RP-C205, together with the
analytical wave spectra equations which will be shown in the fol-
lowing sections.
The idea behind the spectral representation of a sea state is that Irregular sea
state as regular
waves
superposition
every water elevation time history can be synthetically represented
by the sum of a number of sinusoidal time histories superimposed.
This is also the key for the process of time history realisation from
a spectrum, operation widely adopted in simulation, see Figure 2.6.
t
(t)
S()
sampled wave
spectrum
irregular water elevation
time history
each component
has its phase
Figure 2.6: Representation of a sea state as a wave spectrum
As waves are supposed to be wind-generated, there are relation-
ships expected between signicant wave height and wind speed.
For example, the following equation is valid for a sea described by Wind-wave
relationship
a Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum, see Section 2.3.2 (Fossen, 2002):
H
s
=
2.06
g
2
v
2
19.4
(2.38)
where v
19.4
is the wind speed at 19.4 m.
36 environment
As an example, the data from an instrumented buoy
1
placed near
the isle of Menorca, Spain, are taken into account (see Figure 2.7 for
buoy position). In Figure 2.8 the signicant wave height and wind
speed recordings are represented, for a couple of days in july 2009.
The relation between the two signals is quite clear, but the repre-
sentation in Figure 2.9, in which a quadratic tting was performed,
shows quite a high uncertainty. Looking at Figure 2.10 it is possi-
ble to recognise that the H
s
signal is delayed with respect to wind
of about 3 h. In fact, if the tting is repeated shifting of three hours
one signal with respect to the other, the tting is much more success-
ful, see Figure 2.11. This effect is due to the time needed to complete
the energy transfer from wind to the water surface, and is not taken
into account by the simple relation stated in Eq. 2.38.
Mahn
WAVESCAN buoy
Menorca
Mallorca
Figure 2.7: Location of the WAVESCAN buoy in Mahn, Menorca (ES)
1 See http://www.puertos.es/externo/clima/Rayo/indexeng.html for the list of
buoys and download recorded data for several locations near Spanish coasts. The
site is managed by Puertos del Estado and Instituto Espaol de Oceanograa
Date
S
i
g
n
i
c
a
n
t
W
a
v
e
H
e
i
g
h
t
(
m
)
W
i
n
d
S
p
e
e
d
(
m
/
s
)
0:00 12:00 0:00 12:00 0:00 12:00
26-7-2009
27-7-2009
26-7-2009
0.5
1.0
1.5
3.0
6.0
9.0
Figure 2.8: Extract from recorded signicant wave height and wind speed
signals in july 2009, Mahn buoy
2.3.2 Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum
The Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum (Pierson and Moskowitz, 1964)
was developed from experimental analyses carried out in the North
Atlantic Ocean. It is described by the following formulation:
S
PM
() =
5
16
H
2
s
4
p
5
exp
_
5
4
_

p
_
4
_
(2.39)
with
p
= 2/T
p
the peak circular frequency.
S
i
g
n
i
c
a
n
t
W
a
v
e
H
e
i
g
h
t
(
m
)
Wind Speed (m/s)
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
R
2
= 0.523
Figure 2.9: Relation between wind speed and signicant wave height
38 environment
C
r
o
s
s
-
C
o
r
r
e
l
a
t
i
o
n
Lag (h)
12 9 6 3 0 3 6 9 12
0.25
0.00
0.25
0.50
0.75
1.00
max. cross-correlation
Figure 2.10: Relation between wind speed and signicant wave height
No parameters other than the signicant wave height and the
peak period are needed to dene this spectrum. This means that Limitations
there is no way to differentiate sea states for their peakedness.
Eq. 2.38 is supposed to be valid under the hypothesis that waves
can be considered a Gaussian random process and that the spec-
trum is narrow-banded.
An example of Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum is represented in Fig-
ure 2.12.
2.3.3 JONSWAP spectrum
This spectrum was derived as a result of measurement campaigns
during the Joint North Sea Wave Project (Hasselmann and Olbers,
1973). It was proved to give a good description also for sea states dif-
ferent from the original experimental condition. The spectral form
is dened by:
S
J
() = A
S
PM
()
exp
_
0.5
_
p
_
2
_
(2.40)
with
=
_

a

p
b
>
p
(2.41)
S
i
g
n
i
c
a
n
t
W
a
v
e
H
e
i
g
h
t
(
m
)
Wind Speed (m/s)
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
R
2
= 0.780
Figure 2.11: Relation between wind speed and signicant wave height, with
the wind time history delayed of 3 h
This is clearly an expression similar to the Pierson-Moskowitz one,
but with multiplying factor which amplies the function mainly
near the peak value. The A
factor is a normalising factor that comes

out from a numerical tting procedure to get a constant spectrum
integral as varies:
A
= 1 0.287 ln() (2.42)

The constant spectrum integral is needed to get a valid link be-
tween signicant wave height and zero-order spectral moment (see
Eq. 2.36).
The following assumption for is often adopted (see DNV-RP-
C205):
=
_
0.07
p
0.09 >
p
(2.43)
If the value is not available from direct measurements, Det Norske
Veritas suggests the following: Choice of
=
_
_
5
T
p
H
s
< 3.6
exp
_
5.75 1.15
T
p
H
s
_
3.6
T
p
H
s
< 5
1
T
p
H
s
5
(2.44)
It can be veried that the total energy associated to the sea state Sea state energy
content
40 environment
Circular Frequency (rad/s)
W
a
v
e
S
p
e
c
t
r
u
m
(
m
2
s
)
S
PM
()
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
0.33
0.67
1.00
1.33
1.67
Figure 2.12: Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum for H
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s
depends only on signicant wave height:
E
J
=
H
2
s
16
(2.45)
See Figure 2.13 for the effect of on the spectrum shape.
2.3.4 Torsethaugen spectrum
This spectrum was developed from experimental data taken in the
North Sea (Torsethaugen and Haver, 2004). Its main feature is that
it is double-peaked, therefore suited to represent sea states where a
superposition of two main wave frequencies takes place. This con-
dition happens when wind-generated waves develop in a location Origin of
double-peaked sea
states
reached by waves generated somewhere else, or decaying after a
storm. When the wind is giving no more energy to the sea, the
waves tend to group in low frequency waves, and travel away from
the location where the storm was generated. This kind of waves is
referred to as swell. This condition is quite common in the North Sea,
and makes difcult to achieve optimal wave ltering performances.
2.4 from spectra to time series 41
W
a
v
e
S
p
e
c
t
r
u
m
(
m
2
s
)
S()
0.25 0.5 0.75 1.0 1.25 1.5 1.75 2.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
JONSWAP = 5.0
JONSWAP = 3.3
JONSWAP = 2.0
Pierson-Moskowitz
Figure 2.13: JONSWAP spectra for H
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s and some values,
compared with a Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum with the same
parameters
The equations are reported in DNV-RP-C205, and implemented in
Marine Systems Simulator (Fossen and Perez, 2004) for convenient
use in a simulation environment. In Figure 2.14 three spectra with
the same H
s
but different peak periods are represented.
2.4 from spectra to time series
Spectral information is often not enough for the detailed analyses
carried out for offshore operations. When time-domain simulation
is required, the wave time history is usually the driving signal of
the problem, and as such must be simulated carefully.
The aim of the time-domain simulation of the seaway is not to
reproduce a particular water elevation recording that originated the
spectrum, but to produce a water elevation time history with the
same frequency content and statistical properties. The procedure is
graphically represented in Figure 2.6, corresponding to the math-
42 environment
W
a
v
e
S
p
e
c
t
r
u
m
(
m
2
s
)
S
T
()
0.33 0.67 1.00 1.33 1.67 2.00 2.33 2.67
0.33
0.67
1.00
1.33
1.67
2.00
T
p
= 10 s
T
p
= 6 s
T
p
= 5 s
Figure 2.14: Torsethaugen spectra for H
s
= 3.5 m and various peak periods
ematical description of the water elevation as a sum of sinusoids:
(t) =
N
i=1
a,i
cos (
i
t +
i
) (2.46)
While the amplitude
a,i
for each circular frequency
i
is deter-
mined by the spectrum to be represented, the phase
i
can be ran-
domly chosen for each harmonic component. Indeed, the choice of Random phases
the phases is the degree of freedom that makes possible to produce
and innite number of time series with the same spectral character-
istics.
Even though the wave spectra are analytically described, in calcu- Sampling
lations one must choose a nite number of harmonics to be summed
up in order to describe the irregular seaway. The way the sampling
is carried out is not a trivial matter, as it has consequences on the fea-
tures of the resulting water elevation time history. Three commonly
adopted methods are presented in the following sections.
2.4 from spectra to time series 43
2.4.1 Sampling at constant frequency intervals
The easiest sampling method is to simply use constant frequency
intervals, as shown in Figure 2.15. This is straightforward but raises
the problem of the record length. In fact, it can be shown that the
generated time history is periodic, with period
T
l
=
2
(2.47)
After this time the wave time history repeats itself (Faltinsen, 1993).
When using this sampling method, it must be always veried that The problem of
periodic time
histories
the simulation time is shorter than T
l
. When a considerable simu-
lation time is needed, many samples have to be taken, signicantly
slowing down the calculation. As an example, take the spectrum
represented in Figure 2.15, which can be conveniently represented
with samples between
min
= 0.1 rads
1
and
max
= 2.5 rads
1
. If
a simulation 1 h long is required, 1376 samples are required. This is
a considerable number as the water elevation, velocity and accelera-
tion are determined treating the sea state as a superposition of this
number of regular waves. Moreover, to correctly represent the statis-
tical parameters of a sea state, longer simulations are often carried
out.
2.4.2 Random frequency sampling
To avoid the problem of the periodic wave elevation time history,
a slightly more complex technique can be used. One can choose to
divide the range into constant intervals, and then sample the spec-
trum at frequencies randomly chosen between
i
2
and
i
+

2
.
The process, described in Figure 2.16, is effective but still simple to
implement, and makes possible to reduce signicantly the number
of harmonics involved in calculations.
2.4.3 Constant energy sampling
The last presented technique is another way of producing a non-
periodic water elevation time history. Here each sample is in the
middle of two frequencies that bound a constant energy interval.
44 environment
W
a
v
e
S
p
e
c
t
r
u
m
(
m
2
s
)
S
PM
()
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
0.33
0.67
1.00
1.33
1.67
Analytical spectrum
Sampled spectrum
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s, sam-
pled at constant frequency intervals
When the total energy is known (see Eq. 2.45), the energy of each of
the N slices is
dE =
H
2
s
/16
N
(2.48)
This sampling method has the advantage, besides producing non-
periodic output signals with a limited number of sinusoids, of repre- Physical
signicance of
constant energy
sampling
senting with more detail the most physically important harmonics,
the ones near the peak period.
2.5 statistics on water elevation time histories
Water elevation time histories generated for simulation purposes
with the methods described in Section 2.4 have to be validated
against intended characteristic parameters. In fact, two main fac-
tors could have detrimental effects on the representativeness of the
produced signal. First, the random phases are responsible for the Ensuring water
elevation time
series quality
variety of time histories that can be produced starting from a sin-
gle spectrum. The choice of sets of phases giving rise to particular
combinations must be avoided. Second, the produced time history
2.5 statistics on water elevation time histories 45
W
a
v
e
S
p
e
c
t
r
u
m
(
m
2
s
)
S
PM
()
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
0.33
0.67
1.00
1.33
1.67
Analytical spectrum
Sampled spectrum
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s, sam-
pled at random frequencies inside constant frequency intervals
must be long enough to contain a number of waves that ts the
nominal wave height distribution. In particular, in simulation is of-
ten important to verify that the highest wave is encountered, since
it is expected to produce the worst loading conditions.
By experimental data analysis it has been found that the Rayleigh
distribution ts well the distribution of wave heights. Then the an-
alytical expression of the Rayleigh distribution can be used to cal- Most probable
largest wave
height
culate expected values for the maximum wave height. It is shown
(Bhattacharyya, 1978) that the most probable largest wave height among
N observed waves (MPLH) is equal to:
MPLH = 2
2 ln N
_
M
0
=
2 ln N
H
s
2
(2.49)
If the distribution is different from the Rayleigh one, a correction
factor must be applied, see Bhattacharyya (1978). In Table 2.3 the ra-
tio between the MPLH and the signicant wave height is reported
for different numbers of observed waves. Note that, since the du-
ration of a storm is conventionally of 3 h, it contains around 1000
waves, such that the largest wave height is often taken as 1.86H
s
.
46 environment
W
a
v
e
S
p
e
c
t
r
u
m
(
m
2
s
)
S
PM
()
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5
0.33
0.67
1.00
1.33
1.67
Analytical spectrum
Sampled spectrum
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s, sam-
pled at constant energy intervals
A short extract from a water elevation time history generated ar-
ticially is shown in Figure 2.18, where a single wave is highlighted.
The mean zero up-crossing period and the signicant wave height
can then be measured from time series data. In particular, the H
s
is
immediately veried with Eq. 2.36 and taking into account that:
_
M
0
= std(t) (2.50)
where std indicates the standard deviation of the water elevation
samples.
2.6 directional wave distribution
The wave spectra shown in previous sections are usually assumed
to be referred to a mono-directional wave propagation. This is often
not the case, such that directional energy spreading must be taken
into account.
A more general description of a wave spectrum includes the prop-
agation direction as a variable:
S(, ) = S()D(, ) (2.51)
2.6 directional wave distribution 47
Table 2.3: Most probable largest wave heights for different numbers of ob-
served waves
Number of waves N MPLH/H
s
ratio
10 1.07
100 1.52
1000 1.86
10 000 2.15
100 000 2.40
In practice the following simplication is often used:
S(, ) = S()D() (2.52)
This means that the frequency effect and the direction effect are split
in two different functions, such that the same spectral functions can
be used for mono-directional or spread seas. In addition, DNV-RP-
C205 mentions the possibility to apply, for two-peaked seas, two
directionality functions, one for each spectrum.
To ensure that the total energy content described by the spectrum Directionality
function
requirements
is not modied by the directionality function, the following equa-
tion must be fullled:
_

max
min
D() d = 1 (2.53)
where
min
and
max
are the extremes of the direction interval in
which wave energy is found.
The most common directionality function is the following:
D() =

_
1 +
n
2
_

_
1
2
+
n
2
_ cos
n
(
p
) (2.54)
where is the Gamma function and
2

p

2
. The function
is plotted for different n factors in Figure 2.19.
In Figures 2.20 and 2.21 the same Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum is
presented in a polar plot with different spreading factors. Eq. 2.54
is used with n = 2 and n = 8, typical values for wind sea and
swell, respectively. Note that the lower n factor distributes the wave
energy over a greater angular interval, lowering therefore the spec-
trum peak value. The energy spreading level has important conse-
quences on the loads produced on vessels and offshore structures.
48 environment
Time (s)
t
W
a
t
e
r
E
l
e
v
a
t
i
o
n
(
m
)
(t)
20 40 60 80 100 120
1
2
1
2
wave period
w
a
v
e
h
e
i
g
h
t
Figure 2.18: Water elevation time history, generated by a constant energy
sampling of a JONSWAP spectrum, H
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s,
= 3.3, 200 harmonic components
2.7 wave spectra approximation
In Dynamic Positioning studies, the wave-frequency motion is
treated as noise, as it acts as a disturbance superimposed on the
second-order motion to be counteracted, see Section 3.1.1. For this
reason, a rough linear approximation of the wave kinematics can be
often used when simulating closed-loop systems (Fossen, 2002).
Consider the linear approximation y(s) of the spectral density
S() as the result of a suitably ltered white noise:
y(s) = h(s)w(s) (2.55)
Being w(s) a zero-mean Gaussian noise, it satises the following
relation regarding its power spectral density (Orfanidis, 2007):
P
() = 1 (2.56)
The lter h(s) that makes y(s) approximate the wave spectrum has
to be determined, and this is accomplished making P
yy
() approxi- Wave spectrum
as a linear lter
mate S(), considering the following relation:
P
yy
() = |h(j )|
2
P
() = |h(|)|
2
(2.57)
2.7 wave spectra approximation 49
Angle wrt Main Direction (rad)

