Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ken Huang
American Bureau of Shipping, Houston, USA
1. INTRODUCTION
The winter storm systems, such as those occurring in the Northern In selecting the vessel size it is important to keep the natural
North Sea (NNS) and Offshore Eastern Canada, are much more periods in surge and sway for the total system (vessel with its
predictable. They usually have a long duration and a large fetch mooring system) longer than at least three times the design wave
area, but with a limiting wind speed rarely exceeding 100 mph (87 spectral peak period. This will minimise the possible dynamic
knots). In contrast, revolving tropical storms, called Hurricanes in amplification of total system responses under the effects of wave
the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) or Typhoons in the South China Sea frequency energy in the period range of 3 to 25 seconds. To keep
(SCS), are shorter in duration and smaller in fetch area. The the natural periods in pitch and roll longer than the design wave
intensity of tropical cyclones, however, can evolve rapidly from spectral peak period is also desirable for reducing wave frequency
Category 1 with sustained wind speeds of just over 74 mph (64 motions of an FPSO. In most cases, this is, however, difficult to
knots) to Category 5 with wind speeds over 155 mph (135 knots). achieve. Bilge keels have, on occasion, been introduced to dampen
The design wave heights of winter storms can be higher than those roll and pitch motions.
of tropical cyclones because the winter storm duration is usually
much longer than that of the swiftly moving tropical cyclones.
The high uncertainty of tropical cyclones requires a mooring 4. VESSEL OFFSETS AND DESIGN PRETENSIONS
system designed with redundancy to prevent its progressive failure
if the 100-year return period design environmental criteria are Under the design environmental conditions of wind, current
exceeded. and waves, the total vessel offset and motions consist of three
components:
Table 1 gives typical design environmental criteria for some
geographic areas. As shown in this table, the 100-year return 1) Mean steady offset and equilibrium vessel heading due to
period design wind speeds of tropical cyclones in GOM and SCS static mean forces and yaw moment of wind, current, and
are much higher than that of a winter storm in NNS. waves,
1-Min. Wind Sig. Wave Ht. Peak Period Current 2) Low frequency motions due to slowly-varying wind and wave
Geo. Area: (Knots) (Feet) (Second) (Knots) drift forces, and
The mean offset and low frequency motions are a function of The scenario of non-collinear environments can be more
the mooring system stiffness. The mooring system stiffness can be accurately simulated using a time domain approach in system
adjusted by varying the initial design pretension of a mooring analysis. In order to accurately predict vessel responses at each
system under no environmental loading. The higher the design time step, the analytical procedure must be capable of incorporating
pretension and the mooring system stiffness the smaller the vessel wind, current and wave drift force and yaw moment coefficients at
offset will be. Usually the riser design will dictate the vessel offset various vessel headings, and using these to update the mean loads
criteria for the mooring system design. The unnecessarily high on the vessel at each time step. It is important to accurately predict
design pretension, however, will impose larger total line tension not only instantaneous mean loads on the vessel, but also time-
and thus result in lower safety factors for a mooring design. If dependent low frequency vessel forces and damping due to wind,
flexible risers, such as lazy-s shaped risers, are used, much larger current and waves. Therefore, a fully coupled dynamic analysis in
vessel offsets can be allowed with reduced design pretensions. time domain for mooring system responses with line dynamics will
Alternatively, the design pretensions can be reduced before the become the state-of-the-art analytical approach. More research and
evacuation of personnel on board an FPSO. With reduced design development work is required in this area. Model tests can be used
pretensions, the maximum total line tension is also reduced. This to verify analytical results of mooring responses especially under
will greatly enhance the reliability of a mooring system under a non-collinear environments.
severe tropical storm.
