Surge Response of a Compliant Offshore Structure by Time Domain Simulation

A single-degree-of-freedom equation of motion was used for modeling a compliant offshore structure exposed to viscous hydrodynamic loads. The equation of motion contains nonlinearities in the forms of both Duffing stiffness and Morison drag force with current. The water particle velocity and acceleration for calculating the Morison inertia and drag forces are modeled as Gaussian processes based on a Pierson-Moskowitz (P-M) elevation spectrum. The single-degree-of-freedom equation of motion containing different ocean current values are then numerically integrated via a fourth-order Runge-Kutta scheme. Time trajectories of the surge response displacements of the offshore structure and the response probability density curves are obtained. Furthermore, the ocean current influences on the response central moments up to the fourth order are studied. A literature review reveals that this is the first treatment of such a pair of nonlinearities in time domain. The simulation results are analyzed, and some conclusions valuable for engineering design are pointed out.