• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.73-81
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• 1987

Dynamic analysis of tethers and platforms of tension leg platforms(TLP's) subjected to wave forces is presented in this paper. The efficient platform analysis model which can adequately include the dynamic characteristics of tethers is proposed, and the platform motion analyses are mainly carried out using this model. Also, the tether analyses are performed utilizing the finite element method with geometric stiffnesses due to the pre-tension in tethers. Two different. TLP's located in 1000 ft and 3000 ft waters are chosen as example structures. For the purpose of comparison, analyses are also carried out by two different models. One is the conventional model in which the tethers are idealized as weightless springs. The other is the coupled model of platform and tethers. A comparison has been made between the results obtained by three different models mentioned above. Also, effects of the conventional stiffnesses of tethers and the wave exciting forces acting on tethers for the tether responses are examined.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.26-32
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• 2022

Living cells generate, sense, and respond to mechanical forces through their interaction with neighboring cells or extracellular matrix, thereby regulating diverse cellular processes such as growth, motility, differentiation, and immune responses. Dysregulation of mechanosensitive signaling pathways is found associated with the development and progression of various diseases such as cancer. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms behind mechano-regulation, largely due to the limited availability of tools to study it at the molecular level. The recent development of molecular tension probes allows measurement of cellular forces exerted by single ligand-receptor interaction, which has helped in revealing the hitherto unknown mechanistic details of various mechanosensitive processes in living cells. Here, we provide an introductory overview of two methods based on molecular tension probes, tension gauge tether (TGT), and molecular tension fluorescence microscopy (MTFM). TGT utilizes the irreversible rupture of double-stranded DNA tether upon application of force in the piconewton (pN) range, whereas MTFM utilizes the reversible extension of molecular springs such as polymer or single-stranded DNA hairpin under applied pN forces. Specifically, the underlying principle of how molecular tension probes measure cell-generated mechanical forces and their applications to mechanosensitive biological processes are described.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.345-360
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• 2018

Increasing demand for large-sized Floating, Storage and Regasification Units (FSRUs) for oil and gas industries led to the development of novel geometric form of Buoyant Leg Storage and Regasification Platform (BLSRP). Six buoyant legs support the deck and are placed symmetric with respect to wave direction. Circular deck is connected to buoyant legs using hinged joints, which restrain transfer of rotation from the legs to deck and vice-versa. Buoyant legs are connected to seabed using taut-moored system with high initial pretension, enabling rigid body motion in vertical plane. Encountered environmental loads induce dynamic tether tension variations, which in turn affect stability of the platform. Postulated failure cases, created by placing eccentric loads at different locations resulted in dynamic tether tension variation; chaotic nature of tension variation is also observed in few cases. A detailed numerical analysis is carried out for BLSRP using Mathieu equation of stability. Increase in the magnitude of eccentric load and its position influences fatigue life of tethers significantly. Fatigue life decreases with the increase in the amplitude of tension variation in tethers. Very low fatigue life of tethers under Mathieu instability proves the severity of instability.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.10-19
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• 2010

ANSYS multi-physics software was applied to solve the coupled dynamic problem related to a full-scale TLP foundation for floating wind turbines. In this coupled dynamics simulation, the forced oscillation imposed on the tethers' top resulting from the sway of the wind turbine platform and the self-excited vortex-induced vibration (VIV) along the tether span have been taken into account. The stability of this tensioned tether system has been validated in the form of separate static and dynamic analyses. The dynamic characteristics of the tensioned tether linked to the floating wind turbine were analyzed by the resultant modal form and its corresponding vortex shedding pattern. The calculated result shows that even a slight forced oscillation imposed on the tethers' top leads to the VIV amplification and enhances the risk of instability in the case of low pretension. It is also found that the "synchronization" would be aggravated when the top tension decreases and the "2P" vortex shedding mode takes place. The increased top tension imposed on the tethers contributes to the stability of the tensioned legs by diminishing the oscillation amplitude markedly.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.2 no.5
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• pp.331-354
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• 2002

Tethers of Tension Leg Platform (TLP) are a series structural system where fatigue is the principal mode of failure. The present study is devoted to the fatigue and fatigue fracture reliability study of these tethers. For this purpose, two limit state functions have been derived. These limit state functions are based on S-N curve and fracture mechanics approaches. A detailed methodology for the reliability analysis has then been presented. A sensitivity analysis has been carried out to study the influence of various random variables on tether reliability. The design point, important for probabilistic design, is located on the failure surface. Effect of wind, water depth, service life and number of welded joints are investigated. The effect of uncertainties in various random variables on tether fatigue reliability is highlighted.

