Mooring Analysis of Very Large Floating Structures in Malaysian South China Sea Waters

Very large floating structures (VLFS) are any structure of which the largest dimension is greater than its characteristic length. This technology has been studied over a long period of time in Japan, though not much interest has been shown in the rest of the world. As evident by the varied applications of VLFS in Japan, there are potentially limitless opportunities for the implementation of such technology in Malaysia. Having said that, little work has been done with respect to the implementation of this technology in Malaysian waters. This paper will be focusing on establish the relationship between vessel size, water depth and operating sea states (wave height and period, current speed, and wind speed) on fender forces. The scope of study for this paper has been limited to the region of Malaysian South China Sea waters which covers the East coast of Malaysia, stretching to the West coast of Sabah and Sarawak. Hence, the operating conditions which were considered, namely, wave height, wind speed and current speed will be in accordance with the conditions found in the aforementioned region only. In order to identify the correlation between the mooring requirements, vessel dimension and operating depth, a hydro dynamic analysis was first conducted, followed by a hydrodynamic time response analysis on ANSYS Aqwa.