THE MOORING DESIGN OF AN ELASTIC MOORING SYSTEM CONSIDERING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF ELASTIC MATERIALS AND VARIATIONS IN WATER DEPTH

Abstract

 Elastic mooring lines always exert tension, enabling the stable position holding of floating bodies. However, there are no examples of their application to superlarge floating bodies, and guidelines for mooring design do not seem to include descriptions regarding the mooring design of elastic mooring lines. In their previous research, Sugawara et al. prepared a superlarge floating body moored by a mooring systemcomposed of multiple elastic mooring lines. They clarified the relationship between the restoration force characteristics of the elastic mooring systemand the motion response characteristics of the floating body.They also presented a series of procedures to assist in the design of an elastic mooring system, which enables designers to select the specifications of elastic mooring lines that satisfy the allowable motion amplitude determined by their application and operation methods.We conducted a study to verify the applicability of this series of procedures even when the characteristics of rubber ropes or water depth are altered, using the proposed workflow, enabling designers to freely select the specifications of mooring lines for elastic mooring systems according to the intended use when designing floating bodies.