VARIABILITY OF HYDRODYNAMIC LOAD PREDICTIONS FOR A TENSION LEG PLATFORM

A survey of diffraction/radiation analyses has been performed on behalf of the International Ship and Offshore Structures Congress, Committee I. 2. This paper presents the results from the survey, including data from 17 organizations plotted in a common format. The variability of the computed hydrodynamic loads and responses is discussed, and it is concluded that there is a degree of uncertainty in results predicted on the basis of commonly used idealizations. Even in long period waves the variability between the computed results is considerable. To obtain reliable results at the shorter periods associated with heave, pitch and roll resonances of a deep water tension leg platform, much finer meshes than those used by most of the participating organizations would be required.