p
0
D(
p
)
2
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
n = 2
n = 4
n = 8
Figure 2.19: Directionality functions plotted for different n values
A second-order linear approximation has been proposed by Balchen
et al. (1976), and later modied by Slid et al. (1983). The following
expression is used for the lter:
h(s) =
K
w
s
s
2
+2
p
s +
2
p
(2.58)
The gain K
w
is dened as
K
w
= 2
p
(2.59)
The constant is proportional to the sea state energy and is a
spectrum shape parameter. Then, substituting s = j and Eq. 2.59
into Eq. 2.58, the following is obtained:
h(j ) =
j 2
p
2
p
2
_
+j 2
p
(2.60)
and
|h(j )| =
2
p
_
_
2
p
2
_
2
+4
_
_
2
(2.61)
50 environment
E W
S
N
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
(rad/s)
S
PM
() (m
2
s)
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s, with
spreading factor n = 2, main direction East
From Eq. 2.57 we have
P
yy
() =
4
_
_
2
2
_
2
p
2
_
2
+4
_
_
2
(2.62)
The constants and have to be determined. The rst helpful
constraint is that P
yy
() and S() both have the maximum value at
=
p
, such that
2
= max S() (2.63)
The constant is instead determined considering that the integral
of the two power spectral densities must be equal.
Another technique could rely on a numerical optimization rou-
tine based on approximation of P
yy
() to S() in a least-squares
sense. Popular non-linear algorithms able to solve this problem are
implemented in many scientic libraries, see The MathWorks, Inc.
(2008a) and Press et al. (1992). An example of result from this kind
2.8 software for sea state modeling 51
E W
S
N
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
1.2
(rad/s)
S
PM
() (m
2
s)
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s, with
spreading factor n = 8, main direction East
of approach is presented in Figure 2.22, where a JONSWAP spec-
trum has been tted by a least-squares curve t function from the
MATLAB Optimization Toolbox (The MathWorks, Inc., 2008c).
2.8 software for sea state modeling
The concepts developed in this chapter are of crucial importance
for simulation and dynamic positioning studies in general. The ac-
tions exerted by the environment are the perturbations that must be
counteracted by the thrusters, and incorrect modelling could pro-
duce misleading evaluations of the systems performance.
The main simulation tool on which the studies proposed in this
work rely is built upon Mathworks SIMULINK, with the use of
some blocks from the Marine Systems Simulator (Fossen and Perez,
2004), which provides convenient means for modeling the most im-
portant parts of the overall system.
52 environment
W
a
v
e
S
p
e
c
t
r
u
m
(
m
2
s
)
S()
0.25 0.5 0.75 1.0 1.25 1.5 1.75 2.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
JONSWAP
Fitted linear approximation
Figure 2.22: JONSWAP spectrum for H
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s, = 3.3 values,
compared with linear approximation tted by least-squares al-
gorithm
In particular, a very simple model is here presented, as it will be
used in most of the more complex models presented over this work.
The block Waves is part of the Marine Systems Simulator and pro-
vides a way to produce spectral data for a number of wave spectra.
Option are present to take into account wave spreading, visualise
the sea state over a dened area, set the number of required har-
monic components. Another option is to use an external function
to calculate the harmonic components, providing greater control on
the calculation procedure. In this example the following initializa-
tion function (Listing 2.1) is used, which in turn references the func-
tion in Listing 2.2 to sample the JONSWAP spectrum at constant
energy intervals, and as such the waves are generated with the am-
plitude selected by a user function, instead of using the facilities
provided by the toolbox. Note the seed parameter which provides
a way to reproduce the same simulation by picking a particular set
of phases, or to generate a new set of random phases each time the
function is called.
Waves
Waves
wave direction
Wave velocitycalc
[x y z ] NED
Waves
Zeta
V_w NED
To Workspace
simout
Scope Location
(0 0 0)
Figure 2.23: SIMULINK model for wave time history generation and water
elevation measurement at a generic location
Listing 2.1: Example of initialization code for wave spectrum parameters
1 Hs = 3.5
2 Tp = 10
3 gamma = 3.3
4 nsamples = 100
5 seed = 19346
6 dir = 0
7
8 [ omega, deltaE, s, phase, domega ] = jonspec( Hs, Tp, gamma, seed, ...
9 nsamples, 1 );
10 etaamp = ones(nsamples, 1)
*
sqrt( 2
*
deltaE );
11 k = omega.^2/9.806;
12 dir = ones(nsamples, 1)
*
dir;
The block Wave velocitycalc calculates the water elevation and
velocity at a particular location, in this case identied by the coordi-
nates provided in Location constant block.
The simple example here described implements a water elevation
measurement, sent to a Scope block for rapid visualisation, and a
To Workspace block for subsequent processing. The water elevation
time history of which an extract is shown in Figure 2.24 is the result
of this simple model simulation.
Listing 2.2: JONSWAP spectrum, algorithm for sampling at constant energy
intervals
1 function [ omec, deltaE, s, phase, domega, Einterval, ome ] = ...
2 jonspec( Hs, Tp, gamma, seed , nfr, displayplots )
3 %JONSPEC Sample a JONSWAP spectrum at constant energy intervals, generate
4 %random phases.
5 % INPUT:
6 % Hs Significant wave height (m)
7 % Tp Peak period (s)
8 % seed Seed for random phases generation (if 0, then initialize
9 % number generator with clock)
10 % nfr Number of spectrum samples
11 % displayplots 1-display 0-dont display
12 % OUTPUT:
54 environment
13 % omec Central frequency of each interval (rad/s)
14 % s Value of the Jonswap spectrum for each harmonic
15 % component, all equal (m^2 s)
16 % phase Random phase generated for each harmonic component (rad)
17 % domega Frequency span associated with each harmonic component
18 % (rad/s)
19 % Einterval Energy associated with each interval (m^2)
20 % ome Frequencies delimiting intervals (rad/s)
21
22 omegap = 2
*
pi/Tp;
23
24 % Select minimum and maximum omega
25 omemin = 0.2
*
omegap;
26 omemax = 5
*
omegap;
27
28 % Total energy
29 E = Hs^2/16;
30 % Energy for each component
31 deltaE = Hs^2/16/nfr;
32
33 % Initialize variables
34 ome = zeros( nfr, 1 );
35 s = zeros( nfr, 1 );
36 phase = zeros( nfr, 1 );
37
38 % Plot the spectrum with a fixed sampling
39 if displayplots
40 fig = figure;
41 subplot(2,1,1)
42 omega = linspace( omemin, omemax, 1000);
43 plot( omega, jonswap( omega ), LineWidth, 2 );
44 grid on; hold on;
45 title( Jonswap Spectrum);
46 xlabel( \omega (rad/s ) );
47 ylabel( S(\omega) (m^2 s ) );
48 xlim([ omemin omemax ]);
49 end
50
51 % Look for circular frequencies delimiting constant energy intervals
52 ome1 = omemin;
53 ome = zeros( nfr-1, 1 );
54 for k = 1:nfr-1
55 ome2 = fminbnd( @E
_
Err , ome1 , ome1+omegap , ...
56 optimset( Display , notify , TolX , 1e-6 ) );
57 if ome2 == ome1+omegap
58 disp( Warning! Maximum omega reached! );
59 end
60 ome(k) = ome2;
61 ome1 = ome2;
62 end
63
64 % Plot samples over spectrum
65 if displayplots
66 plot( ome, jonswap( ome ), ro );
67 plot( omemin, jonswap( omemin ), go );
68 plot( omemax, jonswap( omemax ), go );
69 end
70
71 % Append omemin and omemax to ome
72 ome = [ omemin; ome; omemax ];
73
74 % Check energy for each interval
75 Einterval = zeros( nfr, 1 );
76 omec = zeros( nfr, 1 );
77 domega = zeros( nfr, 1 );
78 for k = 1:nfr
79 Einterval(k) = quad( @jonswap, ome(k), ome(k+1) );
80 omec(k) = 0.5
*
(ome(k+1)+ome(k));
81 if omec(k) > omemax
82 disp( Warning! Maximum frequency exceeded! );
83 end
84 domega(k) = ome(k+1)-ome(k);
85 if domega(k) < 0
86 disp( Warning! Frequency array are not in ascending order ! );
87 end
88 end
89 if displayplots
90 subplot(2,1,2)
91 plot(omec, Einterval, ob);
92 grid on
93 title( Energy distribution );
94 xlabel( Central \omega (rad/s ) );
95 ylabel(Energy (m^2) );
96 xlim([ omemin omemax ]);
97 end
98
99 % Values of spectrum for each central frequency (constant)
100 s = jonswap(omec);
101
102 % Random phases
103 if seed == 0
104 rand( twister , sum(100
*
clock));
105 phase = 2
*
pi
*
rand( nfr, 1 );
106 else
107 rand( twister ,seed);
108 phase = 2
*
pi
*
rand( nfr, 1 );
109 end
110 % Plot phases
111 if displayplots
112 figure
113 plot( phase, om );
114 title( Randomly generated phases );
115 xlabel(Harmonic n. );
116 ylabel(Phase (rad) );
117 grid on
118 axis tight
119 end
120
121 %%%%%% Functions
122
123 function S
_
J = jonswap( omega )
124 % Calculate the value of the JONSWAP spectrum
125 S
_
PM = 5/16
*
Hs^2
*
omegap^4
*
omega.^-5 .
*
...
126 exp( -5/4
*
(omega./omegap).^-4 );
127 Agamma = 1-0.287
*
log(gamma);
128 sigma = zeros( size(omega) );
129 for i = 1:length(omega)
130 if omega(i) <= omegap
131 sigma(i) = 0.07;
132 else
133 sigma(i) = 0.09;
134 end
56 environment
135 end
136 S
_
J = Agamma
*
S
_
PM .
*
gamma.^( exp( -0.5
*
...
137 ((omega-omegap)./(sigma
*
omegap)).^2) );
138 end
139
140 function E
_
Err = E
_
Err( ome )
141 % E
_
ERR Calculate error between desired and actual energy step
142 E
_
Err = abs( deltaE - quad( @jonswap, ome1, ome ) );
143 end
144
145 %%%%%%
146
147 end
Time (s)
t
W
a
t
e
r
E
l
e
v
a
t
i
o
n
(
m
)
(t)
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
1
2
1
2
Figure 2.24: Water elevation time history, generated by a constant energy
sampling of a JONSWAP spectrum, H
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s,
= 3.3, 100 harmonic components, with the SIMULINK model
represented in Figure 2.23
2.9 wind spectra
Similarly to the sea surface, the wind speed distribution can be
described by means of spectra as well. The most accurate procedure
is to derive site-specic spectra for the particular location under in-
vestigation, or to determine some synthetic parameters to be used
in analytical spectra formulations.
2.9 wind spectra 57
The Harris spectrum is a popular one, reported by DNV-RP-C205. Harris spectrum
It is described by the following equation:
S
U
( f ) =
2
U
4
L
U
U
10
_
1 +70.8
_
f L
U
U
10
_
2
_5
6
(2.64)
where U
10
is the 10 min mean wind speed and
U
is the wind
speed standard deviation (can be determined as a function of U
10
and terrain roughness, see DNV-RP-C205). The integral length scale
L
U
can be determined by the following relation, corresponding to
the Eurocode 1 specication, (Eurocode 1):
L
U
= 300
_
z
300
_
0.46+0.074 ln g
0
(2.65)
where z is the vertical coordinate and g
0
is the soil roughness pa-
rameter (see DNV-RP-C205 for roughness parameters on different
terrain types).
In Figure 2.25 the Harris spectrum is plotted for a 12 ms
1
mean
wind speed.
Frequency (Hz)
f
W
i
n
d
S
p
e
c
t
r
u
m
(
m
2
/
s
)
S
U
( f )
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
5
10
15
20
25
Figure 2.25: Harris wind spectrum for 12 ms
1
mean wind speed
3
S EAKEEPI NG
Contents
3.1 Ship motion and degrees of freedom 59
3.1.1 First and second order motion 60
3.2 First order motion by means of RAOs 62
3.2.1 Statistical approach to rst order motion
calculation 63
3.3 Drift forces 66
3.3.1 Newmans approximation 67
3.3.2 Simplied method for drift force calcu-
lation 68
3.3.3 Frequency domain analysis of drift forces 69
3.4 Software for ship dynamics modeling 70
3.4.1 First order motion 70
3.4.2 Second order forces and motion 71
This chapter deals with the basic notions of seakeeping, dened
as the ability of a marine vehicle to operate under the actions ex-
erted by the environment. The theories used in the seakeeping stud-
ies are presented, with the mathematical tools adopted to model
the complex systems involved. The distinction between rst-order
and second-order motion is stressed, as the two contributions need
different modeling and remedial actions. Also efcient methods for
simulations are explained, with particular attention to techniques
suited for Dynamic Positioning studies.
3.1 ship motion and degrees of freedom
The kinematics of any oating body is described by six degrees
of freedom, three linear displacements and three rotations (Bertram,
2000), which for the case of a ship are referred to as surge-sway-
heave and roll-pitch-yaw, respectively, see Fig. 3.1.
With regard to these degrees of freedom, the system is differently
modelled, depending on the presence of the hydrostatic stiffness:
59
60 seakeeping
sway
surge
heave
roll
pitch
yaw
Figure 3.1: Reference system and degrees of freedom
surge, sway, yaw The system can be viewed as a simple mass-
damper system, all the positions for each degree of freedom
are equilibrium positions, as there is no hydrostatic stiffness.
These degrees of freedom dene the pose (position and head-
ing) of the vehicle on the water plane.
heave, roll, pitch The system can be viewed as a mass-spring-
damper system, where the stiffness is determined by the hy-
drostatic characteristics of the oating body.
3.1.1 First and second order motion
If the motion for example of a moored vessel is observed with
regard to the generic motion direction x, the typical signal would
resemble the one schematically represented by the blue plot in Fig-
ure 3.2: high frequency oscillations are superimposed on a low fre-
quency motion. These two components of motion are named rst
order and second order motions, respectively, for some reasons that
will be explained in the following paragraphs.
Each contribution to the total vessel motion correspond to a forc-
ing term, by which is caused. In this sense, it is also common to
speak about rst order force and second order force. This terms are
both caused by the incident waves, but the rst is caused by the
rst term in the series expansion of the potential ow equation,
while the other is caused by the second term of the same equation.
3.1 ship motion and degrees of freedom 61
Time (s)
t
D
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t
(
m
)
x(t)
50 100 150 200
5
10
15
20
Slow Drift Motion
Total Motion
Wave-Frequency Motion
Figure 3.2: Components of the motion of a vessel subject to waves
This should clarify the naming conventions commonly used. How-
ever, an useful name interpretation considers the fact that rst and
second order also refer to the order of magnitude of the forces in-
volved. It is clear that if a forcing action causes a big mass to move
at the wave periods (515 s), it is much more intense than a force
that makes the same mass move with a period of 200 s.
An important observation is that while rst order forces are oscil-
lating with zero mean, second order ones are not. Precisely, second
order forces are always pushing in the waves direction of propaga-
tion: the force oscillation are around a mean value, but they never
invert. These forces would therefore make the ship drift away from
its initial position without any possibility of coming back and thats
the reason why these are often called drift forces. Note that in Fig-
ure 3.2 the slow drift motion is represented as sinusoidal because of
the presence of the moorings, that bring back the vessel in the time
periods when the applied forces are lowering.
The distinction between the two motion (and force) components
is of fundamental importance for the study of the Dynamic Position-
ing problem, because the thrusters must be controlled in such a way
to counteract only the second order motion. In fact it is not possible
for the machinery to follow loading variations like the ones applied
at the waves periods, and however there wouldnt be any point in
doing this because they cause zero mean oscillations around the set
point.
62 seakeeping
With regard to linearity, it is possible to verify that the rst order
loading is linearly proportional to the wave height, while the second
order forces are proportional to the square of the wave height. For
this reason, the rst order motion is simply calculated by means of
Response Amplitude Operators (RAOs), while the second order ones
need more detailed modeling to obtain a comparable degree of ac-
curacy.
3.2 first order motion by means of raos
As stated in Section 3.1.1, the wave frequency motion is propor-
tional to the wave height, such that the system can be modeled, with
regard to this motion component, as a traditional linear dynamic
system. It is very useful to adopt the Response Amplitude Operators
as tools to study this system, while keeping in mind that this is a
concept completely general for linear systems, even if it will be used
mostly as a black box that transforms a wave signal into a barge mo-
tion signal.
RAO
Waves time
series
First order
motion
black box
Figure 3.3: Response Amplitude Operator as a black box
If the excitation is small enough, any dynamic system can be mod-
elled as a linear system, fact that provides two useful properties:
scaling The amplitude of the input signal and the amplitude of
the output signal are linearly dependent, such that e.g. double
input amplitude means double output amplitude.
superposition The effect of the harmonics that constitute the in-
put signal can be superimposed to reconstruct the output sig-
nal.
The two properties together provide a simple method to calculate
the response of a system for which a RAO is known, for any in-
put signal. Note that the RAOs are complex functions, usually ex-
pressed in amplitude/phase notation. In Figure 3.4 a set of RAO for
all the six degrees of freedom is reported as an example (this set
refers to a semisubmersible present in the MOSES software library,
3.2 first order motion by means of raos 63
see Ultramarine, Inc. (2008)). Note that the phase plots look quite
confused because the phase is expressed as an angle in the [; ]
interval, such that the lines jump from one side to the other when
crossing the extremes values.
The following example illustrates the simple process used in this
kind of calculations. If a system is subject to a loading function
i(t) = I sin(t) (3.1)
and the RAO corresponding to is represented by amplitude A
and phase , then the response is:
o(t) = I Asin(t + ) (3.2)
If now the input signal is formed by the superposition of two si-
nusoidal waves at
1
and
2
circular frequencies, the response is
easily determined reading the RAO function at those frequencies:
i(t) = I
1
sin(
1
t) + I
2
sin(
2
t) (3.3)
o(t) = I
1
A
1
sin(
1
t +
1
) + I
2
A
2
sin(
2
t +
2
) (3.4)
Phases different from zero in the input sinusoids have been omitted,
but their presence would not change the procedure.
From the previous example is immediate to recognise that the
extension to a number of harmonic components adds no other dif-
culties, making it possible to calculate the response from a wave
input signal built as explained in Section 2.4.
3.2.1 Statistical approach to rst order motion calculation
In offshore engineering problems, the input signal to a dynamic
system is often treated as a random signal, exploiting therefore the
statistical properties derived from time histories studies.
It is possible to derive a response spectrum for each degree of
freedom once the input signal spectrum and the RAOs are known.
The relation, when the RAO is considered as a linear lter, is from
the classical linear theory:
S
o
() = [RAO()]
2
S
i
() (3.5)
where S
o
and S
i
are the systems input and output spectra.
64 seakeeping
Beam Sea
Quartering Sea Following Sea
T (s)
T (s)
S
u
r
g
e
P
h
.
(
)
S
u
r
g
e
A
m
p
.
(
m
/
m
)
10 20 30
0.33
0.67
180
180
T (s)
T (s)
S
w
a
y
P
h
.
(
)
S
w
a
y
A
m
p
.
(
m
/
m
)
10 20 30
0.33
0.67
180
180
T (s)
T (s)
H
e
a
v
e
P
h
.
(
)
H
e
a
v
e
A
m
p
.
(
m
/
m
)
10 20 30
0.4
0.8
180
180
T (s)
T (s)
R
o
l
l
P
h
.
(
)
R
o
l
l
A
m
p
.
(
/
m
)
10 20 30
0.33
0.67
180
180
T (s)
T (s)
P
i
t
c
h
P
h
.
(
)
P
i
t
c
h
A
m
p
.
(
/
m
)
10 20 30
0.25
0.50
180
180
T (s)
T (s)
Y
a
w
P
h
.
(
)
Y
a
w
A
m
p
.
(
/
m
)
10 20 30
0.04
0.08
180
180
Figure 3.4: Example of RAO functions for a semisubmersible (Ultramarine,
Inc., 2008)
3.2 first order motion by means of raos 65
As represented in Figure 3.5, the RAO acts as a classical linear
lter, able to amplify the harmonic components near the resonance
peak, while suppressing harmonic components present in the input
signal. The single-peaked roll RAO is typical of ship-shaped vehi-
cles.
S
i
(
)
,
R
A
O
(
)
,
S
o
(
)
0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
JONSWAP
spectrum (m
2
s)
Roll RAO
(deg/m)
Roll response
spectrum (deg
2
s)
Figure 3.5: Roll response spectrum of a vessel subject to a sea state repre-
sented by a JONSWAP spectrum with H
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s and
= 3.3
Once the response spectrum has been obtained, the standard statis-
tic techniques can be applied to determine the extreme response
values, which are the most important data for design activities. One
important aspect is the distribution of maxima: it can be shown
(Barltrop and Adams, 1991) that if a random time history is repre-
sented by a narrow-banded, Gaussian distribution of instantaneous
values, the peaks will be distributed according to a Rayleigh dis-
tribution, such that all the statistical properties analysed for waves
extend to the systems response. Note that, being this theory based
on the linear wave theory, non-linear interactions between wave har-
monic components are neglected, leading to a slight over-estimate
of maxima, as a consequence of the real sea state distributions be-
66 seakeeping
ing not exactly Gaussian and Rayleigh. It is possible, under certain
circumstances, to apply adequate correction factors to take into ac-
count these effects not considered by the linear wave theory (Bhat-
tacharyya, 1978).
3.3 drift forces
These forces are as already explained much smaller than rst or-
der ones, but still important because the mean is different from zero,
making the oating body drift away under the action of waves. The
smaller order of magnitude implies difculties in experiments and
in calculation.
Sometimes in literature the drift forces are divided in two contri-
butions: mean force and slowly-varying forces. However, the physical
origin of the two is the same, and as such they can be treated as a
single force contribution.
When dealing with drift forces, one is interested in the effect
on the degrees of freedom that do not show hydrostatic stiffness,
namely surge, sway and yaw. If the pressure integration over the
wetted surface of the oating body is carried out with regard to
these degrees of freedom, it is possible to recognise the three con-
tributions from hydrostatic pressure, rst order pressure, second
order pressure. The development of the mathematical procedure is
detailed in Journe and Massie (2001), where it is possible to verify
that the second order term of two forces and the yaw moment are
proportional to the square of the wave height.
As an example, we focus on the surge degree of freedom, identi-
ed on the following equations by the subscript index
1
. The rst
and second order contributions are instead identied by the super-
script
(1)
and
(2)
, respectively. The second order surge force as a
result of the direct integration (Journe and Massie, 2001) can be
written as:
F
(2)
1
(t) =
_
wl
1
2
g
_
(1)
r
(t, l)
_
2
n
1
dl (3.6)
where n
1
is the 1-direction component of the unit vector normal to
the hull surface,
(1)
r
(t, l) is the rst order relative water elevation as
a function of time and of the coordinate over the water line l. This
last function is dened as the difference between the water elevation
3.3 drift forces 67
and the rst order vertical position of the hull at the water line.
When the rst order water elevation is expressed as (see Eq. 2.46)
(t)
(1)
=
N
i=1
(1)
a,i
cos (
i
t +
i
) (3.7)
then
(1)
r
(t, l) is calculated as:
(1)
r
(t, l) =
N
i=1
(1)
a,i

(1)
r,i
(l) cos (
i
t +
i
+
r,i
(l)) (3.8)
Substituting Eq. 3.8 in Eq. 3.6, the result is:
F
(2)
1
(t) =
N
i=1
N
j=1
(1)
a,i

(1)
a,j
P
ij
cos
__
j
_
t +
_
i

j
_
+
N
i=1
N
j=1
(1)
a,i

(1)
a,j
Q
ij
cos
__
j
_
t +
_
i

j
_
(3.9)
where all the higher frequency terms have been omitted (sum of
frequencies). In P
ij
and Q
ij
all the time independent terms are col-
lected, and these are the terms which characterise the vessel from
the second order forces point of view. In Journe and Massie (2001)
the analytical expression is developed, however these terms, for real
vessel shapes, are determined by numerical calculations by means
of software like e.g. MOSES (Ultramarine, Inc., 2008).
3.3.1 Newmans approximation
In 1974, Newman proposed an approximation which is still widely
used to calculate efciently the second order forces applied on a ves-
sel subject to the action of waves. The idea is to approximate P
ij
and
Q
ij
with P
ii
, P
jj
, Q
ii
and Q
jj
. This implies the following assumptions:
P
ij
= P
ji
=
1
2
_
P
ii
+ P
jj
_
(3.10)
Q
ij
= Q
ji
= 0 (3.11)
This is motivated by the fact that usually we are interested in the
terms where
i
is near
j
because when
i
j
is too large, we are
68 seakeeping
going to higher frequency terms, away from the range of interest for
mooring and dynamic positioning analyses.
A further approximation, proposed by Newman (1974), too, is the
following:
F
(2)
1
(t) = 2
_
N
i=1
(1)
a,i
(P
ii
)
1
2
cos (
i
t +
i
)
_
2
(3.12)
This allows for the calculation of N terms instead of N
2
terms, en-
suring faster program execution.
3.3.2 Simplied method for drift force calculation
Another method that allows for fast drift force evaluation was
presented by Hsu and Blenkarn (1970). The method was proposed
as an intuitive way of understanding the rules governing the phe-
nomenon of slow oscillations, and is schematically represented in
Figure 3.6.
Time
t
W
a
t
e
r
E
l
e
v
a
t
i
o
n
,
D
r
i
f
t
F
o
r
c
e
drift force
Figure 3.6: Hsu and Blenkarn (1970) simplied method for drift force calcu-
lation
3.3 drift forces 69
Each half-wave is identied between subsequent zero-crossings,
then the period of the single wave can be determined as the dou-
ble of the time distance between the two crossings, and the ampli-
tude is the maximum water elevation in the same time period. This
information is used to calculate one point of the slow drift force
time history, as the QTF for the found wave period, multiplied by
the square of the wave amplitude. The force is always pushing in
the waves direction, regardless of the half-wave being a crest or a
trough.
This method is very simple and provides immediately a rough
estimate that can be useful in simplied simulations.
3.3.3 Frequency domain analysis of drift forces
The slow drift force on a oating body can be conveniently writ-
ten in frequency domain, to allow for spectral calculations and pre-
liminary mooring and DP performance assessment. According to
Pinkster (1980) the spectral density of the drift force can be ex-
pressed by:
S
(2)
F
() = 8
_

