Global performance comparison between composite and steel tendons in ultra deepwater TLPs

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Global performance comparison between composite and steel tendons in ultra deepwater TLPs

Wu, S. / Karayaka, M. / D'Souza, R.

Tendons that vertical moor TLPs are a major cost driver in deepwater TLPs. Carbon fiber composites have many of the desirable material properties for use as TLP tendon as an alternative to steel. This paper investigates the performance and cost impact on the overall TLP design. The focus is on the comparison of global performance of two generic Gulf-of-Mexico TLPs with steel and composite tendons in 7,000 ft water depth. Fully dynamically coupled TLP-tendon system dynamics of both TLPs has been analyzed in time domain with hydrodynamic input complete to 2nd order. The use of composite tendons leads to improvements on global performance related to airgap, maximum horizontal offset and maximum tendon tension. These improvements have been achieved despite the fact that the heave natural period of the TLP with composite tendons has been increased to 4.72 second from 4.2 second for the TLP with steel tendons. It is demonstrated that use of composite tendons in lieu of steel results in significant reduction in pretension, hull size and hull steel.