Following API’s recommended practice (API, 1996), both
ABS (ABS, 2000) and DnV (DnV, 1996) propose the following
5. ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES combinations for the total vessel offset and mooring line tensions:
For FPSO mooring systems, both vessel/mooring system and • Combination 1: mean + significant low-frequency + maximum
line dynamic analyses are to be performed. A simplified method of wave-frequency values, or
line dynamic mooring analysis is outlined in six steps:
• Combination 2: mean + maximum low-frequency + significant
(1) Calculate static environmental mean forces and yaw moments wave-frequency values.
acting on the vessel,
The higher value of the above two combinations will be used as the
(2) Find the resulting static equilibrium vessel position and design value.
heading with associated mean mooring line tensions,
(3) Determine low frequency vessel motions at the static 6. TURRET LOCATION AND VESSEL WEATHERVANING
equilibrium vessel position and heading,
The turret structure on an FPSO is fixed in space to the seabed
(4) Find mooring line tensions due to low frequency vessel by the mooring system. Mooring lines are attached to a turntable at
motions quasi-statically, the turret structure to allow the vessel to weathervane. The turret
structure can be located at any position between the bow and the
(5) Perform line dynamic analysis to derive dynamic line tensions midship. The turret location will determine the ease of
due to six degree-of-freedom wave frequency vessel motions, weathervaning capability of a vessel into the prevailing
and environment. The farther the turret is located away from the mid-
ship, the easier it becomes for the vessel to weathervane. For the
(6) Combine mean, low frequency and wave frequency tensions turret located at or near the bow, the vessel can weathervane
according to industry practice. passively by itself without thruster assistance. At the same time,
however, the closer the turret is placed to the bow, more pitch-
The line dynamic analysis can be performed in either induced vertical motions can be expected at the top of a mooring
frequency domain or time domain. In general, the frequency line. The large vertical motions at the turret location will increase
domain approach is used in conceptual and preliminary stages of line dynamic tensions. The total line tension will be approximately
mooring design and evaluation because of its efficiency. The time 20% higher for the turret located at or near the bow as compared
domain approach is recommended for the final design. with a turret location of about one third of the vessel length from
the bow as shown in Figure 2 below.
It is important to note that the above analytical procedures
were developed mainly for conventional semisubmersible-type Flare Living Quarters
mooring systems, which have linear mooring responses. For yaw-
sensitive ship-shaped vessels such as turret moored FPSOs,
however, the nonlinearities involved make these systems more
difficult to manage with the traditional procedures. For turret
moored FPSOs weathervaning into prevailing environments,
especially when analysed under non-collinear environments, there
are no steady state “mean” loads acting on the vessel. The force and
In the tropical cyclone prone areas, such as the GOM and the
SCS, personnel are usually evacuated before a severe tropical storm
reaches the project site. Hence, the turret has to be located at or
near the bow so that the vessel can weathervane passively without
thruster assistance. This will greatly enhance the reliability of a
mooring system designed for an FPSO.
Figure 4: Equally Spread Mooring Pattern
Introducing a submersible buoy along a mooring line near the
turret location can reduce the dynamic amplification of line As opposed to the equally spread mooring pattern, shown in
tensions due to large vertical motions at the bow turret location. Figure 4, the maximum line tension is approximately 20% lower
This design option of mooring line configuration will be further and the maximum offset is about 5% less under the worst one-line
discussed in Section 8. damaged condition. Therefore, the grouped-spread mooring
pattern will provide better redundancy (with a higher safety factor
on line tension) against possible progressive failure of a mooring
7. MOORING PATTERN system.
Traditionally, the equally spread mooring pattern has been
employed for mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs) based on 8. MOORING LINE CONFIGURATION
semisubmersibles. This is due to the more uniform environmental
loading acting on a semisubmersible from any headings relative to For the mooring line configuration, conventional mooring lines
the vessel. There is no need to weathervane a semisubmersible into generally consist of the combination of chain and wire rope.
the least loading direction. Besides, there is only one drilling riser Submersible buoys and/or clump weights may be introduced along
on a MODU. a mooring line for various design considerations.