0
S()S( + )
_
_
F
(2)
i
_
+

2
_
2
a
_
_
2
d (3.13)
where F
(2)
i
is the mean second order force for a wave with the given
circular frequency.
The drift force spectral density is represented in Figure 3.7 for dif-
ferent sea states. All the considered wave spectra have a peak period
T
p
= 8 s. It is visible that the peak of the drift force happens at zero
frequency (mean force), and the force value is negligible at wave
frequency, especially when the presence of rst order wave forces
is considered. These are in fact, as already pointed out, much more
intense, making the second order contribution at wave frequency
completely negligible.
The spectral behavior of the drift forces is of practical impor-
tance because it can be used for a preliminary estimation of DP
system performance. A rough yet relatively reliable estimate can
be deduced with a simple mass-spring-damper model, as shown in
Section 5.5.
70 seakeeping
D
r
i
f
t
F
o
r
c
e
S
p
e
c
t
r
a
l
D
e
n
s
i
t
y
(
k
N
s
2
)
S
(2)
F
()
0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 1.25 1.50 1.75 2.00
210
6
410
6
610
6
810
6
waves peak frequency
H
s
= 2.5 m
H
s
= 3.0 m
H
s
= 3.5 m
Figure 3.7: Drift force spectral densities for different sea states
3.4 software for ship dynamics modeling
In this section the calculation methods put together to model the
dynamics of a ship under the action of waves are presented. The
SIMULINK models are obviously closely related to the ones for the
generation of waves, described in Section 2.8. The following sections
describe separately the models developed for rst and second order
ship dynamics.
3.4.1 First order motion
A simple SIMULINK model able to calculate the rst order mo-
tion of a barge is shown in Figure 3.8. The Waves generator block
contains the scheme shown in Figure 2.23, which is the origin of
the wave time history in each of the models presented in this work.
The 1st order block takes the Wave out signal containing all the
harmonic components of the sea state, with their direction, ampli-
tude, phase, circular frequency and wave number, and calculates the
response for each of them, by means of the following equation:
WF,j
(t) =
N
i=1
a,i
A
j
(
i
,
i
) cos(k
i
x
i
t
i
+
j
(
i
,
i
)) (3.14)
3.4 software for ship dynamics modeling 71
In previous equation,
WF,j
(t) is the wave frequency motion of the
barge centre of gravity with regard to the j-th degree of freedom,
A
j
(
i
,
i
) and
j
(
i
,
i
) are the amplitude and phase of the re-
sponse operator with regard to the same degree of freedom for
i
circular frequency and
i
incoming direction.
Waves generator
Wave Out
Wave Direction
WaterElev
V_w NED
Scope1
Scope
LF motion
[0 0 0 0 0 0 ]
1st order
etaLF
Wave In
etaWF
nuWF
nuWFdot
Figure 3.8: SIMULINK model for rst order motion calculation
The scheme in Figure 3.9 is one of the sub-systems of the MSS
block Motion RAO, which has been modied into a new block named
Motion RAO (U=0) to take into account the fact that in our simula-
tions the ship travel speed is always negligible. This modication
simplies a bit the use of the block and the program input, without
any signicant loss of detail. Note that the 1st order block takes as
input signal also a 6-component constant array, to state that the ves-
sel has no low frequency motion. This input is used when the vessel
is also subject to forces causing slow or non-oscillatory motion that
can not be modelled by means of Response Amplitude Operators.
In this model, and everywhere this is possible, the Time Series
data structure, dened in MATLAB, is used, to have access to the
properties and methods specically designed for easy processing
and plotting of signals in time domain (The MathWorks, Inc., 2008a).
In Figure 3.10 the result of a short simulation for a tanker is shown,
for a quartering sea scenario.
3.4.2 Second order forces and motion
While for wave-frequency motion a direct derivation of motion
is performed thanks to the denition of RAOs, for second order
72 seakeeping
n
u
_
d
o
t

r
a
t
e
4
n
u
_
d
o
t

W
F
3
n
u

W
F
2
e
t
a
_
h

W
F
1
S
e
le
c
t
o
r
5
U I
d
x
1
1
Y
S
e
le
c
t
o
r
4
U I
d
x
1
1
Y
S
e
le
c
t
o
r
3
U I
d
x
1
1
Y
S
e
le
c
t
o
r
2
U I
d
x
1
1
Y
R
A
O

t
a
b
le
s
p
s
i
_
r
o
m
e
g
a
U
a
m
p
p
h
a
s
e
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
7
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
6
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
5
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
4
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
3
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
2
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
1
M
e
m
o
r
y
4
M
e
m
o
r
y
3
M
e
m
o
r
y
2
M
e
m
o
r
y
1
M
a
t
h
F
u
n
c
t
io
n
1
|
u
|
2
M
a
t
h
F
u
n
c
t
io
n
|
u
|
2
G
a
in
1
1 G
a
in
1
F
o
r

I
t
e
r
a
t
o
r
F
o
r
I
t
e
r
a
t
o
r
N
1

:

N
C
o
n
s
t
a
n
t
0

1
c
o
s
s
in
s
in
c
o
s
Z
e
t
a
_
a
5
P
h
a
s
e
_
t
o
t
4
O
m
e
g
a
3
P
s
i_
r
2
n
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

it
e
r
a
t
io
n
s
1
p
s
i
_
r
o
m
e
g
a
p
h
a
s
e
i=
1
:
N
z
e
t
a
_
a
F
i
g
u
r
e
3
.
9
:
S
u
b
-
s
y
s
t
e
m
o
f
t
h
e
M
S
S
M
o
t
i
o
n
R
A
O
b
l
o
c
k
,
m
o
d
i
e
d
f
o
r
z
e
r
o
s
p
e
e
d
Time (s)
t
W
a
t
e
r
E
l
e
v
a
t
i
o
n
(
m
)
(t)
25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200
1.0
1.0
2.0
Water Elevation
Time (s)
t
S
u
r
g
e
,
S
w
a
y
,
H
e
a
v
e
(
m
)
1,2,3
(t)
25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200
1.0
1.0
Surge
Sway
Heave
Time (s)
t
R
o
l
l
,
P
i
t
c
h
,
Y
a
w
(
d
e
g
)
4,5,6
(t)
25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200
1.0
1.0
Roll
Pitch
Yaw
Figure 3.10: Simulated rst order motion for a tanker, H
s
= 3.5 m, T
p
= 20 s,
= 3.3, quartering sea
74 seakeeping
dynamics the drift forces are rst calculated and then applied to a
model of the ship. This different approach is obviously because of
non-linearity, which doesnt allow the use of the classical denition
of transfer function.
The simplied Newman formulation is used in this model (see
Eq. 3.12), to speed up the simulation. Higher detail is most of the Simplied drift
force calculation
times not required for DP system simulation. The overall model is
now represented by the scheme in Figure 3.11, where the addition
of the 2nd order block is evident. This block contains a rst subsys-
tem (Figure 3.12) where data is prepared to be fed to the real force-
calculating block (Newman1974). The algorithm implemented by this
block is represented in Figure 3.13. As highlighted by the diagram,
the Q coefcients of the QTFs are not used by this simplied theory.
For the purpose of being consistent in the dimensions of the signal
sets exchanged by different blocks, also the force related to heave,
roll and pitch have been calculated and sent to the output port. Of
course this terms will be completely negligible with respect to the
rst order forces and the hydrostatic stiffness forces.
Waves generator
Wave Out
Wave Direction
WaterElev
V_w NED
Scope2
Scope1
Scope
LF motion
[0 0 0 0 0 0 ]
2nd order
eta LF
Wave In
Drift Force
1st order
etaLF
Wave In
etaWF
nuWF
nuWFdot
Figure 3.11: SIMULINK model for second order force calculation
In Figure 3.14 the results of a simulation with the model depicted Example
in Figure 3.11 are plotted. It is evident that the sway force is much
more signicant that the surge force, as it is related to a linear di-
mension which is in general an order of magnitude higher for a
ship-shaped hull. This consideration is important to understand the
problem of dynamic positioning and the efforts that are being spent
to gain performance on the control side.
Since in dynamic positioning studies we are mainly interested in
displacements from a dened set-point, the forces calculated with From force to
motion
the method shown above (or any other sufciently accurate) must
be applied to a ship model. With regard to low-frequency motion on
the water plane, the ship can be conveniently represented as a point
mass with three degrees of freedom, appropriately damped. The
only complication is due to the hydrodynamics involved in barge
motion: the mass to account for is not barely the ship mass, with all
its equipment and cargo, but also the added hydrodynamic mass.
This additional mass can be intuitively viewed as the mass of the
water which follows the ship motion, and participates to the over-
all vessel inertia. This contribution is obviously not the same for
each degree of freedom, and the same holds for the damping, which
is also an hydrodynamic effect caused by drag forces. Then, 3-dof
mass and damping matrices are needed to build a simple but reli-
able ship model for low-frequency dynamics. The added mass and
hydrodynamic damping are an ancillary result from the RAO cal-
culation programs, as they are important terms for wave-frequency
dynamics. The values calculated by potential theory for the lowest
frequency of interest can be used, as well as the asymptotic values.
The following system of three equations is here represented as a Low-frequency
ship model
single vectorial equation:
M + B = F
(2)
(3.15)
where the M mass matrix includes both the vessel mass and the
hydrodynamic added mass. The linear damping matrix B has been
used here, despite the fact that the damping is for vessels provided
by drag forces, which are known to depend on the uid velocity
squared. The reason for that is twofold: rst, to obtain a linear
model with the resulting simplication, second, potential theory is
inherently linear, such that the damping matrices produced by com-
mon seakeeping software packages refer to a linear model too. The
velocity vector is the low-frequency motion, therefore determined
before the rst order motion obtained by RAOs is added.
76 seakeeping
D
r
i
f
t

F
o
r
c
e
1
W
i
d
t
h
0
S
c
o
p
e
P
r
o
d
u
c
t
1
P
o
s
i
t
i
o
n

p
h
a
s
e
p
s
i

w
a
v
e
w
a
v
e
n
u
m
e
t
a

L
F
p
o
s

p
h
a
s
e
N
e
w
m
a
n
1
9
7
4
f
o
r

{

.
.
.

}
N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

i
t
e
r
a
t
i
o
n
s
W
a
v
e

A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e
s
T
o
t

C
o
s

A
r
g
O
m
e
g
a
P
s
i
e
t
a

L
F
D
r
i
f
t

F
o
r
c
e
C
l
o
c
k
W
a
v
e

I
n
2
e
t
a

L
F
1
<
P
h
a
s
e
>
<
Z
e
t
a
_
a
>
t
e
s
t
1
<
O
m
e
g
a
>
<
O
m
e
g
a
>
<
W
a
v
e
n
u
m
>
<
P
s
i
>
F
i
g
u
r
e
3
.
1
2
:
S
I
M
U
L
I
N
K
m
o
d
e
l
f
o
r
s
e
c
o
n
d
o
r
d
e
r
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78 seakeeping
Time (s)
t
W
a
t
e
r
E
l
e
v
a
t
i
o
n
(
m
)
(t)
25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200
1.0
1.0
2.0
Water Elevation
Time (s)
t
D
r
i
f
t
f
o
r
c
e
(
k
N
)
F
(2)
1,2
(t)
25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200
3 10
4
6 10
4
Surge
Sway
Time (s)
t
D
r
i
f
t
M
o
m
e
n
t
(
k
N
m
)
F
(2)
6
(t)
25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200
4 10
4
8 10
4
Yaw
Figure 3.14: Simulated second order forces for the case of a tanker, H
s
=
3.5 m, T
p
= 10 s, = 3.3, beam sea
Part II
FROM MOORI NGS TO DYNAMI C
POS I TI ONI NG
4
MOORI NGS
Contents
4.1 Mooring-based pipelaying 81
4.2 Static catenary solution 82
4.2.1 Mooring stiffness 84
4.3 Spread mooring systems 86
The present chapter deals with the station keeping alternative to
DP, making use of mooring lines. First the application of moorings
to pipelaying is discussed, with the limitations and problems con-
nected to the complexity of the system and the need for move-up
along the pipe route. Then the analytical model of catenary cable
is presented. Some general information on the design of mooring
systems composed by several lines is presented in the last part of
this chapter.
4.1 mooring-based pipelaying
Different types of moorings are used in offshore industry for dif-
ferent applications, with a variety of materials and principles of
operation. The following classication (Journe and Massie, 2001)
includes the most common: Tupes of
moorings
taut lines The lines are in general made of synthetic bres, with
a very light submerged weight. The restraining action is based
on the stretching of the lines themselves.
tension legs This scheme is used in particular in tension leg plat-
form, whose buoyancy exceeds the submerged weight, such
that the static equilibrium position is maintained by the verti-
cal downward force applied by the mooring. When the oat-
ing object is displaced horizontally, the mooring lines move
away from vertical direction and a restoring action is put in
place.
catenary lines The weight of the lines, made of steel chains
or rope, or a combination of both, is signicantly inuencing
81
82 moorings
the shape assumed by the suspended length. The stiffness the
moored object is subject to is mainly associated with lifting
and lowering of the lines. A signicant length of mooring line
is usually lying on the seabed, such that little vertical resis-
tance is required by the anchors attached at the end.
Pipelaying assisted by a mooring system is an operation charac- Practical
concerns
terised by a number of practical concerns. The positioning require-
ments are constrained by the pipe stress/strain state. An additional
problem specic for pipelaying is the move-up: the barge must move
along the route as the pipe is being laid. The ability to follow the
design corridor within the given tolerances must be ensured. This
implies the need for anchors that must be moved by assisting barges
to make the vessel follow the route. The anchors employed for this
task are therefore characterised by small vertical resistance, and the
horizontal holding capacity is supplied also by a signicant length
of mooring line lying on the seabed.
Several lines attached fore and aft, port and starboard, and spread
around the hull. The area interested by the presence of the lines, sus-
pended or lying on the seabed, is extending over a circle that easily
exceeds a km in radius. The extension of the area clearly rises prac-
tical problems, particularly in case of the presence of other devices
on the seabed or structures like platforms, or unexploded weapons.
4.2 static catenary solution
The analytical static solution of the catenary mooring line is here
derived to analyse the working principle of the mooring systems
adopted in pipelaying. The nomenclature for the mathematical ex-
pressions is in Figures 4.1 and 4.2a.
Suppose that the shape of a given length L, linear weight w
c
of
line suspended between point A and B shall be determined. The
slope u
c
is:
u
c
=
dz
dx
(4.1)
The innitesimal length of line ds corresponding to dx and dz is:
ds =
_
dx
2
+ dz
2
=
_
1 + u
2
c
dx (4.2)
4.2 static catenary solution 83
Said c the ratio between the horizontal force component H
B
and
the linear weight, the variation of slope is determined by (see Fig-
ure 4.2b):
du
c
= d
_
dz
dx
_
=
w
c
ds
H
B
=
ds
c
(4.3)
Recalling Eq. 4.2:
du
c
=
_
1 + u
2
c
c
dx (4.4)
Rearranging:
dx = c
du
c
_
1 + u
2
c
(4.5)
The previous equation can be integrated:
_
dx = c
_
du
c
_
1 + u
2
c
(4.6)
x = c ln
_
u
c
+
_
1 + u
2
c
_
+ C
1
=
c
sinh u
c
+ C
1
(4.7)
u
c
= sinh
_
x
c
C
1
_
(4.8)
The condition that horizontal slope holds for x = 0 is imposed, then
C
1
= 0 and
u
c
= sinh
_
x
c
_
(4.9)
The deected shape is determined by another integral:
dz = sinh
_
x
c
_
dx (4.10)
_
dz =
_
sinh
_
x
c
_
dx (4.11)
z = c cosh
_
x
c
_
+ C
2
(4.12)
84 moorings
Choosing C
2
= 0, z = c holds for x = 0, as depicted in Figure 4.1.
The curvilinear abscissa s as a function of the horizontal coordinate
x is calculated:
s =
_
x
0
_
1 + u
2
c
dx =
_
x
0
_
1 +sinh
2
_
x
c
_
dx = c sinh
_
x
c
_
(4.13)
Combining Eqs. 4.12 and 4.13 the following is obtained:
z
2
s
2
= c
2
(4.14)
Previous equation makes available the relation to obtain by numer-
ical solution the value of c given the length L of the line and the
relative coordinates of the points A and B.
_
L
2
+ h
2
= c
2 sinh
_
k
2c
_
(4.15)
The coordinates of the point A with respect to the x-z frame are:
x
A
= c ln
_
L + h
2(L h)
_
k
2
(4.16)
z
A
= c cosh
_
x
A
c
_
(4.17)
The forces acting on the section of the line are:
H = cw
c
(4.18)
V = sw
c
(4.19)
T = zw
c
(4.20)
4.2.1 Mooring stiffness
The equations derived in previous section completely describe the
geometric conguration assumed and the forces exerted by the line
under static conditions. The stiffness of the mooring with respect
to horizontal displacement of the moored object is an important
4.2 static catenary solution 85
x
z
B
A
T
B
H
B
V
B
dx
dz
ds
c
h
k
Figure 4.1: Catenary line reference scheme for analytical model

T + dT
T
w
c
ds
(a)
T + dT
T
w
c
ds
(b)
Figure 4.2: Equilibrium of an innitesimal length of catenary mooring line
86 moorings
concern, because it is directly related to the excursions experienced
under variable force conditions (Faltinsen, 1993).
An example is used to show the effects of the main geometri-
cal parameters on the resulting stiffness. A linear weight of w
c
=
981 Nm
1
(100 kgm
1
) is assumed for a mooring line that is asked
to exert a horizontal pull H = 300 kN in 30 m water depth. The an-
chor is assumed to be able to withstand only horizontal pull, such
that a length of line lying on the seabed must be ensured.
The stiffness of the mooring is calculated by determining via an- Calculation
method
alytical formulae the increase or decrease in projected length of
the suspended cable as a result of horizontal pull variation. In the
present example, the horizontal force has been increased to 350 kN
and decreased to 250 kN, with the projected span length evidenced
in Figure 4.3. The stiffness is determined as ratio between the hori-
zontal force variation and projected span length:
K
m
=
H
k
= 4.38 kNm
1
(4.21)
The maximum axial force is T = 329.43 kN. In shallow water,
the force is applied to the moored object almost horizontally, with
no signicant tension increase due to suspended span weight. As
the depth increases, the vertical component of the sectional force at
the surface grows rapidly, see Table 4.1, up to critical values. The
stiffness trend is opposite: the decrease is signicant in deep water.
seabed
k = 134.4 m
k = 145.3 m k = 122.5 m
30 m
3
0
m
Figure 4.3: Example mooring line conguration
4.3 spread mooring systems
To guarantee station keeping and correct heading dened by the
pipeline route, at least three mooring lines acting along intersecting
4.3 spread mooring systems 87
Table 4.1: Axial cable tension at upper end as a function of water depth, for
a horizontal pull of 300 kN
Depth (m) Axial force T (kN) Stiffness (kN/m)
30 329.43 4.38
50 349.05 3.38
100 398.10 2.36
200 496.20 1.64
300 594.30 1.33
directions must be provided. In terms of analysis, the tools achieved
for a single line can easily be extended to systems of multiple moor-
ings.
x
y
(x
i
, y
i
)
i
Figure 4.4: Mooring system
With reference to nomenclature as indicated in Figure 4.4, the
following mean forces are balanced by the mooring system:
F
(M)
1
=
n
i=1
Hcos
i
(4.22)
F
(M)
2
=
n
i=1
Hsin
i
(4.23)
F
(M)
6
=
n
i=1
H (x
i
sin
i
y
i
cos
i
) (4.24)
88 moorings
where n is the number of lines connected.
The stiffness matrix too is determined by superposition of the
effects of the single moorings:
C
(M)
11
=
n
i=1
k
i
cos
2
i
(4.25)
C
(M)
22
=
n
i=1
k
i
sin
2
i
(4.26)
C
(M)
66
=
n
i=1
k
i
(x
i
sin
i
y
i
cos
i
)
2
(4.27)
C
(M)
26
= C
(M)
62
=
n
i=1
k
i
(x
i
sin
i
y
i
cos
i
) sin
i
(4.28)
The coupled terms C
(M)
16
= C
(M)
61
and C
(M)
12
= C
(M)
21
are equal to
zero in the usual case of symmetry about the longitudinal plane
(Faltinsen, 1993).
In design of mooring for operation, the many degrees of freedom
(number of lines, tension, anchor positions, length of lines) must be
set for the specic scenario, in terms of weather conditions, pipe lay
tension, water depth. The problem is quite complex and subject con-
straints that may be imposed by the seabed conguration or by the
presence of structures or devices like platforms, existing submarine
pipelines or cables, or other dangerous features (e.g. unexploded
weapons). Further, the move-up procedure must be planned to opti-
mise productivity, one of the most critical competition factors.
The complexity of the problem in design and most importantly
in operation is one of the reasons for which dynamic positioning is
considered more desirable. Further, the gradual loss of performance
in increasingly deep waters makes impossible to lay the pipelines
for the next generation of strategic projects.
5
DP BAS I CS
Contents
5.1 DP architecture 89
5.2 Observer 91
5.2.1 Kalman lter in dynamic positioning 91
5.3 Controller 95
5.4 Thrust allocation logic 99
5.4.1 Pseudo-inverse algorithm, xed-azimuths 102
5.4.2 Nonlinear programming 105
5.4.3 Simulation 106
5.5 Simplied performance assessment 110
5.5.1 Filtering delay 113
5.6 Acceleration feedback 116
This chapter regards the standard architecture of a Dynamic Po-
sitioning System, as it is currently applied in pipelayers and many
other vessels. The general scheme will be presented, then an insight
on each component will be given to nd out critical aspects and
motivate the development of the approach proposed in this work.
5.1 dp architecture
A DP installed on a pipe-lay vessel operates in a way to control
the effects of the actions that the environment exerts on the vessel it-
self, notably the offset from a setpoint suitable for operation. Laying
operations are performed in increasingly severe conditions, and the
DP system is asked to counteract effects of various environmental
forces acting on the pipe-lay vessel and to control the pipe tension
as well. This ensures that the pipe is kept in a conguration not
exceeding allowable stress/strain conditions.
Dynamic positioning only deals with three of the six degrees of
freedom of a oating body, i.e. surge, sway and yaw, which dene
the vessel pose
1
on the water plane.
1 The term pose, inherited from robotics, denes the set of coordinates that completely
dene the placement of a body. For a rigid body lying on a plane, this set is composed
of two translational and one rotational coordinates.
89
90 dp basics
In some applications the DP task is simplied by the fact that
the vessel in operation can be conveniently headed towards the di-
rection of impacting sea state, thus minimizing the forces deriving
from the interaction with the hull. On the contrary, for S-pipelay
activity, the control of the heading is very important to ensure pipe
integrity. The control of pipe-lay setpoint and heading is performed
by a suitable conguration of azimuthal, tunnel, longitudinal pro-
pellers, which counteract environmental loads from the action of
waves, current, wind, and by the pipe being laid.
The control action is based on ship pose as measured by a series
of sensors, often redundant to minimise effects from measurement
noise. The logical entities that constitute the system are depicted in
Figure 5.1 (Bruschi and Gaggiotti, 2008).
Ship
Environmental
loads
Observer
+
Measurement
noise
Controller
Set-point
Thrust Allocation Logic
state
measured
heading/-
position
predicted state
force/moment
to be applied
to the ship
thrust/angle com-
mand to each
thruster
Figure 5.1: DP system overview
The ship is subject to environmental loads and action applied by
thrusters counteracts second order forces. Ship motions are com-
posed by rst and second order components, giving a time his-
tory record that evidences wave-frequency motion superimposed to
slowly-varying motion (see Figure 3.2). As the thrusters are asked to
react only to slow displacements, the DP system needs some means
for separating the two contributions, thus a state observer is em-
ployed. This separation is reected in mathematical models used
for DP studies and design (see Section 5.2). The observer makes use
of Kalman ltering techniques to provide the best estimate of po-
sition and velocity. Once the component of ship motion useful for
5.2 observer 91
control purposes has been extracted, the error with respect to a de-
ned setpoint is passed to the controller, which decides the system
of forces to be applied by the thrusters (Section 5.3). The overall
force/moment that the controller has decided to apply to keep the
ship in position must then be split among the available thrusters
(Thrust Allocation, Section 5.4). Then the control action is applied
to the ship and fed to the observer for an effective state estimation.
5.2 observer
As anticipated, the purpose of the observer is to lter out any
noise and wave-frequency motion from the position and velocity
signals acquired by the sensors the vessel is equipped with. Nowa-
days, the de facto standard is the Kalman lter technology (Kalman,
1960), since the rst introduction by Balchen et al. (1976).
5.2.1 Kalman lter in dynamic positioning
The Kalman lter is a recursive estimator, because the current esti-
mated state depends only on the previous estimate and the current
measurement. Further, the Kalman lter is model-based, because it
relies on a model of the system to estimate the state of the real sys-
tem.
Vessel model for the Kalman lter
The vessel is conveniently modelled in state-space notation, ac-
counting for wave-frequency and low-frequency separation. The state
2
is dened as follows:
x =
_
_
(5.1)
where
w
=
_
x
w
y
w

