Computation of Wave-Induced Drift Forces Introduced by Displaced Position of Compliant Offshore Platforms

Abstract

The wave forces computed at the displaced position of offshore structures may introduce additional drift forces. This contribution is particularly significant for compliant offshore structures that are configured by design to experience large excursions under the environmental load effects, e.g., tension leg platform. In a random sea environment, this feature can be included in the time domain analysis by synthesizing drag and diffraction forces through a summation of a large number of harmonics with an appropriate phase relationship that reflects the platform displaced position. This approach is not only limited to the time domain analysis, but the superposition of a large number of trigonometric terms in such an analysis requires a considerable computational effort. This paper presents a computationally efficient procedure in both the time and frequency domains that permits inclusion of the time-dependent drift forces, introduced by the platform displacement, in terms of linear and nonlinear feedback contributions. These time-dependent feedback forces are expressed in terms of the applied wave loads by linear and quadratic transformations. It is demonstrated that the results obtained by this approach exhibit good agreement with the procedure based on the summation of trigonometric functions.