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Title: New concepts for mooring offshore structures

Conference · · Offshore Technol. Conf.; (United States)
OSTI ID:6892987

This paper describes the work carried out on behalf of the UK Department of Energy into mooring concepts for the permanent mooring of large floating structures in hostile environments. In particular the mooring of structures for the conversion of wave energy for power generation in the North Atlantic Ocean. The size of the structures envisaged are not particularly large compared with offshore structures, or ships, however unlike offshore structures the wave energy convertors are designed for a high degree of interaction and response to the wave motion and therefore experience high mooring forces. But in one particular installation, a total of 1400 devices are required over a 144 km distance in order to provide a 2 GW output. However, for others it is more likely to be between 150 and 300 devices covering a proportionately smaller sea area. The mooring concepts which have been conceived for wave energy devices are novel in that they lie beyond current mooring practice; nevertheless, they may well be applied to offshore oil and gas production rigs in the future, so that permanent floating structures could be considered in preference to fixed structures, providing more cost-effective options for operating in deeper water and bringing current marginal fields into production.

Research Organization:
National Engineering Laboratory
OSTI ID:
6892987
Report Number(s):
CONF-830514-
Journal Information:
Offshore Technol. Conf.; (United States), Vol. 1; Conference: Offshore technology conference, Houston, TX, USA, 2 May 1983
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English