w
T
is the wave-frequency position vec-
tor,
p
=
_
x
p
y
p

p
T
is the low-frequency position vector, and
=
_
u v r

T
is the low-frequency velocity vector.
2 The state of a system is dened as the smallest set of variables required to describe
the systems dynamic behavior, or the set of variables that at some initial time t
0
,
together with the input variables completely determine the systems behavior for
t > t
0
(Burns, 2001).
92 dp basics
A state-space representation can then be obtained writing the
equations for two models describing the vessel. For the wave-frequency Wave-frequency
model
behavior, we can use the following formulation:
=
w
(5.2)

w
+2
p
w
+
2
p
= K
w
w (5.3)
The and
p
parameters in previous expression are the ones corre-
sponding to the linear approximation of the wave spectrum, while
K
w
is a scaling factor for the driving white noise w (see Section 2.7).
For the low-frequency behavior, we can assume that the ship is a Low-frequency
model
mass-damper system, described by the equations:

p
= (5.4)
M + B = (5.5)
with M the vessel mass matrix (included hydrodynamic added mass),
B the damping matrix, and =
_

x

y

T
the thrust vector.
The M and B matrices depend on the hydrodynamic properties of
the vessel, and can be determined with the same techniques used
to obtain the RAOs. While this matrices are frequency-dependent,
being this part of the model specic for low-frequency dynamics,
the values obtained for a sufciently long period can be assumed.
Note that the vessel model is an highly simplied vision of the
real system. All the effects not modelled fall in the noise denition, Kalman lter
modications
and therefore a properly working Kalman lter is able to account
for them. In general, the Kalman lter is only able to deal with
linear models (note for example that the damping term has been as-
sumed to be linear while it is well known that it is not), but suitable
modications are available. For example the extended Kalman lter is
able to overcome this limitation by linearising the model around the
current system state, while the unscented Kalman lter can give even
better results when the system is highly non-linear.
It can be seen that the model here formulated is exactly the same
as the one used in the SIMULINK model described in Section 3.4.2.
In fact, if the Kalman lter is instructed exactly with the mass and
damping matrices used in the model, the simulation results can be
5.2 observer 93
somewhat optimistic, due to the perfect correspondence between
the two models, which can never be achieved in real systems. This
problem can be dealt with instructing deliberately the Kalman lter
with slightly wrong vessel parameters. This situation is much more
likely to happen in operation, since while the observer is instructed
only one time, the vessel characteristics change repeatedly during
its life: for example different loading conditions, presence of the
cargo, operating loads, can impact on the hydrodynamic properties.
In practice the danger to over-estimate the observer performance is
quite low, since the most important disturbance comes from rst or-
der motion and measurement noise, rather than from un-modelled
behavior.
The two models together are represented by the following couple Complete system
model
of equations:
x = Ax + D + Ew (5.6)
y = Hx +u (5.7)
The Eq. 5.7 is the measurement equation in which the measurement
noise u is introduced. The following matrices were used in previous
equations:
A =
_
_
0 I 0 0
2
p
I 2
0
I 0 0
0 0 0 I
0 0 0 M
1
B
_
_
(5.8)
D =
_
_
0
0
0
M
1
_
_
(5.9)
E =
_
_
0 0 0
K
w
0 0
0 0 0
0 I 0
_
_
(5.10)
H =
_
0 I I 0

(5.11)
94 dp basics
In the previous equations, the matrices 0 and I indicate 3-by-3 null
and identity matrices, respectively.
When the system model is discretised in time, the model formu-
lation becomes as follows:
x
k
= A
k
x
k1
+ D
k
k
+ E
k
w
k
(5.12)
y
k
= H
k
x
k
+u
k
(5.13)
Algorithm
As stated, the Kalman lter is recursive. In practice that does
mean that no history record is needed, but only the previous es-
timated state and the current measurement. Using the notation x
n|m
to indicate the state estimated at time step m for the system at time
step n, the phases of the lter algorithm are presented. Being this
lter recursive, n m = 1. Another important variable is the er-
ror covariance matrix P
n|m
, which is a measure of how accurate the
state estimation is, compared with the measurement-corrected state
estimate. The process noise is assumed to have Q
n
covariance, given
that is distributed according to a zero-mean Gaussian distribution.
Similarly, the measurement noise is normally distributed with R
n
covariance.
In the following sections, as the system characteristic matrices are
assumed to be time-invariant, the index is dropped.
The lter works essentially in two distinct phases named hereafter Kalman lter
phases
predict and update.
predict In this step, the model is used to project the system state
forward in time (from time step k 1 to time step k):
x
k|k1
= A x
k1|k1
+ D
k1
+ Ew
k1
(5.14)
Also the estimate covariance is projected ahead of one time
step:
P
k|k1
= AP
k1|k1
A
T
+ Q
k1
(5.15)
update Once a new (noisy) measurement is available, the esti-
mated state is updated according to that. First, an innovation
is calculated:
y
k
= y
k
H x
k|k1
(5.16)
5.3 controller 95
The covariance of the innovation is determined by:
S
k
= HP
k|k1
H
T
+ R (5.17)
Then the optimal Kalman gain is calculated. It is a parameter
which decides the weight corresponding to a measure of how
much the measurement is trusted. It is decided at each itera-
tion on the basis of the steps described.
K
k
= P
k|k1
H
T
S
1
k
(5.18)
Now the state estimate and estimate covariance can be up-
dated, including the information from the newly-acquired mea-
surement:
x
k|k
= x
k|k1
+K
k
y
k
(5.19)
P
k|k
= (I K
k
H) P
k|k1
(5.20)
Transfer function
It can be shown (Fossen, 2002) that a wave lter based on a steady-
state Kalman lter (the gains are constant) has a transfer function
similar to the one plotted in Figure 5.2. Note that the notch in the
middle is tuned to correspond to the wave peak frequency, that
must be suppressed. High-frequency terms are also faded to leave
out measurement noise. The transfer function looks similar to a com-
bination of a notch lter and a low-pass lter. Indeed, before the
Kalman lter-based observers became popular, the combinations of
the two named lters was employed. In 1978, Grimble wrote a pa-
per to underline the similarity, and to encourage engineers to trust
the new observers featuring Kalman lters.
5.3 controller
The kind of controllers used in general dynamic positioning ap-
plications is a very simple and standard one: most of the times the
assumption of having a PID controller is right.
The general equation includes three terms proportional to the po-
sition error
e
pos
=
p
p,re f
(5.21)
96 dp basics
Circular frequency (rad/s)
M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e
(
d
B
)
|h(s)|
10
1
1
10
1
10
0
10
Circular frequency (rad/s)
P
h
a
s
e
(
)
h(s)
10
1
1
10
1
90
45
45
Figure 5.2: Steady-state Kalman lter example of transfer function, input is
total motion and output is second order motion
5.3 controller 97
and velocity error
e
vel
=
re f
(5.22)
Note that since the thrusters must be employed only to react to
the low-frequency motion,
p
and are the only components of
the system state to be taken into account when computing errors
that must be counteracted. In case station keeping is required, the
velocity error e
vel
is equal to the low-frequency velocity .
The control action is expressed by the thrust vector containing Control law
the three components of the generalized force required to be put in
place by the actuators. The following expression claries the control
law:
= M
_
K
P
e
pos
+K
I
_
t
0
e
pos
d +K
D
_
(5.23)
It is easy to recognise that the K
P
represents a stiffness for the Stiffness and
damping
system, while K
D
is associated with a damping. As such, they can
be easily linked to the desired resonant period and fraction of critical
damping for each degree of freedom.
K
P
=
_
_
2
1
0 0
0
2
2
0
0 0
2
6
_
_
(5.24)
K
D
= 2
_
_
1
0 0
0
2
2
0
0 0
6
6
_
_
(5.25)
The resonant circular frequency for i-th degree of freedom are in-
dicated by
i
= 2/T
i
, while
i
is the fraction of critical damping
relative to the i-th degree of freedom. The integral term weighted
by K
I
ensures zero error for constant system input and takes care
of all the constant or slowly varying disturbances.
An interesting enhancement of the described control law is the Wind
feed-forward
wind feed-forward which is a quite standard way of managing the
drag forces developing at the portion of the ship exposed to wind.
Since the wind speed is quite efciently measured by anemometers
(usually more than one mounted on a craft), and a good approxima-
tion for the aerodynamic coefcients is achievable by model tests,
the applied force is easily calculated:
F
(w)
i
() =
1
2
A
i
C
D,i
()v
2
w
for i = 1, 2, 6 (5.26)
98 dp basics
Since the anemometers catch also very rapid variations of the wind
speed (wind gusts) the wind speed signal is properly low-pass l-
tered before force computation, with a time constant of, say, 50 s.
The force is then added directly to the vector. In Figure 5.3 a
wind time history corresponding to a 12 ms
1
mean speed is plot-
ted (Harris spectrum, see Section 2.9), being the smooth curve the
ltered counterpart (50 s time constant) of the gusty one.
Time (s)
t
W
i
n
d
S
p
e
e
d
(
m
/
s
)
v
w
(t)
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Raw wind speed
Filtered wind speed
Figure 5.3: Wind speed time history, raw and ltered with 50 s time con-
stant low-pass lter
The advantage in doing so is evident: the propulsion system re-
acts to the perturbing action before a displacement from set point is
measured. The wind perturbation is therefore compensated in open-
loop, being the system stability ensured by the closed-loop control
action. The forces from wind are usually quite small compared to
the ones from waves, such that errors in wind measurement and in
force calculation are compensated.
5.4 thrust allocation logic 99
The strategy used for wind force counteraction and its wide-spread Control logic
enhancements
and successful application suggest to use the same logic to counter-
act actions from current and, most importantly, from waves. The
idea of a wave feed-forward has in fact been proposed multiple times
in literature, with different strategies, even with encouraging results,
but did not break through commercial applications up to now, see
e.g. (Pinkster, 1978). The proposal of an innovative strategy for wave
feed-forward is the main contribution of this work, and will be ex-
posed in Chapter 7.
Another interesting enhancement of the basic control strategy is
the acceleration feedback, which is still a promising research topic
based on inertial measurements, described in Section 5.6.
The move-up is generally performed moving the setpoint along
the desired route. A trapezoidal velocity prole is adopted for mo-
tion law generation.
5.4 thrust allocation logic
The thrust allocation problem must be solved once the overall
generalized force vector to be applied to guarantee station keep-
ing has been determined by the controller. The vector has a size
of three, with the elements corresponding to surge force, sway force
and yaw moment required to be put in place. In general, the num-
ber of controlled actuators (propellers) parameters is such that the
problem is under-constrained.
In fact, consider the thruster types commonly adopted in pipelay- Thruster types
ers are the following:
longitudinal thrusters These thrusters are able to provide a
thrust force along the surge direction. Because of the relatively
short beam dimension of ship shaped hulls, the yaw moment
that longitudinal thrusters can provide is limited. A substan-
tial quote of the total power is dedicated to these thrusters, as
they are used for navigation rather than during station keep-
ing.
tunnel thrusters Sway-direction force is provided by these
thrusters, whose name is due to the fact that they are gener-
ally enclosed in a circular transversal tunnel made through the
hull. The thrust is in general limited because of the small size
due to their location inside the hull, but they can give a sig-
nicant contribution to guarantee that the correct heading is
100 dp basics
maintained, thanks to the long moment arm available. These
thrusters are indeed often used to improve manoeuvrability,
also for vessels not operating in DP.
azimuthal thrusters As the name suggests, thrusters of this
kind have an additional degree of freedom: the propeller is
able to rotate around a vertical axis, such that the thrust can be
directed in any direction lying on the horizontal plane. They
can be positioned anywhere in the vessel, but to maintain de-
cent efciency they need to extend away form the hull surface,
to ensure that the effect of the wall is not signicant. In very
shallow waters this can be a limitation. These thrusters are
heavily used in dynamic positioning applications thanks to
their intrinsic exibility.
Some particular devices can be used to gain partial directional con- Control surfaces
trol on mono-directional thrusters. It is common to use rudders po-
sitioned downstream the main propellers and exploit the lift force
to obtain lateral thrust. There is obviously a drawback due to the
fact that also drag occurs, therefore impacting on the efciency. See
for example the typical curves for the drag and lift coefcients of a
rudder, represented in Figure 5.4 (Bertram, 2000; Tupper and Raw-
son, 2001). At an angle of about 35 the lift coefcient falls suddenly
due to the ow separation. At the same angle of attack the drag
coefcient rises signicantly, therefore the available rudder angle is
often limited under this threshold.
The controlled parameter in thrusters is in general the rotational Thrust vector
velocity of the propeller. Very often it is assumed that the relation
with the obtained thrust is linear:
F
t
= K
t
f
t
(5.27)
but in other cases a quadratic relation is more exact:
F
t
= K
t
f
t
| f
t
| (5.28)
In previous equations f
t
is the propeller rotational velocity, often
expressed as a fraction of the maximum rpm for the thruster, K
t
is a
constant of proportionality for that particular thruster. The subscript
identies the thruster among the set of available ones for the vehicle.
Attack angle (deg)
D
r
a
g
a
n
d
L
i
f
t
C
o
e
f
c
i
e
n
t
s
C
D
, C
L
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
C
D
()
C
L
()
Figure 5.4: Drag and lift coefcients as a function of the angle of attack for
a typical rudder
A single thruster exerts on the vessel an action which can be de-
scribed by a generalized force vector
t
:
t
=
_
_
F
t,x
F
t,y
r F
t
_
_
=
_
_
F
t,x
F
t,y
r
x
F
t,y
r
y
F
t,x
_
_
(5.29)
where r =
_
r
x
r
y
0

T
is the vector pointing from the refer-
ence point (usually the ship COG) to the thruster, where the F
t
=
_
F
t,x
F
t,y
0

T
force is applied. Several thrusters are acting on
dynamically positioned vessel, such that the overall thrust vector is
determined summing up all of the contributions:
=
N
t
t=1
t
(5.30)
A convenient representation of the overall force/moment vector
can be written in matrix notation:
= T()Kf
(5.31)
where K and f
are the matrix and vector, respectively, containing

all the relevant K
t
and f
t
. In particular, K = diag K
1
, K
2
, . . . , K
N
t
.
102 dp basics
From now on, the term Kf
will be reduced to a thrust vector f ,

such that Eq. 5.31 is rewritten:
= T() f (5.32)
In thrust allocation, the problem is reversed, as is known and The thrust
allocation
problem
the proper set of f
t
for each thruster must be determined. Among
the available solutions, and efcient thrust allocation algorithm
should choose one which is optimum with respect to some dened
criteria. The most common algorithm is based on the pseudo-inverse
matrix, while more sophisticated methods rely on quadratic program-
ming. The most simple solution is instead to aggregate thrusters
into groups (equivalent thrusters), such that the degrees of freedom
are reduced and the problem has a unique solution.
5.4.1 Pseudo-inverse algorithm, xed-azimuths
The following algorithm solves the thrust allocation problem for
xed-azimuth thrusters, condition that implies
=
0
= constant (5.33)
T() = T(
0
) = constant (5.34)
A weight matrix W can be used to express the condition that is
preferable to use some actuators with respect to some others, e.g.
control surfaces are less expensive in terms of power than azimuthal
thrusters that must be rotated.
Under the conditions expressed by Eqs. 5.33 and 5.34 the cost
function C to be minimised is:
C = min
f
f
T
W f subject to T f = 0 (5.35)
with W positive denite.
The solution of the optimization problem formulated in Eq. 5.35
can be obtained by the Lagrange multipliers method (Fossen, 1994).
Dene the Lagrangian function as:
L( f , ) = f
T
W f +
T
( T f ) (5.36)
where R
N
t
is a vector of Lagrange multipliers. Differentiating
Eq. 5.36:
L
f
= 2W f T
T
(5.37)
f =
1
2
W
1
T
T
(5.38)
Then, if we assume that TW
1
T
T
is not singular, it is possible to
express the Lagrange multipliers as follows:
= T f =
1
2
TW
1
T
T
(5.39)
= 2
_
TW
1
T
T
_
1
(5.40)
Substituting Eq. 5.40 into Eq. 5.38 yields:
f = W
1
T
T
_
TW
1
T
T
_
1
= T
(5.41)
The matrix T
= W
1
T
T
(TW
1
T
T
)
1
is the generalized inverse, also
called pseudo-inverse that in the particular case where W = I reduces
to the Moore-Penrose pseudo-inverse (Penrose and Todd, 1955).
The algorithm does not guarantee that it is possible for the thrusters
to put in place the actions required: if the required force for a
thruster exceeds the available one, it will be saturated afterwards.
This means that the algorithm is not able to recognise situations
where one or more thrusters are not putting in place the force they
have been asked for, and to transfer some load to other thrusters
that could be not used at their full power e.g. because of their higher
weight factor.
Another limitation is due to the fact that thrusters dynamics is
not taken into account. The load variation for unit time is of course
limited, also to minimise wear on the machinery, and this limitation
is not part of the algorithm, but a lter that acts downstream.
Pseudo-inverse algorithm extended
The limitation on which the algorithm proposed in previous Sec-
tion 5.4.1 is founded is for sure impacting too much on the per-
formance of the dynamically positioned vessel, but offers the pos-
sibility to be extended to make it applicable with good results in
practice.
104 dp basics
The extension is based on the fact that an azimuthal thruster, or Extended thrust
any other kind of steerable thruster can be viewed as the composi-
tion of two thrusters, one acting longitudinally, and the other acting
transversally. An extended thrust vector f
e
and an extended thrust ma-
trix T
e
can be used to write the problem is a similar manner as
before.
As an example of extended thrust vector, consider the following,
relative to a vessel with a longitudinal thruster, an azimuthal one,
and a tunnel one:
f
e
=
_
_
f
1
f
2,x
f
2,y
f
3
_
_
(5.42)
The difference between the directions in which the thrusters operate
is visible when one looks at the extended thrust matrix:
T
e
=
_
_
1 1 0 0
0 0 1 1
r
1,y
r
2,y
r
2,x
r
3,x
_
_
(5.43)
The solution of the problem is carried out exactly as stated by
Eq. 5.41, such that the components of the f
e
are easily determined.
One more passage is needed to obtain the real vector f that rep-
resents the command input, together with the vector: the thrust
from steerable propellers that was split articially along the two di-
rections must be reassembled taking into account the real capability
of the thrusters. With reference to the example above, f and (not a
vector because this imaginary craft has only one azimuthal thruster)
are obtained as:
f =
_
_
f
1
_
f
2
2,x
+ f
2
2,y
f
3
_
_
(5.44)
= arctan
f
2,y
f
2,x
(5.45)
In a calculation program, as needs to be implemented on board, it is
advisable to use the atan2 function which is present in all the most
popular programming languages, and which is able to discern the
right direction taking into account the x and y components instead
of their ratio alone.
It is evident that the procedure described could lead to demand
forces beyond the thrusters capability, and in this case the demand
is saturated. The same holds for the rate of turn of the azimuthal
units, which is limited and not taken into account in the solution.
5.4.2 Nonlinear programming
To overcome the most signicant disadvantages of the pseudo-
inverse solution, a different formulation of the cost function has
been proposed. Johansen et al. (2004) suggested a function to be min-
imised that, in combination with suitable constraint equations takes
into account power consumption, exceedance of available thrust, ex-
ceedance of available azimuth angle change rate, and singularities
of the thrust conguration.
The new optimization problem can be formulated as:
C
NL
= min
f ,,s
_
N
t
i=1
P
i
| f
i
|
3
2
+s
T
Qs + (
0
)
T
(
0
)
+

