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Incoming years, the world is facing new problems such as the lack of land, due to the growing population and fast urban developments. Many developed island countries and countries with long coastlines in need of land have for some time now been successfully reclaiming land from the sea to create new space and, correspondingly, to ease the pressure on their heavily-used land space. In response to the aforementioned needs and problems, researchers and engineers have proposed an interesting and attractive solution the construction of very large floating structures. In recent years, an attractive alternative to land reclamation has emerged – the very large floating structures technology. Japan is the world’s leader in VLFS (Very large floating structures).VLFS can and are already being used for storage facilities, industrial space, bridges, ferry piers, docks, rescue bases, airports, entertainment facilities, military purpose, and even habitation in many countries. In this seminar paper we can discuss about the types of VLFS, Components of VLFS, the advantages, Disadvantages Applications of VLFS in detail. VLFSs can be speedily constructed, exploited, and easily relocated, expanded, or removed.
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VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURES (VLFS)
2012-2013
Seminar Report
Submitted by
Sahil K.A
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, THRIKKAKARA
COCHIN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
2 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
CERTIFICATE
Certified that this is a bonafied record of the seminar report titled
VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURES
Submitted by
SAHIL K.A
of VII semester Civil Engineering in the year 2012 in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the award of Degree of Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering of
Cochin University of Science & Technology.
Dr. Benny Mathews Abraham Dr. Deepa G NairHead of the Division Seminar Guide
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, CUSAT
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, THRIKKAKARA
COCHIN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND
TECHNOLOGY
3 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
ABSTRACT
Incoming years, the world is facing new problems such as the lack of land,
due to the growing population and fast urban developments. Many
developed island countries and countries with long coastlines in need of land
have for some time now been successfully reclaiming land from the sea to
create new space and, correspondingly, to ease the pressure on their heavily-
used land space. In response to the aforementioned needs and problems,
researchers and engineers have proposed an interesting and attractive
solution the construction of very large floating structures. In recent years, an
attractive alternative to land reclamation has emerged – the very large
floating structures technology. Japan is the world’s leader in VLFS (Very
large floating structures).VLFS can and are already being used for storage
facilities, industrial space, bridges, ferry piers, docks, rescue bases, airports,
entertainment facilities, military purpose, and even habitation in many
countries. In this seminar paper we can discuss about the types of VLFS,
Components of VLFS, the advantages, Disadvantages Applications of VLFS
in detail. VLFSs can be speedily constructed, exploited, and easily relocated,
expanded, or removed.
Keywords – VLFS,Applications of VLFS,Megafloat
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4 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page no.
i. CHAPTER I
1. Introduction
2. Components in VLFS7
9
ii. CHAPTER II
1. Creating VLFS
1. Analysis and Design
2. Approval of Government agencies
3. Fabrication and towing works
4. Joining of parts at sea
5. Maintaining the structure
2. VLFS in details
1. Advantages of VLFS
2. Disadvantages of VLFS
3. Applications of VLFS
1. Floating Bridges
2. Floating docks, piers, berths and
container terminals
3. Floating Plants
4. Floating Emergency Bases
5. Floating Storage Facilities
6. Floating Airports
3. Developments in VLFS
1. Mooring systems
2. Mitigating the hydro elastic responses
3. Connector designs
4. Other developments
4. Minimizing deflection in VLFS
10
10
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14
14
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15
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23
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5 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
5. Minimizing Motion in VLFS 24
iii. CHAPTER 3 27
1. Conclusion 27
2. Reference 28
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6 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
ACKNOWLEDMENT
It is matter of great pleasure for me to submit this seminar report on “Very Large
Floating structures “, as a part of curriculum for award of degree in “Bachelor of
Technology” in Civil Engineering Cochin University of Science and Technology.
First and foremost, we would like to thank to our supervisor of this project, Dr. Deepa G
Nair, Civil Engineering Department for the valuable guidance and advice. She inspired us
greatly to work in this project. Her willingness to motivate us contributed tremendously
to my topic. It gave me an opportunity to participate and learn about the Very Large
Floating Structures. Finally, an honorable mention goes to our families and friends for
their understandings and supports on us in completing this project.
