Mooring Systems for Very Large Floating Structures

Aditya Sankalp, Yves De Leeneer

DEEPBLUE Pte Ltd, 14 benoi Sector, Singapore -629847
E-mail: aditya.s@deepblue.sg, yves.dl@deepblue.sg

Abstract – Due to scarcity of land, very large floating structures (VLFS) are now being designed to cater for the increase in population and growth of coastal areas. The applications of VLFS includes floating piers, floating airports, floating bridges, floating fuel storage facilities and even floating cities. One of the key design aspects of VLFS is the mooring design. Mooring Design of VLFS is a challenge due to size of the structures, environmental loads, shallow water depths, space constraint for mooring lines and anchor installation. There are additional challenges pertaining to transportation of blocks, integration onsite and design allowance for possible future expansion of the VLFS. This paper looks into the hydrodynamic and mooring design of a typical VLFS. The relevant concepts, motion response, mooring design and design criteria will be presented. The mooring design will incorporate sensitivity studies on different material choices for mooring lines. Chain, Wire rope and polyester (Dyneema) will be considered for the mooring design. Additional issues pertaining to installation and future expansion of VLFS will be discussed.

Keywords – Very Large Floating Structures, VLFS, Mooring, Hydrodynamics, Chains.

Yves De Leeneer has more than 20 years of experience as a Naval Architect, Subsea Manager and Project Manager for FPSO, FSO conversions and subsea developments. He is inventor of a riser and umbilical support structure system for extreme shallow water, Patent (US 6, 857, 822, B2). He has published a paper in OTC 16721, “Multiple Riser System for Shallow Water”, Houston, USA. He is a C.Eng and C.MarEng, Fellow of RINA & IMarEST and has been managing DEEPBLUE since 2008.He is currently a member of Council IMarEST UK, representing Asia-Pacific. He was Chairman (2013-2015) and Vice-Chairman (2011-2013) for the Singapore Joint Branch of the Royal Institution of Naval Architect, and the Institute of Marine Engineering Science and Technology.

Aditya Sankalp is Technical Manager in DEEPBLUE Pte Ltd. Aditya has a BTech in Ocean Engineering & Naval Architecture from IIT Kharagpur, India and an MSc in Offshore and Subsea Engineering from NUS, Singapore. He has carried out mooring analysis and Naval Architectural studies for various types of floating structures. He is actively involved in design and installation of floating structures. He is an associate member of RINA and IMarsEST.