An FPSO can carry many production risers through the turret. Figure 5 shows a typical mooring line configuration in shallow
The number of mooring lines and risers, which will be placed water. In shallow water (less than 100m), an all chain system can
through the turret, is limited by the physical space of a turret. The be used. To save cost the grounded portion may be replaced with
layout of mooring lines may pose interference concern with the lighter wire rope for a permanent mooring system. The long
risers. To alleviate this concern a grouped mooring pattern as mooring line length is required in shallow water. The extra line
shown in Figure 3 has been proposed. length is not required for preventing the uplift force at the anchor
position. The line length is used to provide the elasticity required
for stretches, otherwise the mooring line will become too stiff to
take large dynamic loads from vessel motions.
9. ANCHORING SYSTEMS • Grouped mooring pattern with higher factors of safety on line
tensions with one line broken design cases,
The anchoring points fixed to the seabed are the critical part of
a mooring system for keeping an FPSO on location. Depending on • Conventional mooring line configuration consisting of wire-
soil conditions and the required performance, there are various chain combination with submersible buoys, and
types of anchors that can be selected. There are basically two types
of anchors: • Conventional drag embedment anchors without uplift force at
the anchor position to allow anchor movement without
• Conventional drag embedment anchors, and causing total loss of anchor holding capacity.
• Anchors, which are designed to resist vertical loads, such as The mooring design options proposed in this paper will help to
pile, suction and vertically loaded plate anchors (VLAs). enhance the reliability of mooring systems designed for FPSOs in
tropical environments. By adopting these mooring design options,
There are concerns about VLAs designed to take vertical loads. it is hoped that the risk level of an FPSO operating in the Gulf of
These anchors may exhibit complete loss of their holding capacity Mexico will be comparable to those of other oil production
after pulling out from the seabed. This is in contrast to the systems, such as TLPs, SPARs, etc.
conventional drag embedment anchors, which can still retain
considerable amount of holding capacity even after some
movement under the environmental extremes. In addition, there
will always be some uncertainties involved in the analysis of the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
site-specific soil conditions. Therefore, ABS (Huang and Lee,
1998) requires higher safety factors for ultimate design holding The author is grateful to the ABS management for their
capacities of VLAs as compared with conventional drag encouragement in the writing of this paper. The author would like
embedment anchors. The safety factors of both types of anchors to thank Mr. Alan Cain for reviewing and preparing the figures
are listed below for comparison: presented in this paper.
(b) One- line Broken Design Environmental Condition American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), 2000, “Guide for Building
(1) VLA Anchors - 1.5 and Classing Floating Production, Storage and Offloading
(2) Conventional - 1.0 Systems (Revised Draft).”
Conventional drag embedment anchors are considered to have American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), 1999, “Guidance Notes on
some consequential advantages over VLAs. In case the design the Application of Synthetic Ropes for Offshore Mooring.”
environmental criteria would be exceeded and causing the anchor
to move, these drag anchors still can retain most of their holding American Petroleum Institute (API), 1996, “Recommended
capacity. In addition, with anchor movement the grouped mooring Practice for Design and Analysis of Stationkeeping Systems for
lines will adjust line tensions among themselves to reduce the peak Floating Structures,” API RP 2SK, Second Edition.
line tension of the most-loaded line.
Det Norske Veritas (DnV), 1996, “Position Mooring
(POSMOOR),” Part 6 Chapter 2, Rules for Classification of
10. CONCLUSIONS Mobile Offshore Units.
This paper presents a summary of mooring design experiences. Huang, Ken and Lee, Ming-Yao, 1998, “Experiences in
In particular, technical issues of turret mooring systems designed Classification of Deepwater Mooring Systems for Floating
for FPSOs have been discussed. Design options for enhancing the Installations,” OTC 8770.
reliability of a mooring system in general and under the effects of
revolving tropical storms in particular have been proposed. The Ma, Wei, Huang, Ken, Lee, Ming-Yao and Albuquerque, Sergio,
mooring design options presented are summarized as follows: 1999, “On the Design and Installation of An Innovative
Deepwater Taut-Leg Mooring System,” OTC 10780.
• Selection of vessel size to have natural periods in surge, sway,
roll and pitch longer than the design wave spectral peak
period, if possible,
• Passive mooring system with turret structure located at or near
the bow without the need to have thruster assistance for
weathervaning,