SAHIL KA
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, CUSAT
7 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
CHAPTER 1 : 1. INTRODUCTION
The total land area of the Earth’s surface is about 148,300,000 square kilometers, while
the Earth’s surface area is 510,083,000 square kilometers. Thus, the main part of the
Earth’s surface is covered by sea, lakes, rivers, etc, which takes up 70 percent of the
Earth’s total surface area. Therefore, the land that we lived on forms only 30% of the
Earth’s surface. A large part of the Earth, which is the ocean, remains unexploited.
VLFSs can be constructed to create floating airports, bridges, breakwaters, piers and
docks, storage facilities (for oil), wind or solar power plants, for military purposes,
industrial space, emergency bases, entertainment facilities, recreation parks, space-
vehicle launching, mobile offshore structures and even habitation (it could become reality
sooner than one may expect). In certain applications of VLFS such as floating airports,
floating container terminals and floating dormitories where high loads are placed in
certain parts of the floating structure, the resulting differential deflections can be
somewhat large and may render certain equipment non operational. Therefore, it is
important to reduce the differential deflection in VLFS.
VLFS may be classified under two broad categories namely the pontoon-type and the
semi-submersible type (Fig. 1.1). The latter type has a ballast column tubes to raise the
platform above the water level and suitable for use in open seas where the wave heights
are relatively large. VLFS of the semi-submersible type is used for oil or gas exploration
in sea and other purposes. It is kept in its location by either tethers or thrusters. In
contrast, the pontoon-type VLFS is a simple flat box structure and features high stability,
low manufacturing cost and easy maintenance and repair. However, it is only suitable in
calm sea waters, often near the shoreline. Pontoon-type VLFS is also known in the
literature as mat-like VLFS because of its small draft in relation to the length dimensions.
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8 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
Fig 1.1 VLFS may be classified under two broad categories namely the pontoon-type and the
Semi-submersible type
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9 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
2.COMPONENTS IN VLFS
Japanese calls VLFS as Megafloat also. The components of a VLFS system (general
concept) are shown in Fig. 1.2. The system comprises
1. a very large pontoon floating structure,
2. an access bridge or a floating road to get to the floating structure from shore,
3. a mooring facility or station keeping system to keep the floating structure in the
specified place, and
4. a breakwater, (usually needed if the significant wave height is greater than 4 m)
which can be floating as well, or anti-heaving device for reducing wave forces
impacting the floating structure
5. structures, facilities and communications located on a VLFS.
Fig 1.2 Components of a VLFS system
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10 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
CHAPTER II1.Creating VLFS
Fig 1.3 Realization of VFLS project
Fig 1.3 represents the whole VLFS construction process. The whole VLFS project comes
to after these steps
1. Analysis and Design2. Approval of Government agencies3. Fabrication and towing works4. Joining of parts at sea5. Maintaining the structure
1.1 Analysis and designing
The analysis and design of floating structures need to account for some special
characteristics when compared to land-based structures; namely:
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11 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
1. Horizontal forces due to waves are in general several times greater than the
(nonseismic) horizontal loads on land-based structures and the effect of such
loads depends upon how the structure is connected to the seafloor. It is
distinguished between a rigid and compliant connection. A rigid connection
virtually prevents the horizontal motion while a compliant mooring will allow
maximum horizontal motions of a floating structure of the order of the wave
amplitude.
2. In framed, tower-like structures which are piled to the seafloor, the horizontal
wave forces produce extreme bending and overturning moments as the wave
forces act near the water surface. In this case the structure and the pile system
need to carry virtually all the vertical loads due to selfweight and payload as well
as the wave, wind and current loads.
3. In a floating structure the static vertical selfweight and payloads are carried by
buoyancy. If a floating structure has got a compliant mooring system, consisting
for instance of catenary chain mooring lines, the horizontal wave forces are
balanced by inertia forces. Moreover, if the horizontal size of the structure is
larger than the wave length, the resultant horizontal forces will be reduced due to
the fact that wave forces on different structural parts will have different phase
(direction and size). The forces in the mooring system will then be small relative
to the total wave forces. The main purpose of the mooring system is then to
prevent drift-off due to steady current and wind forces as well as possible steady
and slow-drift wave forces which are usually more than an order of magnitude
less than the first order wave forces.