+det
_
T()W
1
T
T
()
_
_
_
_
subject to
T() f = +s
f
i,min
f
i
f
i,max
for i = 1, 2, . . . , N
t
i,min

i

i,max
for i = 1, 2, . . . , N
t
i,min
(
i
0
)
i,max
for i = 1, 2, . . . , N
t
(5.46)
The rst term represents the power consumption, and P
i
is a weight
coefcient for the i-th thruster. The following s
T
Qs is a term related
to the slack s, where the slack is the part of generalized force which
is not provided to the vessel because of saturation, with a proper
weight matrix Q. The weights in the matrix Q must be large enough
to make the optimal solution guarantee zero slack. Two constraint
equations are used to take into account the force saturation and
the angular sectors available for the azimuthal thrusters to rotate.
Another term in the cost function takes into account the penalty
associated with the change of azimuth angles with respect to the
106 dp basics
conguration at the previous time step
0
, weighted by the ma-
trix. The last contribution to the C
NL
function makes it possible to
avoid singular congurations, in which no generalized force is ob-
tained even for f = 0. Consider Eq. 5.41, which ensures a solution
if det
_
T()W
1
T
T
()
_
= 0. The constant is a small number put
to avoid division by 0 when the pseudo-inverse solution becomes
singular, while the constant weights the importance of the ma-
noeuvrability with respect to the other requirements.
The problem expressed in Eq. 5.46 is non-linear and in general Problem solution
non-convex, such that the solution implies signicant computational
effort (Gill et al., 1982). Possible strategies include the reduction to
a quadratic programming problem, or the reduction to a linear pro-
gramming problem.
Johansen et al. (2004) proposed the following reduction to a quadratic
programming problem, based on the assumptions that the power
consumption can be expressed as a quadratic function of f and that
the avoidance of the singularities can be obtained by a penalty term
linearised around the azimuth conguration at the previous time
step
0
. The problem is then convex and it is possible to use stan-
dard numerical routines for solution (see Johansen et al. (2004) for
the details about the function to be minimised, and
Another possible strategy is to approximate the nonlinear prob-
lem with a linear one (Webster and Sousa, 1999), still taking into
account maximum thruster capability and azimuth change rate.
Consider that the use of any solution strategy involving iterative Alternative
strategies
computations must be adapted to the real-time context where the
thrust allocation algorithm has to operate. This means that, if the al-
gorithm does not converge to an acceptable solution, or if the avail-
able computational time is exceeded, an alternative strategy must
be invoked to comply with the robustness requirements for marine
operation.
5.4.3 Simulation
The extended pseudo-inverse thrust allocation algorithm has been
implemented in a simple SIMULINK model to be included in arbi-
trarily complex systems. The scheme in Figure 5.5 implements the
thrust allocation algorithm: most of the procedure is executed in-
side the pseudoinverseTA block which embeds the MATLAB code
in Listing 5.1. In this application an hypothetic vessel with a tun-
nel, three azimuthal thrusters and one longitudinal main propeller
is used to demonstrate the functioning of such a logic, where the
dynamic limits and saturation do not affect the thrust demand.
Listing 5.1: MATLAB code for pseudo-inverse thrust allocation
1 function [ X
_
thrust, Y
_
thrust, N
_
thrust, fe, f
_
dem, alfa
_
dem, f, alfa, rpm ]
= pseudoinverseTA(X
_
dem, Y
_
dem, N
_
dem, alfa0, rpm0)
2
3 % Get current time step
4 dt = 1.0;
5
6 % Required generalized force
7 tau
_
dem = [ X
_
dem; Y
_
dem; N
_
dem ];
8
9 % Thrust capacity
10 tcap = [ 200 % tunnel
11 600 % azimuthal
12 600 % azimuthal
13 600 % azimuthal
14 1200 ]; % main propeller
15
16 % Number of thrusters
17 n
_
t = length(tcap);
18
19 % Location of thrusters
20 tloc.All = [ 100, 0, 0
21 50, 0, 0
22 -20, -15, 0
23 -20, 15, 0
24 -100, 0, 0 ];
25 tlocx = tloc.All(:,1);
26 tlocy = tloc.All(:,2);
27
28 % Extended thrust matrix
29 Te = [ 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
30 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
31 tlocx(1), -tlocy(2), tlocx(2), -tlocy(3), tlocx(3), -tlocy(4), ...
32 tlocx(4), -tlocy(5) ];
33
34 % Weight matrix
35 W = eye(size(Te,2));
36
37 % Risetimes
38 risetimes = [ 10 % tunnel
39 15 % azimuthal
40 15 % azimuthal
41 15 % azimuthal
42 20 ]; % main propeller
43
44 % Maximum thrust variation
45 maxrpmvar = zeros(n
_
t,1);
46 for i = 1:n
_
t
47 maxrpmvar(i) = dt/risetimes(i);
48 end
49
50 % Azimuth variation in rpm
51 azivar = [ 2 % azimuthal
52 2 % azimuthal
53 2 ]; % azimuthal
54
55 % Number of azimuthal thrusters
108 dp basics
T
h
r
u
s
t
F
o
r
c
e
1
z
e
r
o
0
U
n
i
t

D
e
l
a
y
4
z 1
U
n
i
t

D
e
l
a
y
3
z 1
U
n
i
t

D
e
l
a
y
2
z 1
U
n
i
t

D
e
l
a
y
1
z 1
U
n
i
t

D
e
l
a
y
z 1
S
t
e
p
2
S
t
e
p
1
S
t
e
p
S
c
o
p
e
7
S
c
o
p
e
6
S
c
o
p
e
5
S
c
o
p
e
4
S
c
o
p
e
3
S
c
o
p
e
2
S
c
o
p
e
1
S
c
o
p
e
E
m
b
e
d
d
e
d
M
A
T
L
A
B

F
u
n
c
t
i
o
n
X
_
d
e
m
Y
_
d
e
m
N
_
d
e
m
a
l
f
a
0
r
p
m
0
X
_
t
h
r
u
s
t
Y
_
t
h
r
u
s
t
N
_
t
h
r
u
s
t
f
e
f
_
d
e
m
a
l
f
a
_
d
e
m
f
a
l
f
a
r
p
m
p
s
e
u
d
o
i
n
v
e
r
s
e
T
A
r
p
m
a
l
f
a
X
_
t
h
r
u
s
t
Y
_
t
h
r
u
s
t
N
_
t
h
r
u
s
t
f
e
f
_
d
e
m
a
l
f
a
_
d
e
m
f
t
h
r
u
s
t
f
o
r
c
e
g
l
o
b
d
e
m
a
n
d
F
i
g
u
r
e
5
.
5
:
S
I
M
U
L
I
N
K
m
o
d
e
l
f
o
r
p
s
e
u
d
o
-
i
n
v
e
r
s
e
t
h
r
u
s
t
a
l
l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n
56 n
_
a = length(azivar);
57
58 % Maximum azimuth variation (rad)
59 maxalfavar = zeros(n
_
a,1);
60 for i = 1:n
_
a
61 maxalfavar(i) = 2
*
pi/60
*
azivar(i)
*
dt;
62 end
63
64 %%%%% SOLUTION
65
66 fe = inv(W)
*
Te
*
inv(Te
*
inv(W)
*
Te)
*
tau
_
dem;
67
68 f
_
dem = [ fe(1)
69 sqrt(fe(2)^2+fe(3)^2)
70 sqrt(fe(4)^2+fe(5)^2)
71 sqrt(fe(6)^2+fe(7)^2)
72 fe(8) ];
73
74 alfa
_
dem = [ atan2( fe(3), fe(2) )
75 atan2( fe(5), fe(4) )
76 atan2( fe(7), fe(6) ) ];
77
78 %%%%% Verify if solution is allowable
79
80 f = zeros( n
_
t, 1 );
81 alfa = alfa
_
dem;
82
83 % Verify maximum capacity
84 for i = 1:n
_
t
85 if f
_
dem(i)>tcap(i)
86 f(i) = tcap(i);
87 else
88 f(i) = f
_
dem(i);
89 end
90 end
91
92 % Find rpm
93 rpm = zeros( n
_
t, 1 );
94 for i = 1:n
_
t
95 rpm(i) = sign(f(i))
*
sqrt(abs(f(i))/tcap(i));
96 end
97
98 % Verify maximum rpm variation
99 for i = 1:n
_
t
100 if abs(rpm(i)-rpm0(i))>maxrpmvar(i)
101 if rpm(i)-rpm0(i)>=0
102 rpm(i) = rpm0(i)+maxrpmvar(i);
103 else
104 rpm(i) = rpm0(i)-maxrpmvar(i);
105 end
106 end
107 end
108
109 % Verify maximum alfa variation
110 for i = 1:n
_
a
111 if abs(alfa(i)-alfa0(i))>maxalfavar(i)
112 if alfa(i)-alfa0(i)>=0
113 alfa(i) = alfa0(i)+maxalfavar(i);
114 else
115 alfa(i) = alfa0(i)-maxalfavar(i);
116 end
110 dp basics
117 end
118 end
119
120 %%%%% Obtained Thrust
121
122 T = [ 0 cos(alfa(1)) cos(alfa(2)) cos(alfa(3)) 1
123 1 sin(alfa(1)) sin(alfa(2)) sin(alfa(3)) 0
124 tlocx(1) (sin(alfa(1))
*
tlocx(2)-cos(alfa(1))
*
tlocy(2)) ...
125 (sin(alfa(2))
*
*
tlocy(3)) ...
126 (sin(alfa(3))
*
*
tlocy(4)) (-tlocy(5)) ];
127
128 for i = 1:n
_
t
129 f(i) = sign(rpm(i))
*
rpm(i)^2
*
tcap(i);
130 end
131
132 tau = T
*
f;
133
134 X
_
thrust = tau(1);
135 Y
_
thrust = tau(2);
136 N
_
thrust = tau(3);
137
138 end
In Figure 5.6 the example thrust demand time history is plotted. A
longitudinal thrust, transversal thrust, and yaw moment are asked
to the propulsion system at steps delayed by 20 s. In the lower plot,
the generalized force put in place by the system is plotted. During
the transients the required thrust is not obtained, but in this case the
system capability is sufcient to guarantee convergence in a short
time. Figure 5.7 shows the thrust asked to each propeller, while the
lower plot displays the thrusters feedback, where the delay due to
the response time is visible. The azimuthal thrusters are asked to
steer the propeller axis as a consequence of the required thrust, as
shown in Figure 5.8, where the slightly delayed response takes into
account the limit rotation speed.
5.5 simplified performance assessment
A complete DP system including the components presented in
this chapter is quite a complex system to be studied. Preliminary
analyses based on the complete model require signicant modeling
efforts and assumptions on parameters that may be unknown in the
rst phases of a project. This leads to the necessity of a simple pro-
cedure which is also extremely useful to understand the relevance
of the factors involved in the problem.
An intuitive way of modeling a DP vessel in station keeping is
through the well-known damped oscillating system, with the matrix
5.5 simplified performance assessment 111
Time (s)
t
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time (s)
t
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
T
h
r
u
s
t
d
e
m
a
n
d
(
k
N
/
k
N
m
)
dem
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
O
b
t
a
i
n
e
d
t
h
r
u
s
t
(
k
N
/
k
N
m
)
1000
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
dem,1
dem,2
dem,6
6
Figure 5.6: Global generalized forces on vessel, demanded and obtained
notation which encloses the three equations for surge, sway and
yaw:
_
M + M
A
_

p
+
_
B + B
DP
_

p
+ C
DP
p
=
env
(5.47)
In previous Eq. 5.47 the vessel mass and hydrodynamic mass are
separately indicated. The B
DP
and C
DP
matrices are used to account
for the presence of the DP system, which can be preliminarily mod-
elled as a damper and a stiffness.
Let the environmental forces be described by the spectral density
in Eq. 3.13. This assumption can be considered acceptable in this
phase since the main perturbing load that inuences the DP perfor-
mance is the one from surface waves. Treating the input process as a
112 dp basics
Time (s)
t
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time (s)
t
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
T
h
r
u
s
t
d
e
m
a
n
d
(
k
N
)
f
dem
100
200
300
400
500
O
b
t
a
i
n
e
d
t
h
r
u
s
t
(
k
N
)
f
100
200
300
400
500
f
dem,1
f
dem,2
f
dem,3
f
dem,4
f
dem,5
f
1
f
2
f
3
f
4
f
5
Figure 5.7: Demanded and obtained thrust for each single propeller
random time signal, the squared standard deviation of the response
is derived for each degree of freedom (Faltinsen, 1993), e.g. for the
surge:
2
1
=
_

0
S
(2)
F
()d
_
C
DP
11

_
M
11
+ M
A
11
_
2
+
_
B
11
+ B
DP
11
_
2
2
(5.48)
The extreme displacement value is generally 3 to 4 times
i
. The
rough estimate obtained with this very simplied model can be sur-
prisingly accurate, considering the limited amount of data required
for calculation, and very useful to determine immediately the feasi-
bility of prescribed objectives given general design information.
As a result, producing radial plots like in Figures 5.9 and 5.10 and
is possible in the early phases of the project, to be used as a guide
Time (s)
t
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time (s)
t
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
A
z
i
m
u
t
h
a
n
g
l
e
d
e
m
a
n
d
(
r
a
d
)
dem
2
O
b
t
a
i
n
e
d
t
h
r
u
s
t
(
k
N
)
dem,1
dem,2
dem,3
3
Figure 5.8: Demanded and obtained azimuth for each azimuthal thruster
to understand the main concerns to be faced in detail. The plot in
Figure 5.9 shows the expected extreme surge motion for a 80 000 t
vessel (plus hydrodynamic added mass, quantied by Journe and
Massie (2001) as 58% of the total), with a stiffness corresponding
to a resonant period of 200 s, and 90 % of the critical damping due
to DP, 15 % due to hydrodynamics (Faltinsen, 1993). A typical set
of QTFs for a tanker has been used in this sample calculation. In
Figure 5.10 the same calculation is repeated for the sway degree of
freedom, with an added mass of 40 000 t.
5.5.1 Filtering delay
The need for a wave lter to avoid the thrusters trying to react to
the zero-mean rst order motion has been explained. The effect of
having such a lter upstream the controller is of course benecial in
terms of machinery wear and power generation, but the drawback
114 dp basics
90
0
E
x
t
r
e
m
e
O
f
f
s
e
t
(
m
)
180
135
45
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
3
1
4
1
Figure 5.9: Polar plot of extreme surge response
of the time delay introduced by the lter itself can be evidenced by
simplied modeling.
Assume that the control action is put in place, due to the lter-
induced delay, seconds after the displacement happened. Eq. 5.47
is rewritten as:
_
M + M
A
_

p
(t) +B
p
(t) +B
DP

p
(t ) +C
DP
p
(t ) =
env
(t)
(5.49)
where the time dependency is explicit. The delay is assumed to
be small with respect to the motion period, such that linearisation
is allowed:
_
M + M
A
_

p
(t) + B
p
(t) + B
DP
_

p
(t)
p
(t)
_
+
C
DP
_
p
(t)
p
(t)
_
=
env
(t) (5.50)
90
0
E
x
t
r
e
m
e
O
f
f
s
e
t
(
m
)
180
135
45
5
10
15
20
3
2
4
2
Figure 5.10: Polar plot of extreme sway response
Rearranging previous equation:
_
M + M
A
B
DP
_

p
(t) +
_
B + B
DP
C
DP
_

p
(t)+
C
DP
p
(t) =
env
(t) (5.51)
It is noticed that the effect of the delay is to decrease the mass and
the damping introduced by the DP system, with detrimental effects
on performance. The extent of the degradation can be evaluated
with the same method explained in Section 5.5, with the correction
in mass and damping as in Eq. 5.51. It is shown in Figures 5.11 and
5.12 that the difference with the no delay dynamics can be quite
signicant even for a time delay of 10 s, which is not an overconser-
vative assumption.
116 dp basics
90
0
E
x
t
r
e
m
e
O
f
f
s
e
t
(
m
)
180
135
45
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
3
1
3
1
with delay
4
1
4
1
with delay
Figure 5.11: Polar plot of extreme surge response with 10 s delay, compara-
tive results
5.6 acceleration feedback
PID-like controllers applied to a second order system lead, as one
can easily notice, to oscillatory motion, since control action is only
put in place as a result of positioning errors. The derivative term is
effective in reducing the amplitude of oscillation, but with the gain
(and therefore the effectiveness) being limited by the presence of
unltered disturbances at wave frequency or higher.
Lindegaard (2003) proposed a DP application based on accelera-
tion measurements, on the basis of which an additional feedback
term to control action is computed. The active use of measured ac-
celerations is equivalent to a manipulation of the systems mass:
the idea is to make the body apparently heavier than it is, at the
range of frequencies of the disturbances to reject. Measured accel-
erations are indeed subject to two possible uses: De Jager (1994)
5.6 acceleration feedback 117
90
0
E
x
t
r
e
m
e
O
f
f
s
e
t
(
m
)
180
135
45
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
3
2
3
2
with delay
4
2
4
2
with delay
Figure 5.12: Polar plot of extreme sway response with 10 s delay, compara-
tive results
named direct the approach in which the accelerations are employed
to modify the control law, and indirect the use of accelerations to
improved the system observation. The combined use of the two is
in general not benecial, as for De Jagers robotic application, but is
probably the way to go for the dynamic positioning problem, since
the accelerations measured on a vessel will be mostly characterised
by wave-frequency content, to be ltered out by a suitable observer
(Lindegaard, 2003).
The analogy with the mass-damper system is here used to present
the effect of the acceleration feedback in ship dynamics. Including the
newly added acceleration feedback term, Eq. 5.47 is rewritten as:
_
M + M
A
+ M
AF
_

p
+
_
B + B
DP
_

p
+ C
DP
p
=
env
(5.52)
where M
AF
is the acceleration gain, which is also the apparent mass
introduced by acceleration feedback. Instead of a virtual mass con-
118 dp basics
stant for all the frequencies, behaving like a structural mass, the ac-
celeration feedback term can be shaped to obtain improved response.
This technique is named inertia shaping and has interesting applica-
tions also in compensation of non-symmetric mass effects for high
speed marine crafts, manoeuvring and transit conditions of ships
(Fossen et al., 2002). A proper response characteristic for the acceler-
ation feedback inertia shall add mass only at slow-drift frequencies
(for a single degree of freedom):
M
AF
(s) =
M
1 + T
f
s
(5.53)
where the mass added to the system is expressed as a fraction of
the physical mass M. The acceleration feedback mass behaves like
a low-pass lter with cut-off period T
f
, see Figure 5.13 where an
example frequency characteristic is plotted for a single degree of
freedom.
It is possible to derive, for a vessel with the mass modied as per
Eq. 5.53, the transfer functions from force to velocity, and evaluate
the effect of the acceleration feedback. The vessel can be modelled
as a simple mass-damper system, and enclose the DP and environ-
mental forces in a single
ext
vector of generalized external forces:
_
M + M
A
_

p
+ B
p
=
ext
(5.54)
where the equation holds for each single degree of freedom. The
transfer function from force to velocity is then written:

p
ext
(s) =
1
B (T
m
s +1)
(5.55)
with the substitution
T
m
=
B
M + M
A
(5.56)
Then the acceleration feedback-induced mass in Eq. 5.53 is added:

