2024A-GS18-5 Model Test for OPB Measurement of Mooring Top Chain with Floater Motion

Abstract

While there are high market expectations for Floating Offshore Wind as green energy, high mooring failure rate has been continuously reported in the preceding Oil and Gas industry. As one of the failure causes, Out of Plane Bending was reported in 2002 after the Girassol incident at Offshore Angola. Thoughseveral subsequent research has been conducted, it is unclear yet how large OPB moment occurs on thecatenary mooring chain by the floater motion. In this research, the motion was provided on 4 mm dia.catenary mooring chain with the exciter at the towing tank, and the bending strains on the subject chain link was successfully measured with underwater micro-size strain gauges. The measured bending strainsshow correlations with acceleration, amplitude of excitation, and mooring tension.