4. A particular type of structural system, denoted tension-leg system, is achieved if a
highly pretensioned mooring system is applied. Additional buoyancy is then
required to ensure the pretension. If this mooring system consists of vertical lines
the system is still horizontally compliant but is vertically quite stiff. Also, the
mooring forces will increase due to the high pretension and the vertical wave
loading. If the mooring lines form an angle with the vertical line, the horizontal
stiffness and the forces increase. However, a main disadvantage with this system
is that it will be difficult to design the system such that slack of leeward mooring
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, CUSAT
12 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
lines are avoided. A possible slack could be followed by a sudden increase in
tension that involves dynamic amplification and possible failure. For this reason
such systems have never been implemented for offshore structures.
5. Sizing of the floating structure and its mooring system depends on its function
and also on the environmental conditions in terms of waves, current and wind.
The design may be dominated either by peak loading due to permanent and
variable loads or by fatigue strength due to cyclic wave loading. Moreover, it is
important to consider possible accidental events such as ship impacts and ensure
that the overall safety is not threatened by a possible progressive failure induced
by such damage.
6. Unlike land-based constructions with their associated foundations poured in place,
very large floating structures are usually constructed at shore-based building sites
remote from the deepwater installation area and without extensive preparation of
the foundation. Each module must be capable of floating so that they can be
floated to the site and assembled in the sea.
7. Owing to the corrosive sea environment, floating structures have to be provided
with a good corrosion protection system.
8. Possible degradation due to corrosion or crack growth (fatigue) requires a proper
system for inspection, monitoring, maintenance and repair during use.
1.2 Government approval
The plan of Megafloat must be evaluated and approved by the authority. The general plan
of Megafloat must be compliant with both the Port and Harbor Law and the Fishing Port
Law. Buildings on the Megafloat shall be regulated by both the Building Standard Law
and the Fire Defenses Law. Floating Structures are regulated by the Ship Safety Law.
Approval processes differ from law to law. A Megafloat Safety Evaluation Committee
must be proposed and accepted by the government. Experts and all government bureaus
in charge of the approval gather in the committee and evaluate the application. Once the
plan is judged to be acceptable, each bureau approves the plan. The Fig 1.4 represents
approval process.
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13 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
Fig 1.4 The approval process
1.3 Fabrication and towing of units
Units of a Megafloat are simple structure and construction itself is not a difficult task.
Most of the technology developments in the construction phase are related to construction
operation at sea. Experiments to test the towing of Megafloat units should be carried out
during the construction of onsite experimental models.
1.4 Joining of units at sea
Megafloat is constructed by joining unit structures that were fabricated in shipyards. Unit
structures are fabricated in the well-controlled environments of shipyards but the joining
of the units take place at sea and are exposed to the natural environment of the
installation site. Construction by dry welding with a water draining device and wet
welding at sea must be investigated. The influence of both wave conditions and unit
joining sequences on the responses of structure and performance of construction were
investigated.
1.5 Maintaining the structure The VLFS structure should be well maintained for
at least 100 years. Environmental impact studies should also be conducted. Inspection
and maintenance must be done regularly.
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14 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
2. Very Large Floating Structures in detail View
1. Advantages of VLFS
Very large floating structures have the following advantages over traditional land
reclamation in creating land from the sea:
They are easy and fast to construct (components may be made at shipyard and
then be transported to and assembled at the site), thus, the sea space can be
quickly exploited.
They are cost effective when the water depth is large or sea bed is soft.
They are environmentally friendly as they do not damage the marine ecosystem or
silt-up deep harbors or disrupt the ocean currents.
They can easily be relocated (transported), removed, or expanded.
The structures and people on VLFSs are protected from seismic shocks since
VLFSs are inherently base isolated.