• International Journal of Ocean System Engineering
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.19-28
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• 2014

The tension leg platform (TLP) is a vertically moored structure with excess buoyancy. The TLP is regarded as moored structure in horizontal plan, while inherit stiffness of fixed platform in vertical plane. In this paper, a numerical study using modified Morison equation was carried out in the time domain to investigate the influence of nonlinearities due to hydrodynamic forces and the coupling effect between surge, sway, heave, roll, pitch and yaw degrees of freedom on the dynamic behavior of TLP's. The stiffness of the TLP was derived from a combination of hydrostatic restoring forces and restoring forces due to cables and the nonlinear equations of motion were solved utilizing Newmark's beta integration scheme. The effect of tethers length and wave characteristics such as wave period and wave height on the response of TLP's was evaluated. Only uni-directional waves in the surge direction was considered in the analysis. It was found that for short wave periods (i.e. 10 sec.), the surge response consisted of small amplitude oscillations about a displaced position that is significantly dependent on tether length, wave height; whereas for longer wave periods, the surge response showed high amplitude oscillations about that is significantly dependent on tether length.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.259-264
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• 2002

The technology development for ocean resources can be represented by the increase of water depth. TLP, Tension Leg Platform, is one of the most feasible systems for deep sea development. TLPs show a complex dynamic behavior resulting from the dynamic interactions among platform, tether system and riser system due to their hydrodynamic and structural dynamic characteristics in waves. This paper aims at the theoretical and experimental analysis on motion response of TLP in waves. It is composed of two parts as follows ；(1) wave and wave loadings (2) TLP motion.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.95-111
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• 2011

Increasing numbers of floating offshore wind turbines are planned and designed these days due to their high potential in massive generation of clean energy from water depth deeper than 50 m. In the present study, a numerical prediction tool has been developed for the fully-coupled dynamic analysis of FOWTs in time domain including aero-blade-tower dynamics and control, mooring dynamics, and platform motions. In particular, the focus of the present study is paid to the dynamic coupling between the rotor and floater and the coupled case is compared against the uncoupled case so that their dynamic coupling effects can be identified. For this purpose, a mono-column mini TLP with 1.5MW turbine for 80m water depth is selected as an example. The time histories and spectra of the FOWT motions and accelerations as well as tether top-tensions are presented for the given collinear wind-wave condition. When compared with the uncoupled analysis, both standard deviations and maximum values of the floater-responses/tower-accelerations and tether tensions are appreciably increased as a result of the rotor-floater dynamic coupling, which may influence the overall design including fatigue-life estimation especially when larger blades are to be used.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.327-342
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• 2014

The tension leg platform (TLP) is one of the compliant structures which are generally used for deep water oil exploration. With respect to the horizontal degrees of freedom, it behaves like a floating structure moored by vertical tethers which are pretension due to the excess buoyancy of the platform, whereas with respect to the vertical degrees of freedom, it is stiff and resembles a fixed structure and is not allowed to float freely. In the current study, a numerical study for square TLP using modified Morison equation was carried out in the time domain with water particle kinematics using Airy's linear wave theory to investigate the effect of changing the tether tension force on the stiffness matrix of TLP's, the dynamic behavior of TLP's; and on the fatigue stresses in the cables. The effect was investigated for different parameters of the hydrodynamic forces such as wave periods, and wave heights. The numerical study takes into consideration the effect of coupling between various degrees of freedom. The stiffness of the TLP was derived from a combination of hydrostatic restoring forces and restoring forces due to cables. Nonlinear equation was solved using Newmark's beta integration method. Only uni-directional waves in the surge direction was considered in the analysis. It was found that for short wave periods (i.e., 10 sec.), the surge response consisted of small amplitude oscillations about a displaced position that is significantly dependent on tether tension force, wave height; whereas for longer wave periods, the surge response showed high amplitude oscillations that is significantly dependent on wave height, and that special attention should be given to tethers fatigue because of their high tensile static and dynamic stress.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.223-228
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• 1987

An efficient method for the calculation of wave forces on a tension leg platform(TLP) is presented in this paper. It is based on the Morison's equation with two corrective terms. One is the reduction of the inertia forces on the vertical columns in order to include the wave diffraction effect particularly for small wave conditions. The other is the inclusion of the hydrodynamic forces acting at the bottoms of the columns. Numerical studies are carried out for a TLP in 1000 ft water with two different wave heading angles($0^{\circ}$ and $45^{\circ}$). The reponse amplitude operators(RAO's) for the TLP motions and top tether tension variations are obtained by the present method and the theoretically more accurate method based on the diffraction theory. A comparison has been made between the results obtained by two methods.