Hydroelastic responses and interactions of mega floating fuel storage modules

Abstract

The floating fuel storage facility is proposed to cater for the increasing demands of fuel consumption. Such floating facility usually consists of box-like floating storage modules that are placed side-by-side and protected by floating breakwater. These box-like floating modules and breakwater are modeled as an equivalent solid plate by employing the non-conforming quadratic-serendipity (NC-QS) element based on the Mindlin plate theory. On the other hand, the water wave is modeled using the linear wave theory. The solution for the hydroelastic response involves solving the coupled water-plate equation and the boundary integral equation for the water part simultaneously using the hybrid finite element-boundary element (FE-BE) method. The numerical model is verified with existing numerical results and validated with experimental test. Numerical simulations are performed to study the effect of hydroelastic behavior towards the structural responses when the floating modules are placed side-by-side. Besides that, the wave runup due to the wave propagation through the channel formed by the storage modules is also studied. These studies enable the design of a suitable channel width that involves a trade-off decision between having minimum structural hydroelastic response and maximum loading capacity. The steady drift forces, allowing for the hydroelastic interaction of floating modules, are also computed. These forces are significant for the mooring dolphin system design.