No. 333
January 1997
Catenary Mooring
Lines with
Nonlinear Drag
and Touchdown
L.O. Garza-Rios
M.M. Bernitsas
K. Nishimoto
Department of Naval Architecture
and Marine EngineeringNo. 333
January 1997
CATENARY MOORING LINES WITH NONLINEAR DRAG AND TOUCHDOWN
Prepared for the University of Michigan/Industry Consortium in Offshore Engineering
Department of Naval Architecture
and Marine Engineering
College of Engineering
The University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2145ABSTRACT
“Analytical expressions modeling the tension distribution and geometric deformation along
‘catenary mooring line, including touchdown effect and nonlinear drag, are developed . The
motions of a catenary mooring line in the horizontal plane are studied thoroughly. Due to the
complexity of the modeling equations, solution can be achieved only by iterative methods.
Approximate values for recursion in the solution of the horizontal tension in the catenary are
derived based on the first order approximation of the geometric properties of the line.
‘Expressions for the nonlinear drag in the horizontal plane of the catenary are derived based on
‘energy dissipation principles. ‘The resulting analytical expressions serve to calculate the forces
in the catenary due to drag in the horizontal plane. The nonlinear drag forces are then recast
into a form suitable for mooring applications.