Technique for Efficient Time-Domain Analysis of Complete Buoy-Cable Systems

Abstract

A brief description is given of a computer program for the time domain analysis of the two-dimensional dynamic behavior of general ocean buoy-cable-body systems. Several sample problems are given to illustrate the versatility of the program. The concept of using the results for a cable with reduced elastic modulus, adjusted so that the cable does not stretch, to predict the dynamic behavior of a nearly inextensible cable with much higher elastic modulus is discussed in detail. Except for the transient phase, it is shown that this technique generally predicts tensions and motions with errors of only a few percent for nearly inextensible cables which would otherwise require substantially longer computer times.