Floating LNG Terminal and LNG Carrier Interactions for Side-by-Side Offloading Operation

Summary

Project Title:

Prinicipal Investigators:

M. H. Kim

Sponsor:

Industry Consortium

Completion Date:

August, 2005

Final Report:

A165 (Click to view final report abstract)

Note: This study is part of a broader project “Floating LNG Terminal and LNG Carrier Interactions for Side-by-Side Offloading Operation”.

The problem being analyzed is the hydrodynamic interaction between a side-byside moored Floating LNG Terminal and a LNG Carrier. The interactions between the two floating bodies is an interesting area of study mainly due to the resonance of the entrapped water column between the two vessels (known as Helmholtz resonance). This needs to be analyzed to accurately predict the motion characteristics of the system. The interaction effects due to wind was not analyzed for the sake of simplicity. Previous studies have shown that the second order drift forces can be significant for a multi-body system and can be a critical factor in the design of the mooring system. The analysis of mean drift forces (using Newman’s approximation) is also employed in the present study.