Investigation on Effects of Mooring Line Fractures and Connector Failures for A Hybrid Modular Floating Structure System

The present work reports a Hybrid Modular Floating Structure (HMFS) system with typical malfunction conditions. The effects of both fractured mooring lines and failed connectors on main hydrodynamic responses (mooring line tensions, module motions, connector loads and wave power production) of the HMFS system under typical sea conditions are comparatively investigated. The results indicate that the mooring tension distribution, certain module motions (surge, sway and yaw) and connector loads (Mz) are significantly influenced by mooring line fractures. The adjacent mooring line of the fractured line on the upstream side suffers the largest tension among the remaining mooring lines, and the case with two fractured mooring lines in the same group on the upstream side is the most dangerous among all cases of two-line failures in view of mooring line tensions, module motions and connector loads. Therefore, one emergency strategy with appropriate relaxation of a proper mooring line has been proposed and proved effective to reduce the risk of more progressive mooring line fractures. In addition, connector failures substantially affect certain module motions (heave and pitch), certain connector loads (Fz and My) and wave power production. The present work can be helpful and instructive for studies on malfunction conditions of modular floating structure (MFS) systems.