WAVE INDUCED COUPLED MOTIONS AND STRUCTURAL LOADS BETWEEN TWO OFFSHORE FLOATING STRUCTURES IN WAVES

Abstract

As oil or gas field moves deeper offshore area, offshore offloading operations such as Tandem or Side-by-Side arrangement between two floating structures take place in many locations throughout the world and also have many hydrodynamic problems. Therefore, the researches on the motion response and hydrodynamic force including first and second order between two floating structures are needed to have the more safe offloading operability in waves. In this paper, prediction of wave induced motion responses and structural loads at mid-ship section with hydrodynamic interaction effect between two offshore floating structures in various heading waves are studied by using a linearized three-dimensional potential theory. Numerical calculations using three-dimensional pulsating source distribution techniques have been carried out for hydrodynamic pressure distribution, wave exciting force, twelve coupled linear motion responses, relative motions and wave loads of the barge and the ship in oblique waves. The computational results give a good correlation with the experimental results and also with other numerical results. As a result, the present computational tool can be used effectively to predict the wave induced motions and structural loads of multiple offshore floating structures in waves.