They do not suffer from differential settlement as in reclaimed soil consolidation.
Their positions with respect to the water surface are constant and thus facilitate
small boats and ship to come alongside when used as piers and berths.
Their location in coastal waters provide scenic body of water all around making
them suitable for developments associated with leisure and water sport activities.
There is no problem with rising sea level due to global warming.
2. Disadvantages of VLFS:
Mat-like VLFSs are only suitable for use in calm waters associated with naturally
sheltered coastal formations (solution: use of breakwaters, anti-motion devices,
anchor or mooring systems)
(might be) not sufficient stability for the airport control systems (solution:
keeping these systems on a shore)
Low security (bombing, terroristic attacks).
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15 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
3. Applications of VLFS
VLFS can be applied to
1. Floating Bridges
2. Floating docks, piers, berths and container terminals
3. Floating Plants
4. Floating Emergency Bases
5. Floating Storage Facilities
6. Floating Airports and other offshore bases
3.1 Floating Bridges
Fig 1.5 Yumeshima-Maishima Floating
Bridge in Osaka, Japan
Yumeshima-Maishima Floating
Bridge in Osaka, Japan
In 1874, a 124-m long floating wooden railroad bridge was constructed over the
Mississippi River in Wisconsin and it was repeatedly rebuilt and finally abandoned.
Brookfield Floating Bridge is still in service and it is the seventh replacement structure of
a 98-m long wooden floating bridge (Lwin 2000). In 1912, the Galata steel floating
bridge was built across Istanbul’s Golden Horn where the water depth is 41 m. The 457-
m long bridge consists of 50 steel pontoons connected to each other by hinges. However,
in 1992, soon after a new bridge was erected just beside the original bridge, a fire broke
out and the old Galata floating bridge was burned down (Maruyama et al. 1998). The
sunken bridge is placed upstream after having been raised from the seabed. The lesson
that one can learn from this steel bridge is its amazing resilience against the corrosive sea
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, CUSAT
16 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
environment, contrary to engineers perception that corrosion would pose a serious
problem to such floating steel structures.
Other floating bridges include Seattle’s three Lake Washington Bridges, i.e. (i) the 2018-
m long Lacey V. Murrow Bridge which uses concrete pontoon girders and opened in
1940, (ii) the 2310-m long Evergreen Point Bridge completed in 1963, and (iii) the 1771-
m long Homer Hadley Bridge in 1989; the 1988-m long Hood Canal Bridge built in
1963 , the Canadian 640-m long Kelowna Floating (concrete) Bridge which was opened
to traffic in 1958, the Hawaiian’s 457-m long Ford Island Bridge which was completed in
1998. Fig 1.5 represents the Yumeshima-Maishima Floating Bridge in Osaka, Japan.
3.2 Floating docks, piers, berths and container terminals
There are in existence many floating docks, piers and wharves. For example, the 124 m x
109m floating dock in Texas Shipyard built by Bethlehem Marine Construction Group in
1985. Floating structures are ideal for piers and wharves as the ships can come alongside
them since their positions are constant with respect to the waterline. An example of a
floating pier is the one located at Ujina Port, Hiroshima (see Fig. 1.6). The floating pier is
150 m x 30 m x 4 m. Vancouver has also a floating pier designed for car ferries. Car ferry
piers must allow smooth loading and unloading of cars and the equal tidal rise and fall of
the pier and ferries is indeed advantageous for this purpose. A floating type pier was also
designed for berthing the 50000 ton container ships at Valdez, Alaska. The floating
structure was adopted due to the great water depth.
Fig 1.6 Floating Pier at Ujina, Japan
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17 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
VLFSs are ideal for applications as floating emergency rescue bases in seismic prone
areas owing to the fact that their bases are inherently isolated from seismic motion. Japan
has a number of such floating rescue bases parked in the Tokyo Bay, Ise Bay and Osaka
Bay.Another advantage of VLFS is its attractive panoramic view of the water body.
Waterfront properties and the sea appeal to the general public. Thus, VLFSs are attractive
for used as floating entertainment facilities such as hotels, restaurants, shopping centers,
amusement and recreation parks, exhibition centers, and theaters.
