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CATENARY CATENARY MOORING SYSTEM

MOORING
SYSTEM

TAUT LEG
MOORING The catenary system is the most common type of mooring system employed in shallow water. The catenary refers
SYSTEM to the shape that a free hanging line assumes under the influence of gravity. The catenary system provides restoring
SEMI-TAUT forces through the suspended weight of the mooring lines and its change in configuration arising from vessel
MOORING motion. In other words under environmental loadings the moored vessel tries to lift the mooring lines, which create
SYSTEM
a restoring force. By catenary system the mooring line terminates at the seabed horizontally, the anchor point is
SPREAD only subjected to horizontal forces at the seabed. This requires that the mooring lines be relatively long compared
MOORING
SYSTEM to the water depth. With the increase of the water depth the weight and the length of the mooring line start to
increase rapidly. In deepwater the weight of the mooring lines becomes excessive and the mooring lines tend to
SINGLE POINT
MOORING hang directly down from the rig. The excessive weight diminishes the working payload of the vessel of floating
SYSTEM offshore structure. To overcome this problem synthetic ropes are used in the mooring line.
DYNAMIC
POSITIONING
SYSTEM

TAUT LEG MOORING SYSTEM

The taut leg system or taut system is characterized that the mooring lines are pre-tensioned until they are taut. By
the taut leg system the mooring line terminates at an angle at the seabed. A taut-leg system will usually have an
angle of between 30 and 45 degrees. This means that in a taut leg mooring the anchor point are loaded by horizontal
and vertical forces.

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By the taut leg system the restoring forces are created through axial elastic stretching of the mooring line rather
than geometry changes. The restoring forces are determined by the stiffness and elasticity of the mooring line. The
taut leg system has a much more linear stiffness than the catenary system that gives the advantage that the offsets
under mean load better can be controlled and the total mooring line tensions are smaller. A further advantage of the
taut-leg system is the better load sharing between adjacent mooring lines. The disadvantage of the taut-leg system is
that the mooring line must have sufficient elasticity to absorb the vessel wave motions without overloading.
The mooring lines of polyester rope have good characteristics for the taut leg system.
For deepwater the taut leg system is a better cost effective solution than the catenary system.

SEMI-TAUT MOORING SYSTEM

The semi-taut system is a combination of the taut mooring system and catenary mooring system, wherein some
parts of the mooring system are taut and other parts are catenary. The semi-taut and taut systems are better suited
for deepwater application than catenary system. The semi-taut system and taut system have shorter mooring lines
and require less seafloor space or seafloor spread than the catenary system. The shorter mooring lines result in
material saving.
In general the taut system and semi-taut system are lighter and cheaper designs than the catenary system for
deepwater applications.

SPREAD MOORING SYSTEM

The spread mooring system consist of many groupings of mooring lines, normally arranged in a symmetrical
pattern, attached to the bow and stern of the vessel. The system keeps the vessel or the floating offshore structure
on a predetermined location at a fixed heading at sea. Spread mooring systems can be used in applications requiring
long service life, in any water depth, and on any size of vessel. Spread mooring systems are most commonly used
in unidirectional environments on floating offshore structure that are insensitive to the direction of environmental
loads.
As the environmental conditions are multidirectional, this type of mooring system is not ideal. For the spread
mooring all types of mooring line configurations can be used with this system. The spread mooring system can
consist of an equally spread mooring pattern or a grouped spread mooring. The grouped spread mooring has the
advantage that the grouped spread mooring will provide better redundancy against possible progressive failure of a
mooring system and the maximum mooring line tension is 20% lower.

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Equally spread mooring (left) and grouped spread mooring (right)

SINGLE POINT MOORING SYSTEM

In the single point mooring system are the mooring lines connect to a single point. Single point mooring systems
are generally used on ships. The single point can consist of an external or internal turret, a floating buoy in a
CALM (Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring) or a SALM (Single Anchor Leg Mooring). The single mooring system
allow for a ship to weathervane into environmental conditions. The ship is often free to rotate through 360 degrees.
By the single point mooring system the mooring line are mainly determined by the bow sea loading condition. The
bow sea loading condition is significant smaller than the beam sea loading condition.

DYNAMIC POSITIONING SYSTEM

The dynamic positioning system is a station keeping system for floating units, which uses thrusters to compensate wind, wave
and current forces in a dynamic controlled mode to keep the unit on a predetermined location and heading at sea.
The dynamic positioning system does not have mooring lines. The dynamic positioning system can be used in combination
with a different type of mooring system to provide additional restoring forces.

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