Coupled motion analysis of a tension leg platform with a tender semi-submersible system

In this study, an experimental and numerical analysis have been carried out to investigate the coupled behavior of a Tension Leg Platform (TLP) combined with tender semi-submersible platform with focus on the multi-modal behaviors. Free decay tests were conducted for the TLP and semi-submersible, which showed that the TLP and semi-submersible system had complex coupled behaviors with multiple natural mode frequency components. To investigate this behavior rigorously, an eigenvalue analysis was applied. The natural modes and periods of the multi-body system were identified from the eigenvalue analysis. A selected set of model experiments was compared with corresponding numerical simulations which showed a good agreement.