p
ext
(s) =
1
B
_
1 + T
m
s +
T
m
s
1+T
f
s
_ (5.57)
The following two characteristic frequencies can be identied as
delimiting a frequency interval in which the acceleration feedback
mass inuences the system response:
a
=
1
T
m
1
1 +
(5.58)
1
T
f
Frequency (Hz)
f
M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e
(
k
g
)
|(M + M
AF
)(s)|
10
4
10
3
10
2
10
1
M
M + M
AF
Frequency (Hz)
f
P
h
a
s
e
(
)
(M + M
AF
)(s)
10
4
10
3
10
2
10
1
45
90
Figure 5.13: Low-pass mass frequency-domain characteristic
120 dp basics
e
=
1 +
1 + T
f
(5.59)
In Figure 5.14 the transfer function from force to velocity is plot-
ted for a system without and with acceleration feedback. The com-
parison evidences a reduced response in the frequency range be-
tween
a
and
e
.
a
2
e
2
Frequency (Hz)
f
M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e
(
m
/
s
/
N
)
|

p
ext
(s)|
10
4
10
3
10
2
10
1
10
7
10
6
10
5
Frequency (Hz)
f
P
h
a
s
e
(
ext
(s)
10
4
10
3
10
2
10
1
45
90
Figure 5.14: Force to velocity transfer function of a mass-damper system
without and with acceleration feedback
6
MEAS UREMENT S YS TEMS
Contents
6.1 Absolute position 123
6.1.1 GPS 125
6.1.2 DGPS 129
6.2 Underwater positioning 132
6.2.1 USBL systems 132
6.2.2 LBL systems 133
6.3 Vessel accelerations 134
6.4 Sea state 135
6.4.1 Wave radar 135
6.4.2 Ship motions-based estimate 136
In this chapter the measurement systems used in Dynamic Po-
sitioning applications are presented, with their principles of oper-
ation and modeling techniques. Moreover, innovative sensors and
processing techniques like inertial platforms and wave radars are
described, being the basis for the DP improvement technologies pro-
posed in this work.
6.1 absolute position
When referring to the absolute position of a vessel, the position
with respect to the earth is meant. This idea is indeed not simple to
express univocally, since the shape of the earth itself is a complex
topic, studied by the discipline named geodesy.
The reference shape for the earth is called geoid, which is an highly The geoid and the
ellipsoids
irregular shape dened by the idealised water surface in absence of
currents, wave, tides, and continued under the continents. A geo-
metrical tool to approximate the geoid is an ellipsoid, described by
its semi-major axis a and the attening factor, f = (a b)/a, where
b is the semi-minor axis. The ellipsoid to approximate the geoid is
not unique: one can be chosen offers better approximation in a re-
gion, while another ts better for another location. When expressing
the position of a point with the usual latitude and longitude angles,
123
124 measurement systems
explicit reference to the chosen ellipsoid shall be made, to avoid
positioning errors that can, in some operations, be critical.
Since the aim of an absolute positioning system is to be able to WGS84
identify the location of the vehicle in whatsoever point on the sur-
face of the earth, a suited ellipsoid must be chosen to t reasonably
well everywhere on the geoid. The standard ellipsoid in GPS sys-
tems is identied by the code WGS84 (U.S. National Imagery and
Mapping Agency, 2000). Since the continents are drifting, using a
xed and unique ellipsoid means that the geographic features on
the earth will be represented by coordinates which are slowly vary-
ing. Beyond accuracy, this is another reason why other continent-
specic ellipsoids have been developed.
The conversion between coordinates expressed with respect to Coordinate
conversion
different ellipsoids is simple once a few parameters are known, but
despite that the process must be treated with care because errors
can lead to unexpected operational problems. As an example, con-
sider the ED50 ellipsoid, used in western Europe before the WGS84
was formulated, and still widely used in European cartography. See
Table 6.1 for the characteristic parameters of the two systems. If a
particular point is expressed in ED50 coordinates, e.g. the entrance
of the marina in the city of Ancona, Italy, and then erroneously fed
to a GPS, the referenced point would be about 134 m away from the
intended location, see Figure 6.1. It is evident that such a position-
ing error could prevent the successful completion of some offshore
operations, making the contractor incur in considerable additional
costs.
Table 6.1: WGS84 and ED50 coordinate systems
Parameter ED50 WGS84
Spheroid International 1924 WGS84
Semi-major Axis 6 378 388.0000 m 6 378 137.0000 m
Semi-minor Axis 6 356 911.9461 m 6 356 752.3142 m
Inverse Flattening (1/f ) 297 298.257
The most popular absolute positioning system is the Global Po- GPS and
competitors
sitioning System, which is easily found also in many pieces of con-
sumer electronics, due to the low cost of the receivers. Other com-
petitors are under development or already active, but no other sys-
6.1 absolute position 125
ED50 Coordinates
WGS84 Coordinates
Figure 6.1: Positioning error due to wrong geodetic reference system
tem has reached such an extended coverage and number of re-
ceivers. Beside GLONASS
1
and COMPASS, Russian and Chinese
systems, respectively, the European Union and the European Space
Agency are developing the GALILEO system, which is claimed to
be operational in 2013
2
. The European system is accounted to de-
liver much better accuracy than GPS also for open services to which
anyone will have free access, and like GPS will make available an
encrypted Commercial Service signal with accuracy of less than 1 m
or less than 10 cm if complemented by ground-xed stations.
6.1.1 GPS
The basic principle on which the GPS system operates is the range Operational
principle
measurement from a satellite in a known position to a receiver. The
measurement is carried out indirectly, since a time measurement is
indeed performed. The satellite continuously emits a signal carrying
the information about the time instant in which the signal itself was
emitted. When the signal is received, the range from the satellite i
can be computed with the following simple equation:
i
= c(t
u
t
si
) (6.1)
1 See the ofcial website http://www.glonass-ianc.rsa.ru/pls/htmldb/f?p=202:1:
8202935677328654617
2 See the ofcial website http://ec.europa.eu/transport/galileo/index
_
en.htm
where c is the speed of light, t
u
is the user reception time, t
si
is the
signal sending time by the satellite i.
A distance from a satellite in a known position identies a spher- Three-satellites
positioning
ical surface on which the receiver lies. Two distances identify two
spheres that intersect in a circle. The intersection of this circle with
a third sphere determines two possible points. A fourth range from
another satellite seems to be necessary, but it is not since one of the
two points will lie away from the earth surface. Given that the three
satellites positions are expressed by the following vectors:
r
i
=
_
_
x
i
y
i
z
i
_
_
i = 1, 2, 3 (6.2)
the following system of equations must be solved to determine the
position of the receiver:
_
1
=
_
(x
1
x
u
)
2
+ (y
1
y
u
)
2
+ (z
1
z
u
)
2
2
=
_
(x
2
x
u
)
2
+ (y
2
y
u
)
2
+ (z
2
z
u
)
2
3
=
_
(x
3
x
u
)
2
+ (y
3
y
u
)
2
+ (z
3
z
u
)
2
(6.3)
where the receiver position r
u
=
_
x
u
y
u
z
u
T
is the unknown.
The theoretical process stated by the previous Eq. 6.1 is indeed Disturbances
affected by a number of errors: both the clocks have unknown er-
rors, the presence of the troposphere and the ionosphere introduces
delays, the receiver is affected by noise, and the relativistic effects
must be corrected. Some errors can be corrected or neglected, but
not the receiver clock error. This latter error has the effect of adding Four-satellites
positioning
and unknown lag which is systematically added to the time interval
measurement, such that Eq. 6.1 is modied to:
i
= c(t
u
t
si
+ t
b
) (6.4)
A range error
b
= ct
b
is then added to each of the ranges measured
from the available satellites. Then and equation is added to the sys-
tem in Eq. 6.3, with the result that a fourth satellite is needed to
compensate for user clock bias:
_
1
=
_
(x
1
x
u
)
2
+ (y
1
y
u
)
2
+ (z
1
z
u
)
2
+
b
2
=
_
(x
2
x
u
)
2
+ (y
2
y
u
)
2
+ (z
2
z
u
)
2
+
b
3
=
_
(x
3
x
u
)
2
+ (y
3
y
u
)
2
+ (z
3
z
u
)
2
+
b
4
=
_
(x
4
x
u
)
2
+ (y
4
y
u
)
2
+ (z
4
z
u
)
2
+
b
(6.5)
The range error is an additional unknown needed to compute the
intersection between the spheres with the radius corrected for the
receiver clock error. The system of equations is solved numerically
by the receiver.
Other variations in positioning accuracy are caused by the partic- Dilution of
Precision
ular position of the satellites with respect to the user: since the orbits
on which the satellites are moving are known in advance, Dilution
of Precision (DOP) maps can be produced, see e.g. Figure 6.3, where
a DOP map for a particular day is shown
3
. The DOP can be inter-
preted as the reciprocal of the volume delimited by the 4 satellites
and the receiver, see Figure 6.2, such that the degradation of accu-
racy is much more important in the situation depicted in Figure 6.2b
than in the one depicted in Figure 6.2a.
The position measured by a GPS receiver, due to all the issues GPS sensor
modeling
named before, is affected by an error, which is important to model
for simulation purposes. It has been determined by specic studies
(Rankin, 1994) that most of the errors affecting the range measure-
ments can be modelled as a Gauss-Markov process: Gauss-Markov
process
v
n+1
= e
t
v
n
+ w
n
(6.6)
This means that the error v
n+1
at step n +1 is made up by a Gaus-
sian white noise w
n
and an inuence from the error at the previous
time increment v
n
. The sampling interval is indicated with t. The
coefcient denes how long the process memory is; a typical value,
used in the simulations here presented, is 1/ = 60 s. The autocorre-
lation of such a noise signal is an exponentially decreasing function,
see Rankin (1994).
The SIMULINK model in Figure 6.4 was developed considering Simulation
valid the hypothesis that the total error in horizontal position has
3 See http://gps.afspc.af.mil/gpsoc/
(a) (b)
Figure 6.2: Dilution of Precision: low DOP and high DOP situations
Figure 6.3: Dilution of Precision map for September 16
th
, 2009, made by
GPS Operations Center
the same characteristics of the errors affecting the range measure-
ments, described by Rankin.
e^(beta*Dt)
K
XY Graph
Scope
Memory
Barge Position
0
BandLimited
White Noise 1
BandLimited
White Noise Add2
Add1
Add
Xnoise
Ynoise
Measured Position
Figure 6.4: SIMULINK model for GPS simulation
The results of a simulation are plotted in Figure 6.5, where a
standard deviation of 0.5 m has been set for both the Band-Limited
White Noise blocks. In Figure 6.6 the same results are plotted sep-
arately for x and y directions, together with the autocorrelations
(scaled to 1), to be compared with the theoretical one.
6.1.2 DGPS
The Differential GPS (DGPS) uses a technique to enhance the po-
sitioning accuracy, with the support of ground-xed stations. The
positions of these reference stations are known with a high degree
of accuracy. When the position of a reference station is determined
by GPS measurement, the errors made in range measurement are
calculated, and then broadcasted to the mobile GPS user via radio
or satellite communication (Figure 6.7).
The DGPS operational technique permits to sensibly improve the Accuracy
improvement
positioning accuracy. For example, the NDGPS
4
(Nationwide Differ-
ential GPS) system, operated by the United States Department of
Transportation, claims to be able to reach a 1 m accuracy near the
reference stations, 3 m at the edge of the coverage area (up to 402 km
away).
4 See http://www.tfhrc.gov/its/ndgps/
W E
S
N
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
Error (m)
t = 0 s
t = 60 s
t = 120 s
Figure 6.5: Simulated GPS trace for a stationary receiver, apparent motion
due to noise
E
r
r
o
r
(
m
)
v(t)
A
u
t
o
c
o
r
r
e
l
a
t
i
o
n
R()
t(s)
100 200 300 400 500 600

100 200 300 400 500 600
5.0
5.0
0.5
1.0
x-noise
y-noise
R
xx
R
yy
Theoric
Figure 6.6: Errors in x and y directions during a 10 min long simulation,
obtained autocorrelations compared with the theoretical one
Geostationary
satellite
Reference Station
Figure 6.7: Differential GPS scheme
6.2 underwater positioning
Underwater positioning systems rely on acoustics to measure ranges
and angles that identify the position of a target with respect to
a transceiver. The main technologies here presented differ for the
length of the base line, as explained next.
6.2.1 USBL systems
The acronym stands for Ultra Short Base Line, since the distance be-
tween different transceivers is actually only some centimetres long,
see Figure 6.8.
Receiver 1 Receiver 2
Receiver 3
Trasmitter
Longitudinal axis
Transversal axis
Figure 6.8: USBL transceiver
The transceiver is mounted in general on the vessel, such that
the power supply and signal logging do not need any umbilical.
The signal transmitted is sent back to the receivers by the seabed-
mounted unit, and received with a small delay related to the angle
of view, see Figure 6.9. The distance is calculated as the product
between the speed of sound and the travel time. The angles are
determined from the relative delay between the reception instant at
the three receivers.
Crucial for measurement accuracy, especially in deep water, is
the availability of accurate values of the speed of sound prole. The
speed of sound is a function of temperature, salinity (conductivity)
6.2 underwater positioning 133
Transceiver
Receiver 2 Receiver 1
Figure 6.9: USBL transceiver
and pressure (depth); a CTD
5
probe is indeed employed for speed
of sound prole calibration before operation.
6.2.2 LBL systems
This system represents a variation of the previously described
USBL, in that the baseline is expanded and moved to the seabed
(LBL stands for Long Base Line). An array of transponders must be
deployed such that the vessel to be positioned operates in the range
of at least three of them. The position computation is in fact car-
ried out by intersection of the three spheres of known radius. Each
radius is determined by response time measurement and speed of
sound prole as before. Due to errors, the spheres are never inter-
secting in a single point. The most likely position is in general de-
termined by least squares solution.
The problem of the placement of beacons on the seabed must be
solved taking care of the problem of the dilution of precision, similarly
to what happens for GPS. Since the measured position is relative
to the seabed-mounted beacons, the array of transponder must be
calibrated after deployment.
5 Acronym of conductivity, temperature, depth
beacon 1
beacon 2
beacon 3
measured position
Figure 6.10: LBL operational scheme
6.3 vessel accelerations
Inertial measurements are gaining popularity as the cost of the
units decreases (Fossen, 2002). The technology is well-established
as derived from aerospace applications, and very common also in
underwater ROV applications.
Applications of inertial units include integration with state ob-
servers for improved response, and research applications as the ac-
celeration feedback briey described in Section 5.6 of this document
(Lindegaard, 2003).
An Inertial Measurement Unit is composed by the sensors (in gen-
eral 3-axis accelerometers and gyros are employed), the ltering and
temperature compensation. An IMU is completed with software in-
tegrating the motion equations to obtain an Inertial Navigation Sys-
tem able to supply the user with position and velocity signals. Due
to integration, the errors tend to build up a drift that must be com-
pensated by an absolute positioning system, typically a GPS sensor.
In absence of a suitable integration for drift correction, an high-pass
lter must be applied to catch only the oscillatory part of the mo-
tion.
The error in oscillatory wave-frequency displacement measure-
ment can be as low as some centimetres, and a hundredth of degree
6.4 sea state 135
for rotational motion. The drift in absence of GPS or other reference
for 1 min can be lower than 2 m.
6.4 sea state
The knowledge of sea state parameters can be useful during off-
shore operations to recognise sufciently in advance dangerous con-
ditions developing. Such an alarm can be important to maximise
working time still being able to identify the moment in which safety
operations must be started (e.g. abandonment for subsequent recov-
ery in pipelaying). In the following sections a specically designed
class of sensors and a strategy relying on ship motion (inertial) mea-
surements are described.
6.4.1 Wave radar
The wave radar technology is highly appealing thanks to the fact
that a standard X-band radar present on most vessels for offshore
operations is the only needed sensor. A processing unit need to be
connected to the analog radar signal for processing and information
extraction. Once the images have been digitised, a temporal and spa-
tial distribution of backscatter or sea clutter is available for processing.
While this information is regarded as noise for navigation purposes,
it is linked to the sea state (Borge et al., 2000).
When the wind is blowing at least at about 3 ms
1
, small rip-
ples are produced on the water surface, modulated by longer waves
like wind waves and swell. The radar is able to capture the clutter
from ripples, and an almost real-time calculation can detect the sea
state parameters as the signicant wave height and the peak period.
Further, the directional distribution of both wind sea and swell is
determined.
Given the dispersion relation between wave numbers and fre- Surface current
quencies, also the surface current c can be estimated. See the fol-
lowing modied version of Eq. 2.28:
=
_
kg tanh(kd) +k c (6.7)
Looking at the most intense component characterised by a known
and k, previous Eq. 6.7 gives the current velocity.
The wave radars have been proved to be reliable and accurate in
making available sea state parameters in almost real-time, see also
Reichert and Lund (2007), Reichert et al. (2006), Borge et al. (2004).
The applications cited up this point only regard average proper-
ties over the surface scanned by the radar device, implying that only
very slow variations of the general seaway conditions can be de-
tected. For control purposes, the instantaneous distribution of wave
eld surrounding the vessel is much more interesting, up to the ex-
tent that it could be functional for a wave feed-forward control logic,
see Chapter 7. Several publications (e.g. Hessner and Reichert (2007)
and Rosenthal et al. (2003)) deal with processing techniques able to
deliver a map of the punctual sea surface elevation over the scanned
surface, with the scope of spotting the maximum single wave, inter-
esting as extreme event.
Specic results on image processing techniques suited for spot- Advanced
processing
techniques
ting and tracing the trajectory of high wave groups seems to be
missing in literature. Such a procedure could deliver a very reliable
prediction of forces impacting on the ship where the wave radar is
mounted, for convenient use in DP control algorithm.
6.4.2 Ship motions-based estimate
Based on growing affordability and quality of inertial sensors for
marine applications, a number of techniques exploiting their func-
tionality have been developed. Particularly interesting are the meth-
ods to infer the directional wave spectrum from the ship response.
Parametric and non-parametric methods have been developed and
tested by several authors, see e.g. (Nielsen, 2006; Tannuri et al., 2003),
with satisfactory results both in simulation and in basin tests.
If sufciently accurate procedures can be implemented for on-
board real-time use, these could avoid the use of a wave radar or
provide useful information when the wave radar is not working due
to e.g. presence of structures or supply vessels disturbing the pro-
cessing of radar images. On the other hand, it must be noted that the
methods rely on the knowledge of the RAOs, and the performance
is heavily inuenced by the accuracy of the available operators.
7
WAVE FEED- FORWARD
Contents
7.1 Literature 137
7.2 Real-time estimate 139
7.2.1 Performance in Positioning 142
7.3 Data Analysis 147
7.3.1 Motivation for predictive approach 152
7.4 Neural networks 152
7.4.1 Neuron model 154
7.4.2 Basic network architectures 155
7.5 ANNs for drift force prediction 158
7.5.1 Feed-forward input time-delay back-propagation
network 159
7.5.2 Recurrent input time-delay network 162
7.5.3 Pattern recognition network 164
7.5.4 Multiple input recurrent time-delay net-
work 165
7.5.5 Network architecture selection 168
7.6 Integration of neural networks into DP algorithm 168
7.7 Future developments 170
In this chapter the wave feed-forward (WFF) technique is presented.
After a review of the strategies proposed in literature, a new ap-
proach is proposed, based on a combination of ship movement in-
ertial measurements and other independent measurements of the
incoming waves, like the wave radar. Preliminary simulations are
carried out with theoretically-calculated forcing inputs as well as
in-eld measured data from specic campaigns.
7.1 literature
The idea of wave feed-forward has been proposed during the
early times of the dynamic positioning era, with the wind feed-
forward having already shown its benecial capabilities (Sjouke and
Lagers, 1971), see Section 5.3. Pinkster (1978) proposed to estimate
the instantaneous value of the drift forces by integration along the
137
138 wave feed-forward
static water line, as in Eq. 3.6. This requires in principle a continuous
measurement of the water elevation all around the hull, but a good
approximation can be obtained with a nite number of sensors. The
higher frequencies must be removed by ltering, possibly trying to
avoid adding lter delay to the time needed for calculation. Since
the slow drift and the higher frequency contribution are well sepa-
rated, being the latter terms characterised by about twice the wave
frequency (omitted terms in Eq. 3.9), the task for the lter is not too
demanding. The method was experimented at the Netherlands Ship
Model Basin
1
, with 8 wave probes mounted on a model, 4 on either
side, with promising results.
The same dutch institute (MARIN) carried out studies (Aalbers
and Nienhuis, 1987) to include the real-time wave direction infor-
mation when determining the optimum heading set-point for the
present wind and wave conditions. Further, known the wave di-
rection, a drift force estimate is computed depending on the ship
hydrodynamic properties, in a wave feed-forward logic intended
to maintain the requested heading. The wave direction has been
determined by means of only two probes, one on each side: the
weather side experiences greater water surface relative motion than
leeward side. The experiments were carried out on three different
barge types, with the most benecial effects on the larger one, which
is the most affected by wave drift forces. Wind forces are more im-
portant for small barges, such that wind feed-forward dominates
the response.
The technique was then enhanced (Aalbers et al., 2001), including
more probes around the hull, and combining more accurate drift
force and wave direction estimates. The force estimate is also fed to
the Kalman lter observer, such that the signal is exploited to for-
mulate a better low frequency position and velocity estimate. New
model tests were executed, showing signicant reduction of the low
frequency deviation from set-point.
The method explained above was used to carry out simulations
of offshore operations in a safety point of view (Aalbers et al., 2004).
The Captains Decision Mimic algorithm decides wether an opera-
tion comprising a number of tasks can be completed in environmen-
tal scenarios selected by Monte Carlo algorithm. The operability, de-
ned as the maximum allowable environmental condition in which
the operation can be successfully completed, results enhanced.
1 Now Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN), see http://www.marin.nl/.
7.2 real-time estimate 139
7.2 real-time estimate
All the methods proposed in literature are characterised by the
fact that drift forces are estimated in real-time, such that the de-
lay between the perturbation and the action put in place by the
thrusters is reduced, but still dependent on computation time and
machinery responsiveness.
Before showing an innovative approach based on prediction, a
simple method to analyse the effectiveness of real-time estimate
strategies is here shown, for simulation and comparison.
The directional wave spectrum is supposed to be known within
a reasonable degree of accuracy, from measurements (Section 6.4.1)
or by estimate based on ship motions (see methods presented and
referenced in Section 6.4.2). When the motion response amplitude
operators are known, the response to the particular directional dis-
tribution can be determined:
RAO
j
() =
_
2
0
RAO
j
(, )
_
D(, )d (7.1)
with the notation introduced in Chapter 2. The RAO
j
() operator is
the complex valued transfer function between the wave height and
the corresponding barge motion for the j-th degree of freedom, with
the particular directional distribution characterising the sea state.
To obtain the expected wave elevation measuring barge motion, Inverse
approximate
RAO lter
the response amplitude operator must be used inversely. Precisely,
a parametric lter can be found to approximate the RAO in the
frequency range where most of the energy is concentrated. The lter
analytical expression is written as:
H(s) =
B(s)
A(s)
=
b
1
s
n
+ b
2
s
n1
+ + b
n+1
a
1
s
m
+ a
2
s
m1
+ + a
m+1
(7.2)
with the coefcients of the polynomials B(s) and A(s) to be deter-
mined tting the inverse RAO
j
() operator. If the coefcients of the
polynomials B(s) and A(s) are grouped into the arrays:
b =
_
b
1
b
2
b
n+1
T
(7.3)
a =
_
a
1
a
2
a
n+1
T
(7.4)
the problem may be formulated as follows:
C
f
= min
b,a
k
w
k
1
RAO
j
(j
k
)

