Abstract
This paper investigates three different approximations of the full Quadratic Transfer Function (QTF) for calculating horizontal plane second-order difference-frequency loads on FPSOs, namely Newman’s approximation, full QTF without free surface integral and the white-noise approximation.
Second-order excitation loads obtained from approximated QTFs are compared in frequency-domain with those obtained by the full QTFs computed from second-order diffraction/radiation analysis in WADAM. The comparison is performed for a new-build FPSO in a range of water depths and environmental combinations. The full QTFs from second-order diffraction/radiation analysis are further compared to empirical QTFs as identified from cross bi-spectral analysis of model test results in irregular waves.
A mesh convergence study is presented for calculating full QTFs by the near-field approach in a second-order diffraction/radiation analysis. The importance of including viscous damping in heave, roll and pitch is illustrated for the mean wave-drift force in surge and sway.
FPSO motions and mooring line tensions from fully-coupled time-domain analysis in OrcaFlex is compared when using approximated QTFs and full QTFs from second-order diffraction/radiation analysis.
