Distorted polyester lines for model testing of offshore moored platforms

Model tests of floating offshore platforms replace the mooring lines by inextensible cables connected to steel springs with a linear restoring capability. With the help of fundamental investigation on the similarity laws, the present work shows that the use of very thin polyester lines in model scaling is feasible and may allow a better physical representation of the full-scale polyester lines. The proposal is to use polyester lines with length distortion in order to keep the similar restoring capability and therefore, the same non-linear behavior would also be present during the tests. The work describes the application of these ideas in a model test of an Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) submitted to regular and random waves. The tests include both the linear spring lines and the distorted equivalent polyester lines, holding the FPSO model, submitted transversally to the same waves.