B(j
k
)
A(j
k
)
2
(7.5)
The weights k can be used to direct the best t range around the
wave peak frequency. The obtained lter transfer function can be
applied in real-time to the measured barge motion, making avail-
able an estimate of the instantaneous wave elevation.
Drift forces can be estimated roughly under a couple of pretty Force estimation
strong hypotheses: the quadratic transfer functions can be simpli-
ed using only the elements on the diagonal (see Section 3.3.1),
and are constant in the frequency range around the wave peak fre-
quency. The second hypothesis is reasonable when the spectrum is
sufciently narrow banded.
F
(2)
j
(t) = 2P
j
(t)
2
(7.6)
The mean quadratic transfer function P
j
is a mean over the fre-
quency range but also taking into account the directional distribu-
tion of the waves:
P
j
=
_
2
0
_

2
1
P
j
(, )S(, ) dd (7.7)
where P
j
(, ) is the real part of the QTF for the j-th degree of free-
dom, see Section 3.3, and S(, ) is the directional wave spectrum,
see Section 2.6.
As an example, the sway drift force time history could be esti-
mated assuming that heave motion is measured. The hydrodynamic
data for the vessel mentioned at Section 3.2, with the RAOs repre-
sented in Figure 3.4. In a sea state characterised by a period of 7 s
(0.90 rads
1
), the inverse of the heave response amplitude operator
can be approximated by a second order lter in the frequency range
from 0.80 to 1.1 rads
1
:
B(s)
A(s)
=
b
1
s
2
+ b
2
s + b
3
a
1
s
2
+ a
2
s + a
3
(7.8)
The following values are found for the arrays of parameters:
b =
_
4.00 4.48 2.40

T
(7.9)
a =
_
1.00 0.08 1.29

T
(7.10)
In Figure 7.1 the inverse heave RAO is compared with its discrete-
time approximation (0.5 s sample interval). As shown, the local ap-
proximation is obtained by using a weight different from zero only
for the desired range of harmonic components. The calculated trans-
fer function ts well the target one for the selected range around the
wave peak period.
W
e
i
g
h
t
w
k
M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e
(
m
/
m
)
||
P
h
a
s
e
(
r
a
d
)
0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2

0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2
0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2
1
40
80
2
Inverse RAO
Parametric lter
Inverse RAO
Parametric lter
Figure 7.1: Approximation of the inverse heave RAO by means of paramet-
ric lter
The model in Figure 7.2 passes the simulated measure of the
heave signal through the approximated lter, then estimates the
sway drift force with the formulation expressed by Eq. 7.6.
It can be noticed that the wave elevation signal is quite well cap-
tured by ltering the simulated heave motion, see Figure 7.3. The
accuracy of the sway drift force calculation (results plotted in Fig-
ure 7.4) suffers from the delay which is inherited from the water el-
evation estimate and from the approximation of the QTF by means
of the mean value around the wave peak period. It can be noticed
that the accuracy is quite good, but it should be pointed out that,
despite the assumptions made, the theory on which the simulation
and the approximation are based is exactly the same, and the QTF
is assumed to be exactly known. As a consequence, the results can
be considered somewhat optimistic.
The delay between simulated force and corresponding estimate
is only due to ltering, but in real world one should foresee an
additional delay due to measurement signal acquisition and the de-
scribed processing to be performed in real time.
7.2.1 Performance in Positioning
The method explained above can be used in a closed-loop simu-
lation to preliminarily assess the capability to improve the perfor-
mance in terms of deviation from a dened set-point. A complete
model integrating the units described along the previous chapters is
evidences the behaviour of the dynamically positioned vessel under
the action of a beam sea state, which is critical for a ship-shaped
hull.
In particular, a 3 m signicant wave height sea state with a peak
period of 8 s is generated, and the performance of the DP system is
evaluated simply comparing the sway offset time history when the
wave feed-forward is switched on or off.
The results plotted in Figure 7.5 show that the sway offset is sig-
nicantly reduced. The feed-forward term is fed to the controller
with a gain that halves the contribution, to account for estimation
errors and leave the rest to the PID controller. The gain value has
here been determined by rough trial and error approach, but it is
a crucial topic for performance and stability, that will be discussed
later on.
While Figure 7.5 shows a 20 min extract, some parameters can
be computed for the complete 1 h long simulation to evaluate the
e
t
a
_
L
F
[
0

0

0

0

0

0
]
W
a
v
e
s

g
e
n
e
r
a
t
o
r
W
a
v
e

O
u
t
W
a
v
e

D
i
r
e
c
t
i
o
n
W
a
t
e
r
E
l
e
v
V
_
w

N
E
D
S
q
u
a
r
e
u
v
S
e
l
e
c
t
o
r
S
c
o
p
e
5
S
c
o
p
e
4
S
c
o
p
e
3
S
c
o
p
e
2
S
c
o
p
e
1
S
c
o
p
e
D
i
s
c
r
e
t
e
T
r
a
n
s
f
e
r

F
c
n
p
a
r
t
f
z
.
n
u
m
{
1
,
1
}
(
z
)
p
a
r
t
f
z
.
d
e
n
{
1
,
1
}
(
z
)
2
n
d

o
r
d
e
r
e
t
a

L
F
W
a
v
e

I
n
D
r
i
f
t

F
o
r
c
e
2
*
d
e
l
t
a
2 2
1
s
t

o
r
d
e
r
e
t
a
L
F
W
a
v
e

I
n
e
t
a
W
F
n
u
W
F
n
u
W
F
d
o
t
e
t
a
W
F
D
r
i
f
t
F
o
r
c
e
W
a
v
e
E
s
t
i
m
a
t
e
S
w
a
y
D
r
i
f
t
F
o
r
c
e
F
i
g
u
r
e
7
.
2
:
S
I
M
U
L
I
N
K
m
o
d
e
l
f
o
r
r
e
a
l
-
t
i
m
e
d
r
i
f
t
f
o
r
c
e
e
s
t
i
m
a
t
i
o
n
Time (s)
t
25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200
W
a
t
e
r
e
l
e
v
a
t
i
o
n
(
m
)
(t)
1
1
Simulated water elevation
Estimated water elevation
Figure 7.3: Simulated and estimated water elevation time history
Time (s)
t
25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200
D
r
i
f
t
F
o
r
c
e
(
m
)
F
(2)
2
(t)
1000
2000
3000
4000
Simulated sway drift force
Estimated sway drift force
Figure 7.4: Simulated and estimated sway drift force time history
Time (s)
t
40 80 120 160 200 240 280 320 360 400
S
w
a
y
o
f
f
s
e
t
(
m
)
2
4
8
4
8
No WFF
WFF gain 0.5
Time (s)
t
440 480 520 560 600 640 680 720 760 800
S
w
a
y
o
f
f
s
e
t
(
m
)
2
4
8
4
8
No WFF
WFF gain 0.5
Time (s)
t
840 880 920 960 1000 1040 1080 1120 1160 1200
S
w
a
y
o
f
f
s
e
t
(
m
)
2
4
8
4
8
No WFF
WFF gain 0.5
Figure 7.5: Performance comparison between simulations with and without
wave feed-forward
improvement. Table 7.1 shows that the improvement is sensible in
terms of offset from set-point. In Table 7.2, where the signicant
wave height is higher, also the benecial effect on the time over
which the thrusters are not able to guarantee the thrust demand is
evidenced.
Table 7.1: Performance improvement achieved with wave feed-forward,
H
s
= 3.0 m
std(
2
) max(
2
) min(
2
) Saturation Time %
No WFF 3.47 11.05 12.83 2.94
WFF gain 0.5 1.86 7.24 7.82 2.53
Table 7.2: Performance improvement achieved with wave feed-forward,
H
s
= 3.5 m
std(
2
) max(
2
) min(
2
) Saturation Time %
No WFF 4.90 10.89 19.95 15.83
WFF gain 0.5 3.04 13.14 12.17 10.89
In conclusion, the approach here presented and tested by means
of simulation results highly promising. Besides the main advantage
of reducing deviation from set-point, also thruster saturation is di-
minished. The second aspect, though not the rst objective of the
study, can be critical for the problem of wear and tear on machinery.
In severe environments where the availability of full propulsion is
needed for operation, an out of order thruster can lower the allow-
able sea state enough to enforce suspension. Even if the sea state to
withstand is not any dangerous, authorities ask marine contractors
to operate in DP3 mode in certain sensible areas, which means full
redundancy must be achieved. Again, failures could stop operation
due to having made the propulsion system insufcient with regard
to safety requirements, if not directly unable to keep position.
7.3 data analysis 147
7.3 data analysis
The analysis of data derived from simulation or on-board logs
taken by the DP software evidences the role of delays in perfor-
mance degradation, and insight into the improvements shown in
Section 7.2.1. The following pages analyse the sway motion and
thrust in a beam sea situation, as it is the most critical for DP per-
formance of a ship-shaped vessel.
Figure 7.6 shows the time histories of sway offset, sway velocity
and lateral thrust during a 1 h long simulation in beam sea, sig-
nicant wave height H
s
= 3.5 m, without any wave feed-forward
strategy included in control algorithm. The delays between sway ve-
locity and sway offset, sway thrust and sway offset, sway thrust and
sway velocities are displayed by means of cross-correlation plots in
Figure 7.7. It is evident from the upper plot that as expected the
velocity anticipates the offset. The plot in the middle shows that the
thrust is applied indeed slightly before displacement actually hap-
pens, due to the derivative control action. The lower plot evidences
that the thrust is put in place signicantly later the velocity builds
up.
The same discussion is developed for the simulated signals when
the wave feed-forward with 0.5 gain is switched on. Figure 7.8
shows the sway-direction displacement and velocity and the lat-
eral thrust as a consequence of the same sea of the previous sim-
ulation (the same random seed is used in waves generation). The
cross-correlation plots in Figure 7.9 evidence how the delays have
changed switching on the wave feed-forward based on real-time
estimation. The dashed lines mark the maximum-correlation lags
of the previous example. In particular, it is noted that the thrust
delay with respect to velocity is reduced. Further, the correlation
between second order motion signals and the thrust is, as expected,
lower due to the introduction of the wave drift estimated as a feed-
forward. Table 7.3 and Table 7.4 compare the lags for maximum
correlation between the signals analysed in this section.
The above observations clearly state that the delays that exist be-
tween the in-plane (second order) motion and the counteraction by
the propulsion system is still signicant. Further, the analysis of in-
eld measurement logs evidence that due to un-modelled systems,
e.g. the power generators, some delays could be affected by the mod-
els presented along this work and by particular operating conditions
Time (s)
600 1200 1800 2400 3000
S
w
a
y
o
f
f
s
e
t
(
m
)
2
4
8
4
8
S
w
a
y
v
e
l
o
c
i
t
y
(
m
/
s
)

2
0.25
0.50
0.25
0.50
Time (s)
t
600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
L
a
t
e
r
a
l
T
h
r
u
s
t
(
m
)
2
2000
4000
2000
4000
Figure 7.6: Sway offset and velocity compared with lateral thrust force
Lag (s)
10 20 30 10 20 30
R
x
y
1
1
Sway Velocity - Sway
Lag (s)
10 20 30 10 20 30
R
x
y
1
1
Sway Thrust - Sway
Lag (s)
10 20 30 10 20 30
R
x
y
1
1
Sway Thrust - Sway Velocity
Figure 7.7: Cross-correlations between sway, sway velocity and lateral
thrust signals.
Table 7.3: Motion-actuation lags for maximum correlation during simulated
beam sea without wave feed-forward, with regard to sway degree
of freedom
Thrust Displacement Velocity
Thrust - 12 38
Displacement 12 - 57
Velocity 38 57 -
Time (s)
600 1200 1800 2400 3000
S
w
a
y
o
f
f
s
e
t
(
m
)
2
4
8
4
8
S
w
a
y
v
e
l
o
c
i
t
y
(
m
/
s
)