3.3 Floating Plants
In 1979, Bangladesh purchased from Japan a 60.4 m x 46.6 m x 4 m floating power plant.
The power plant is located at Khulna, Bangladesh. In 1981, Saudi Arabia built a 70 m x
40 m x 20.5 m floating desalination plant and towed to its site where it was sunk into
position and rests on the seabed. In 1981, Argentina constructed a 89 m x 22.5 m x 6 m
floating polyethylene plant at Bahia Blance. In 1985, Jamaica acquired a 45 m x 30.4 m x
10 m floating power plant. This plant was built in Japanese shipyards and towed to
Jamaica and moored by a dolphin-rubber fender system. Studies are already underway to
use floating structures for wind farms, sewage treatment plant and power plant in Japan.
Fig 1.7 represents Concept design of clean energy Plant by Floating structure association
of Japan.
Fig 1.7 Design of a Clean Energy Plant,Floating Structure Association of Japan
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18 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
3.4 Floating Emergency Bases
As floating structures are inherently base isolated from earthquakes, they are ideal for
applications as floating emergency rescue bases in earthquake prone countries. Japan has
a number of such floating rescue bases parked in the Tokyo Bay, Ise Bay and Osaka Bay.
and Figs.1.8 show the emergency rescue bases at Tokyo bay and Osaka bay, respectively.
Fig 1.8 Emergency Rescue Base In Tokyo Bay
3.5 Floating Storage Facilities
Very large floating structures have been used for storing fuel. Constructed like flat
tankers (box-shaped) parked side by side, they form an ideal oil storage facility, keeping
the explosive, inflammable fluid from populated areas on land. Fig 1.9 represents an Oil
storage base.
Fig 1.9 Shirashima Floating Oil Storage Base, Japan (Photo courtesy of Shirashima Oil
Storage Co Ltd)
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19 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
3.6 Floating Airports and other offshore bases
In more recent times, a different sort of problem arose. Land costs in major cities have
risen considerably and city planners are considering the possibility of using the coastal
waters for urban developments including having floating airports. As the sea and the land
near the water edge is usually flat, landings and take-offs of aircrafts are safer. In this
respect, Canada has a floating heliport in a small bay in Vancouver (Fig 1.11). Moreover,
this busy traffic heliport is built for convenience as well as noise attenuation. Japan has
made great progress by constructing a large airport in the sea. Kansai International
Airport at Osaka is an example of an airport constructed in the sea, albeit on a reclaimed
island. The first sizeable floating runway is the one-km long Mega-Float test model built
in 1998 in the Tokyo bay (Fig 1.10)
Fig 1.10Runway at Tokyo bay Fig 1.11 Vancover Helipad
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20 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
4 Development of VLFS technology
Presented herein are the technological developments of VLFS, focusing on the design of
mooring systems, methods for mitigating the hydro elastic responses and connector
designs.
4.1 Mooring systems
The mooring system ensures that the VLFS is kept in position so that the facilities
installed on the floating structure can be reliably operated as well as to prevent the
structure from drifting away under critical sea conditions and storms. A freely drifting
very large floating structure may lead to not only damage to the surrounding facilities but
also to the loss of human life if it collides with ships. The station keeping system of a
floating structure may be grouped into two main types: (1) the mooring lines the caisson
or pile-type dolphins with rubber fender
system .The former type uses chains, wire ropes, synthetic ropes, chemical fiber ropes,
steel pipe piles, and hollow pillar links. These mooring systems are used for VLFS
operating in deep sea such as the tension leg floating wind farm and the floating salmon
farm (see Figure 1.12). However, the motions of a floating structure become large when
the length of mooring line is rather long. Especially in deep seas, the tension leg system
(see Figure 1.12(b)) is adopted to which the pretension is applied to the mooring line in
order to restrain heaving motion. In such a station keeping system, it is difficult to
restrain. The horizontal motion and usually the mooring lines experience significant
tension forces.
