Concept of Gap Distance in Motion Interaction between Multiple Floating Bodies

Abstract

Conceptual study on gap distance between multiple floating
structures system was related to the effect of wave particle motion
on structure motion. The evaluation on the gap distance between
floating structures is an important study for multiple floating
structures system especially for deep water liquefied natural gas,
LNG exploration because the small gap distance between floating
structures is needed to guarantee the effectiveness of LNG
transfer. This conceptual study only discussed the effect of wave
particle motion to the varying of gap distance between structures
based on theoretical point of view. The expected result was
generated by simple harmonic motion equation but it is no been
validate in this paper. The expected result shown that the wave
length and the structures initial gap distance give a significant
effect to the minimum gap distance can be achieved by two
floating structures. The mentioned minimum gap distance in this
paper mean minimum distance between two floating structures
achieved due to surge motions induced by wave. In addition, the
comparison to various selected case found that at the condition
where one structure face wave crest and other structure face wave
trough will caused closest minimum gap distance between
floating structures but minimum gap distance will be the largest if
both structures face wave crest and wave trough at simultaneously.
Therefore, proper selection of initial gap distance for different
ocean condition can help to avoid crashing happen on structures
when experience wave induced motion.