2
0.25
0.50
0.25
0.50
Time (s)
t
600 1200 1800 2400 3000 3600
L
a
t
e
r
a
l
T
h
r
u
s
t
(
m
)
2
2000
4000
2000
4000
Figure 7.8: Sway offset and velocity compared with lateral thrust force from
thrusters feedback, with WFF (0.5 gain)
Lag (s)
10 20 30 10 20 30
R
x
y
1
1
Sway Velocity - Sway
Lag (s)
10 20 30 10 20 30
R
x
y
1
1
Sway Thrust - Sway
Lag (s)
10 20 30 10 20 30
R
x
y
1
1
Sway Thrust - Sway Velocity
Figure 7.9: Cross-correlations between sway, sway velocity and lateral
thrust signals, with WFF (0.5 gain)
Table 7.4: Motion-actuation lags for maximum correlation during simulated
beam sea with wave feed-forward at 0.5 gain, with regard to sway
degree of freedom
Thrust Displacement Velocity
Thrust - 10 32
Displacement 10 - 48
Velocity 32 48 -
which may arise (e.g. failure in one or a group of generators may
increase response time).
7.3.1 Motivation for predictive approach
An innovative approach to wave feed-forward is here proposed,
with the aim to ll the gap that real-time estimation methods still
show in simplied simulations carried out to preliminarily assess
the possibility to extract useful information from rst order motion.
The main concern in severe environments is the duration of peri-
ods of time in which high drift forces are applied due to high wave
groups. During such events the limited thrust capacity is insuf-
cient to cope with the environmental forces. On the other side, it is
not practical to try to deal with the problem by increasing thrust
capacity, because the operational drawbacks linked to storage and
working areas reduction, and power generation requirements would
evidence the choice being far from optimal. The well-established
practice in dynamic positioning design is to recover from periods
in which the thrust capacity is exceeded by exploiting the relatively
low forces applied by the waves following a high group. Rather, it
is intuitively expected that shall be possible to enhance operability
if the thrusters could be powered to higher regimes before the wave
groups impact the hull, preventing motion with long recovery peri-
ods associated with the vessel inertia.
The scope of strategy here proposed is to operate a very short Articial Neural
Networks
term forecast on wave groups, exploiting the regularity of the wave
pattern. Neural networks are a powerful tool for signal prediction,
not yet applied to the eld of dynamic positioning. The following
Section 7.4 gives an introduction to the Articial Neural Networks
(ANNs) and proposes different architectures to be applied to the
present problem. Finally, in Section 7.6 the integration of a suited
combination of the presented neural networks designs into the stan-
dard DP algorithm is shown, with performance comparison.
7.4 neural networks
A denition of neural networks is the following (Haykin, 1998):
A neural network is a massively parallel distributed pro-
cessor made up of simple processing units, which has
a natural propensity for storing experiential knowledge
7.4 neural networks 153
and making it available for use. It resembles the brain in
two respects:
a. Knowledge is acquired by the network from its en-
vironment through a learning process.
b. Interneuron connection strengths, known as synap-
tic weights, are used to store the acquired knowl-
edge.
See also Aleksander and Morton (1995) for an alternative denition.
Haykin also lists a number of properties and capabilities that Properties and
capabilities
make the use of neural networks appealing in multiple elds of
interest. In particular, ANNs are nonlinear, thus able to catch the
behavior of inherently nonlinear systems, and adaptive, such that
they can update the internal synaptic weights to the changes in
the surrounding environment. The latter ability is very important
when the process to be identied is subject to changes depending
on weather conditions and geographical location as in offshore ap-
plications. Another important characteristic of the neural networks
when it comes to task-critical role, is to be able, with some specic
architecture, to give information about the condence of the classi-
cation or prediction. In the particular application here studied, the
condence evaluation is an important parameter to tune the wave
feed-forward weight. By the denition given before, the most im-
portant aspect of neural networks is immediately understood: they
are able to deduce information on a system or a process without any
externally-induced knowledge as a model or equations. This charac-
teristic makes ANNs useful when a sufciently reliable model is not
available or process formalisation through equations is too complex.
The black-box nature of the neural network does not mean it is
uncontrollable. Notably, invariances are purposely built in networks
in several situations, e.g. in text recognition from images, there must
be an invariance with respect to rotations (a character must be recog-
nised as the same character if it is rotated). Other means are avail-
able also to build in the network some prior information about the
process, as the possibility to restrict some connections or constrain
weights. The users ability is to model a network with all the avail-
able knowledge built in but still able to adapt to the process driven
by data.
The fundamental concern in neural networks is training. This is
the way the ANNs acquire knowledge from environment, as per
their denition. The training algorithm solves in general an opti-
mization problem, since it is mathematically aimed at nding the
set of parameters (synaptic weights) that best t the training data.
Many training algorithms have been developed, often linked to the
particular network architecture. Some of them will be named or
briey presented when used in the applications useful for the present
work.
As the denition states, neural networks are made up of simple
processing units. The details on the mathematical expression of these
simple units will be presented in next Section 7.4.1.
7.4.1 Neuron model
The brief description of neural networks give in previous para-
graphs did not specify any detail on the computational structure on
which ANNs are based, since it is not necessary when the scope is
to describe their characteristics and eld of application.
See Figure 7.10 for a schematic representation of a simple neuron,
identied by the k index. The inputs x
1
, x
2
. . . x
m
are multiplied by
the synaptic weights w
k,1
, w
k,2
. . . w
k,m
and summed up. The bias b
k
is added as well. The sum v
k
(induced local eld) is the argument of
the function (v
k
), which nally builds the neuron output y
k
. The
output of the neuron is therefore calculated by the following Eq. 7.11
y
k
=
_
m
j=0
w
k,j
x
j
+ b
k
_
(7.11)
Note that the bias can be regarded as a weight applied to an ad-
ditional constant input with unitary value. For this reason, in the
following sections the bias will not be explicitly represented, to sim-
plify the graphical network schemes.
The function (v
k
), said activation function, has the aim of limiting Activation
function
the range of the neuron output. Different activation function can be
used for the scope, the most common being the threshold function,
the piecewise linear function, and the sigmoid function (see Fig-
ure 7.11). In particular a very common sigmoid function massively
used in ANNs is the logistic function:
(v) =
1
1 +exp(av)
(7.12)
with a the slope parameter.
w
k,1
w
k,2
.
.
.
w
k,m
x
1
x
2
.
.
.
x
m
b
k
(v
k
)
y
k
v
k
Figure 7.10: Neuron model
7.4.2 Basic network architectures
A single neuron like the one described at previous Section 7.4.1 is
able to model only very simple input-output relations. The power of
ANNs, similarly to the human brain, develops as the number of neu-
rons grows. The basic architecture is the single-layer feed-forward net-
work, as in Figure 7.12. In the depicted example three source nodes
are connected to two neurons. The output of those neurons is the
output of the network, therefore in this case the number of neurons
of the only layer must be equal to the number of outputs.
The limitation is removed by addition of a layer, as in Figure 7.13
where a multi-layer feed-forward network is shown. The hidden layer
can be composed by an arbitrary number of neurons, while the out-
put layer has a number of neurons equal to the number of network
outputs.
The data ow can be redirected such that output from a layer or
from the network itself returns (with unit or greater delay) as an in-
put for a particular layer, see Figure 7.14. The use of feedback loops
is mainly useful when the network output from the previous steps
carries important information to determine the next output. This
is particularly applied e.g. in time prediction of system response,
when the input to the network is indeed delayed and a lag exists
with the desired output, as will be shown in applications in the fol-
lowing section Section 7.5. A widely used tool for such operations
is the tapped delay line, see Figure 7.15. The input signal connected to
Induced local eld
v
2 1 0 1 2
A
c
t
i
v
a
t
i
o
n
f
u
n
c
t
i
o
n
(v)
0.33
0.66
1
(a) Threshold function
Induced local eld
v
2 1 0 1 2
A
c
t
i
v
a
t
i
o
n
f
u
n
c
t
i
o
n
(v)
0.33
0.66
1
(b) Piecewise linear function
Induced local eld
v
2 1 0 1 2
A
c
t
i
v
a
t
i
o
n
f
u
n
c
t
i
o
n
(v)
0.33
0.66
1
a = 0.5
a = 1.0
a = 0.5
(c) Sigmoid (logistic) function
Figure 7.11: Examples of activation functions
Input layer Output layer
Figure 7.12: Single-layer feed-forward network
Input layer Hidden layer Output layer
Figure 7.13: Feed-forward network with an hidden layer and two outputs
the single node at the left is passed through a number of unit delay
operators, such that the array of network inputs is composed by the
instantaneous value of the input signal and the values at the previ-
ous time steps. If the rst connections are cut, a delayed feed of the
input signal to the network is simulated, allowing for prediction in
advance of an arbitrary number of samples.
z
1
Unit Delay
Input layer Hidden layer Output layer
Figure 7.14: Recurrent network with an hidden layer
7.5 anns for drift force prediction
The neural networks have been proved to be an effective tool in
wave forecast applications, see (Deo and Naidu, 1998; Makarynskyy,
2004). In this section some neural networks applications are shown
for the particular problem tackled in this work. The networks here
7.5 anns for drift force prediction 159
z
1
z
1
.
.
.
z
1
Figure 7.15: Tapped delay line for prediction use
presented are mainly focused on prediction, but also some strategies
have been developed to obtain a measure of reliability in system
identication. The simulations presented here were developed in
MATLAB environment, supported by the Neural Networks Toolbox
(The MathWorks, Inc., 2008b), which provides functions for network
design and training.
7.5.1 Feed-forward input time-delay back-propagation network
The network architecture is represented by the simple scheme in
Figure 7.16. The single input node depicted is indeed a tapped delay
line, where the composition of an array with a delay from 5 to 30
samples takes place. With a sample period of 1 s the output of the
network will be a 5 s prediction of the input signal. The input signal
is therefore also the target signal to use in training.
The back-propagation term refers to the training algorithm, see
Haykin (1998). In particular, since it is highly desirable to have a
network learning to recognise the environment during operation,
the adapt learning function is used wherever possible. This learn-
ing strategy continues to update the network weights as new data
become available, such that the network is always in line with the
changing conditions.
z
5
: z
30
.
.
.
Input tapped
delay line
Sigmoid
hidden
layer (10
neurons)
Piecewise
linear
output
layer
Figure 7.16: Feed-forward input time-delay backpropagation network
An important parameter of the back-propagation algorithm is the
number of passes that is the number of times the same data is used for
training. The higher the number of passes the higher the accuracy
(up to saturation), but the computation time is increased as well,
see Figure 7.17. The computation time is plotted as increase factor
with respect to the single-pass training. A factor inuencing the ef-
ciency of training is the initialization of weights. Here the Nguyen
and Widrow (1990) algorithm has been selected; the initialization
is performed with the aim of distributing evenly the active region
of each neuron with respect to the input space. The algorithm con-
tains a degree of randomness, such that repeating the initialization
results in slightly different performance, at least in the rst phase of
incremental training.
In Figure 7.18 a network like the one depicted in Figure 7.16 is
used to predict the envelope of the heave time history for a barge
under the action of a 3.5 m signicant wave height, peak period 10 s.
The envelope has been calculated as the absolute value of the nu-
merical Hilbert transform. The time history sampling period is 1 s,
and the tapped delay line prepares the input array composed by
samples with a delay from 5 to 30. The prediction is thus performed
5 s in advance. The plot shows the tting performance after 3000 s
of incremental training. The 10 passes tting achieves better perfor-
mance as visible, with delay signicantly reduced.
Number of passes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
M
e
a
n
s
q
u
a
r
e
d
e
r
r
o
r
0.05
0.07
0.09
0.11
0.13
C
o
m
p
u
t
a
t
i
o
n
T
i
m
e
M
u
l
t
i
p
l
i
e
r
2
4
6
8
10
Figure 7.17: Network performance and training time (factor with respect to
single-pass training) as a function of the number of passes
Time (s)
t
3000 3050 3100 3150 3200 3250 3300 3350 3400 3450
H
e
a
v
e
e
n
v
e
l
o
p
e
(
m
)
3,env
0.25
0.5
0.75
1.00
1.25
Target
Single pass
10 passes
Figure 7.18: Example of prediction performance with single-pass incremen-
tal training, compared with a 10 passes training
7.5.2 Recurrent input time-delay network
The network described at the previous section completely ignores
the measurements between up to the minimum delay of the tapped
delay line. This is the main source of inaccuracy, that can be partially
recovered by means of recursion. The net in Figure 7.19 uses the
predictions made at the last time steps to ll the gap between the
current time and the rst available measurement. Besides the input
tapped delay line, the 30 neurons in the hidden layer are fed by
another delay line acting on previous network outputs.
z
10
: z
50
.
.
.
z
1
: z
9
Input tapped
delay line
Sigmoid
hidden
layer (30
neurons)
Piecewise
linear
output
layer
Figure 7.19: Recurrent input time-delay network
As evidenced by Figure 7.20 the prediction after 3000 s of incre-
mental training is quite good, the higher incoming waves groups are
almost correctly predicted. Note that the minimum external input
delay is here 10 s, equal to the wave period. The improvement has
been made possible without signicant increase of computational
cost.
Time (s)
t
3000 3050 3100 3150 3200 3250 3300 3350 3400 3450
H
e
a
v
e
(
m
)
3,env
0.25
0.50
0.75
1.00
0.25
0.50
0.75
1.00
Target
Prediction
Figure 7.20: Example of prediction performance with 10 passes incremental
training, 10 s advance prediction
7.5.3 Pattern recognition network
Pattern recognition networks are useful tools generally applied
to classication problems, where the most suited category must be
found given the properties of an object. Even though this is not
strictly the case, a particular network property can be exploited to
allow for reliability estimation.
The network structure is depicted in Figure 7.21. The scheme is
very similar to the one in Figure 7.16, with a modied number of
outputs. Each output corresponds to a class, each class is associated
to a level of the signal to be predicted, in this case the heave motion
envelope. The target signals to train the network have been shaped
such that only the one corresponding to the level is equal to unity,
while the others are zero. The network outputs will be ranging from
0 to 1. This way, not only an estimate of the predicted signal level is
made available, but a condence as well, see Figure 7.22. The value of
each output is represented by the grey level, with white correspond-
ing to zero and black corresponding to unity. The maximum con-
dence is indicated by a single output being equal to unity, whereas
similar grey levels indicate low condence.
z
5
: z
30
.
.
.
Figure 7.21: Pattern recognition network
The output of the network carries twice the information in it, with
important implications on the reliability of the wave feed-forward
systems. In particular, it is proposed the use of the obtained addi-
tional information in the global control architecture as a means to
tune the weight of the feed-forward term with respect to the stan-
dard feedback-based control action.
Time (s)
t
3000 3050 3100 3150 3200 3250 3300 3350 3400 3450
H
e
a
v
e
E
n
v
e
l
o
p
e
L
e
v
e
l
3,lev
1
2
3
4
Figure 7.22: Pattern recognition network results
7.5.4 Multiple input recurrent time-delay network
A more complex neural network architecture is here proposed,
based on multiple inputs. In particular, the 3-d.o.f. rst order motion
is used, to benet from different phasing. The roll motion is e.g. in
general in advance with respect to heave, because tends to be in-
phase with the wave slope for long wave periods, rather than with
wave elevation as it is for the heave. Each of the three signals is fed
to the network through a tapped delay line, see Figure 7.23. Further,
a feedback loop is implemented to keep the heave signal updated
with the estimates lling the gap with measurements.
The resulting network is trained as before with an incremental al-
gorithm. The complexity of the architecture and the increased num-
ber of neurons make training more expensive in computational time.
The feasibility of real-time incremental training with the required
number of passes must be checked for the nal implementation.
Figure 7.24 shows the performance of the described network while
predicting the heave motion with 20 s in advance. The tting is rea-
sonably good, with the network being able to catch the periods of
time when the motion envelope is increasing or decreasing. Note
that the delay of 20 s is quite an extreme requirement, since the typ-
ical response delay of the DP system is smaller (see Section 7.3).
z
1
: z
19
.
.
.
Heave
z
20
: z
60
Roll
z
20
: z
60
.
.
.
Pitch
z
20
: z
60
.
.
.
Figure 7.23: Multiple input recurrent time-delay network with three inputs
and a single output
Time (s)
t
3000 3050 3100 3150 3200 3250 3300 3350 3400 3450
H
e
a
v
e
(
m
)
3,env
0.25
0.50
0.75
0.25
0.50
0.75
1.00
Target
Prediction
Figure 7.24: Example of prediction performance with 10 passes incremental
training, 20 s advance prediction
7.5.5 Network architecture selection
Some of the network architectures designed in this work have
been described in previous sections, and a few conclusions can be
deduced about the selection of the most correct strategy to follow.
The best neural network is not univocally dened. A tradeoff ob-
viously exist between prediction time horizon and computational
resources needed for training. Not secondary is the aspect of the
reliability of the prediction, which is, even with a properly trained
network, decreasing when the input delay increases.
For the reasons explained above, the nal controller design shall
include a number of networks working in parallel and cooperating
to make available the best possible wave feed-forward signal, along
with the right weight to assume in the total demand. The following
section presents a possible implementation that tries to integrate the
ndings of the previous analyses into a working DP system model.
7.6 integration of neural networks into dp algorithm
A neural network has been designed to predict the rst order
heave motion under the action of waves. The output of the network
is used in the same way as in Figure 7.2, to obtain a wave elevation
signal through the approximated inverse RAO lter. The wave drift
force is then estimated as explained.
The network designed for this application is similar to the mul-
tiple input recurrent time-delay network described in Section 7.5.4,
with 10 s prediction time (20 samples with a simulation time step
of 0.5 s). The performance with regard to sway positioning under
beam sea conditions is plotted in Figure 7.25. The optimal weight of Optimal weight
the feed-forward term (determined by trial and error) is a bit higher
than in the real-time case. The comparison plot evidences that the
neural network guarantees the same performance of the real time-
estimate, but the prediction time of 10 s makes the computation and
build up of the required thrust fully feasible with no additional de-
lay. The performance obtained is therefore very near to what the
real-time estimation method permits only in principle.
Figure 7.26 shows the applied sway drift force compared with
the prediction. A number of wave groups is predicted with suf-
cient accuracy, some others are predicted in time but not correctly
estimated in amplitude, a small number is missed. In general, the
estimation quality can be found to be quite good, particularly with
7.6 integration of neural networks into dp algorithm 169
Time (s)
t
40 80 120 160 200 240 280 320 360 400
S
w
a
y
o
f
f
s
e
t
(
m
)
2
4
8
4
8
No WFF
WFF gain 0.5
ANN WFF gain 0.6
Time (s)
t
440 480 520 560 600 640 680 720 760 800
S
w
a
y
o
f
f
s
e
t
(
m
)
2
4
8
4
8
No WFF
WFF gain 0.5
ANN WFF gain 0.6
Time (s)
t
840 880 920 960 1000 1040 1080 1120 1160 1200
S
w
a
y
o
f
f
s
e
t
(
m
)
2
4
8
4
8
No WFF
WFF gain 0.5
ANN WFF gain 0.6
Figure 7.25: Performance comparison between real-time and neural net-
work wave feed-forward
respect to the fact that the peaks are often anticipated in time, if not
correctly guessed in amplitude. Despite of the imperfect superposi-
tion of the two signals, the DP behaviour is signicantly improved,
with potentially great impact on operability.
7.7 future developments
The wave feed-forward strategy proposed in previous sections of
this document demonstrated to be highly promising in simulation.
Still a number of practical concerns must be solved before a robust
application ready for eld operations can be deployed.
First of all, the proposed evaluation of prediction reliability must
be integrated with the overall architecture, to avoid the need of
proper weight selection by the operator. The network architecture
can be optimised based on logged data from sensors during test
campaigns or normal operation, to nd the conguration which
guarantees the best tradeoff between accuracy and prediction time.
Finally, the system must be tested from FMEA point of view (Phillips,
1997) to ensure robustness and allow for certication by marine au-
thorities.
Despite the fact that much work has to be done to get the sys-
tem up and running, the results are already good enough to justify
investment in further research and engineering.
Signicant improvements could result from adoption of innova-
tive measurement systems like wave radar, with additional process-
ing developed on-purpose, see Section 6.4.1. In particular, suitable
techniques to spot the high wave groups, follow their trajectory and
propagate their motion in the unobserved area near the hull are
desirable.
7.7 future developments 171
Time (s)
t
40 80 120 160 200 240 280 320 360 400
D
r
i
f
t
f
o
r
c
e
(
k
N
)
2
4000
8000
12000
16000
20000
24000
Time (s)
t
440 480 520 560 600 640 680 720 760 800
D
r
i
f
t
f
o
r
c
e
(
k
N
)
2
4000
8000
12000
16000
20000
Time (s)
t
840 880 920 960 1000 1040 1080 1120 1160 1200
D
r
i
f
t
f
o
r
c
e
(
k
N
)
2
4000
8000
12000
Figure 7.26: Simulated and estimated sway drift force time history, by
means of neural networks
CONCLUS I ONS
This work has been prepared at the conclusion of a Ph.D. course
during which the topics linked to positioning of vessels for offshore
construction, in particular pipe lay vessels, have been examined. The
scope of the study is justied by the new challenges to be tackled
by the offshore industry, regarding the maximisation of operability
in harsh environment, and safety.
Dynamic Positioning is a requirement for future lay vessels sup-
posed to be able to complete the next generation strategic trunklines
for hydrocarbon transportation. Solutions based on moorings be-
came less appealing in todays offshore construction market, while
thrust capacity on dynamically positioned vessel has reached satura-
tion due to the request of working and storage space. These factors
justify the efforts spent in control technology, with the aim of max-
imising the performance without excessive demand on machinery.
The concurrent design of the ship and its propulsion and con-
trol systems is nowadays a requirement reected also in the design
tools needed by industry. Simulation routines relative to different
engineering areas need now to be collected under a common frame-
work, to allow for analysis of the different aspects of the same prob-
lem. This need has been addressed in the present dissertation by
developing a number of models, thought to be integrated in a modu-
lar environment. This approach guarantees sufcient completeness
and expandability of the framework, both in the direction of more
detailed analysis on specic components, and in the direction of
simplied aggregated models which have demonstrated to be very
useful to understand the inuence of the great number of factors
involved.
Articial intelligence techniques have shown their power in multi-
ple eld of engineering. In particular, the typical application for Ar-
ticial Neural Networks, is where modeling by mathematical equa-
tions is not possible due to problem complexity. The Dynamic Posi-
tioning problem appears to be efciently approached by such tools.
The Wave Feed-Forward control technique, on which many efforts
have been spent since the early times of Dynamic Positioning, has
been showed to be successfully implemented in simulation with Ar-
ticial Neural Networks estimation of drift forces.
173
The activities described shall continue on two main aspects: Neu-
ral Networks optimization and integration, and innovative sensors
for wave groups prediction. The rst task regards the architecture
and cooperation of different Neural Networks working in parallel to
provide both a drift force prediction based on vessel rst order mo-
tion and a reliability information to weight the Wave Feed-Forward
contribution with respect to the position and velocity feedback term.
The second task regards the development of suitable processing
techniques to exploit the capabilities of innovative sensors, named
wave radars, and achieve effective tracking of high wave groups.
In conclusion, the present work aimed at the development of sim-
ulation tools and control techniques to push Dynamic Positioning
systems beyond the limits of currently operating vessels, ready for
the challenges of the next strategic projects.
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I NDEX
A
absolute position, 123
acceleration feedback, 99, 117
acoustics, 132
adaptive, 153
added mass, 75
Airy linear wave theory, 24
autocorrelation, 129
azimuthal thrusters, 100
B
base line, 132
Bernoullis equation, 22
bottom tow, 6
boundary conditions, 22, 23
C
cnoidal wave theory, 26
conclusions, 173
concrete-coated, 10
Constant energy sampling, 43
constant extension, 29
contact, 10
convex, 106
cost function, 102, 105
critical damping, 113
D
deep water, 26, 31
delay, 113, 139
Dilution of Precision, 127
direct acceleration approach,
117
Directional wave distribution,
46
directionality functions, 47
double-peaked, 40
drag, 100
drift forces, 71
Dynamic Boundary Condi-
tions, 22
Dynamic boundary condi-
tions, 23
E
ED50, 124
elasto-plastic, 10
ellipsoid, 31, 123, 124
extended Kalman lter, 92
extended thrust matrix, 104
extended thrust vector, 104
extrapolation, 29
F
lter, 48, 113
fully developed sea, 33
G
Gamma function, 47
Gauss-Markov process, 127
geodesy, 123
geoid, 123
GPS, 125
GPS sensor modeling, 127
gravity waves, 22
H
harmonic function, 24
Harris spectrum, 57
Hilbert transform, 160
I
183
184 index
incompressibility, 22
incompressible, 22
indirect acceleration ap-
proach, 117
introduction, 1
inviscid, 22
irrotational, 22
J
JONSWAP, 33, 38, 52
K
Kalman lter, 91
Kalman lter phases, 94
Kinematic Boundary Condi-
tions, 22
kinematic boundary condi-
tions, 23
L
Lagrange multipliers, 102
Laplace equation, 22
latitude, 123
least squares, 11
least-squares, 50
lift, 100
linear theory, 26
linear wave theory, 26
linearised boundary condi-
tions, 24
longitude, 123
longitudinal thrusters, 99
low-frequency model, 92
M
manoeuvrability, 106
MARIN, 138
measurement equation, 93
mid-depth tow, 6
model-based, 91
monolateral constraints, 10
Moore-Penrose pseudo-
inverse, 103
moorings, 81
most probable largest wave
height, 45
N
narrow-banded, 38
non-convex, 106
non-linear wave theories, 29
non-linearity, 74
non-penetration, 23
nonlinear programming, 105
O
observer, 91
optimal Kalman gain, 95
oscillating system, 110
P
Particle trajectories, 29
pay-out, 10
peak period, 33
periodic time history, 43
Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum,
37
potential function, 22
power consumption, 105
power spectral density, 48
predict, 94
prediction, 139
pressure, 22
productivity, 9
pseudo-inverse, 102
pseudo-inverse matrix, 102
Q
QTF, 74
QTFs, 113
quadratic programming, 106
R
radial plots, 112
Random frequency sampling,
43
index 185
Random phases, 42
range, 125
Rayleigh distribution, 45
real-time, 139
receiver clock error, 126
recursion, 162
recursive, 91, 94
reeling, 6
Regular wave theory, 24
resonance, 13, 15
rudders, 100
S
Sampling, 42
saturation, 105
sea state, 33
Sea state modeling, 33
seakeeping, 21
second order, 71, 75
seed, 52
semi-submersible, 7
shallow water, 31
signicant wave height, 33
single-peaked spectra, 33
singularities, 105
Software for sea state model-
ing, 51
specic gravity, 6
spectral moments, 34
spectrum, 33
spreading, 46
state-space, 91
stationary, 33
Statistics, 44
stiffness, 11
Stokes wave theory, 26
substantial derivative, 23
surface-tow, 6
swell, 33, 40
synaptic weights, 153
synthetic bres, 81
T
tensioner, 8, 12
thrust allocation, 99
thrusters, 99
time history realisation, 35
time series, 41
time-domain simulation, 21
Torsethaugen, 40
towing, 6
transceiver, 132
transfer function, 74
trunklines, 8
tug boats, 6
tunnel thrusters, 100
U
underwater positioning, 132
unscented Kalman lter, 92
update, 94
V
velocity potential, 26
virtual mass, 117
vorticity, 22
W
wave feed-forward, 137
wave ltering, 40
wave groups, 136
wave length, 24
wave number, 24
wave spectra, 21, 33
Wave spectra approximation,
48
wave spreading, 52
wave theory, 21
wave-frequency model, 92
Weather vaning, 10
weight matrix, 102
WGS84, 124
Wheeler prole stretching, 29
white noise, 129
186 index
wind feed-forward, 97
wind spectra, 56
wind speed, 35
Z
zero up-crossing period, 33

PHD Thesis - Federico Gaggiotti

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has been made.

are simply moved to another

factor is a normalising factor that comes

= 1 0.287 ln() (2.42)

Figure 4.1: Catenary line reference scheme for analytical model

are the matrix and vector, respectively, containing

will be reduced to a thrust vector f ,

100 200 300 400 500 600

Circular Frequency (rad/s)

Circular Frequency (rad/s)

Circular Frequency (rad/s)

0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2

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