Fig 1.12 Mooring systems are used for VLFS
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21 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
The rubber fender-dolphin mooring system was first adopted for the two floating oil
storage bases at Kamigoto and Shirashima islands in Japan. The mooring system has
since been used for other facilities such as floating piers, floating terminals, floating
exhibition halls, floating emergency bases, and floating bridges. The rubber fender-
dolphin type is very effective in restraining the horizontal displacement of the floating
structure. As the large size rubber fenders are able to undergo a large deformation (of up
to approximately one-third of their lengths), a considerable amount of the kinetic energy
of the floating structure can be absorbed.
4.2 Mitigation of Hydro elastic response
Various methods have been proposed by engineers to minimize the hydroelastic response
of the VLFS. One of the earliest methods is by constructing bottom-founded breakwater
close to the VLFS as was done for the Mega-Float. Studies by Utsunomiya et al. (2001)
and Ohmatsu (1999) showed that the bottom founded type breakwater is very effective in
reducing the hydroelastic response as well as the drift forces. However, such type of
breakwater still possesses some drawbacks that include massive construction material
requirements, difficulty in construction, occupying precious sea space, difficulty in
removing the breakwater if the VLFS is to be relocated elsewhere, not environmentally
friendly, and the reflected waves from the breakwater could result in coastal erosion. The
floating box-like breakwater moored with mooring lines has been proposed as an
alternative to the conventional bottom-founded type breakwater for protecting VLFS
from a severe sea. Floating breakwaters do not disrupt the ocean current flow and cause
relatively little damage to the seabed. Furthermore, the floating box-like breakwater
(being the most common type) constructed around the FFSF as shown in Figure 4 could
also function as collision and oil spill barriers.
4.3 Connector Designs
VLFS is usually constructed in modules due to its massive size. The modules are
fabricated in shipyard, and then connected on site in the sea by welding or by using rigid
connectors. More recently, Fu et al. (2007) and Wang et al. (2009) proposed the use of
hinge or semi-rigid connectors instead because they found that the non-rigid connectors
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22 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
are more effective in reducing the hydroelastic response as compared with the rigid
connectors. There have been various connector designs proposed and a review paper by
Lei (2007) gave a wide range of these connector systems. However, there is still work to
be done on developing a robust and economical connector system for very large floating
modules.
4.4 Other Developments
The shapes of the VLFS may take on more arbitrary geometries such as the irregular-
shaped floating island in the han river instead of the conventional rectangular shape
VLFS. Various researchers have also considered VLFS of different shapes that could
reduce the hydroelastic responses. For example, okada (1998) has investigated VLFS
with different edge shapes and confirmed that the notched edge is able to reduce the
propagation of deformation over the VLFS. With the view to reduce the hydroelastic
response, VLFS with moonpools and different stiffness are proposed and they are found
to be very effective in reducing the hydroelastic response of the VLFS when the wave
length is small. Wang et al. (2006) have also introduced the innovative gill cells in very
large floating container terminal in order to provide an effective solution for reducing
large differential deflections of a VLFS under uneven static loading.
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23 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
5.Minimizing differential deflection in VLFS
Although a lot of studies have contributed much to the theory and analysis of VLFS,
there is relatively little work carried out in studying the problem of reducing the
differential deflection and stress-resultants in VLFS when subjected to a heavy central
load.Wang et al. (2006) proposed an innovative solution to reduce the differential
deflection by having compartments in the floating structure with holes or slits at their
bottom floors that allow water to flow in and out freely. The free flowing of water
through these holes and slits resembles the gills of fish and thus these compartments have
been referred to as gill cells. At the gill cells, the buoyancy forces are eliminated. By
appropriate positioning of these gill cells, it is possible to reduce the differential
deflection significantly as well as the stress-resultants. It is worth noting that the holes in
the gill cells have negligible effect on the flexural rigidity of the floating structure. The
presence of gill cells leads to a slight loss in buoyancy for the floating structure, which is
a small price to pay for the advantage gained in minimizing the differential deflection and
stress-resultants. Wang et al. (2006) analyzed a rectangular super-large floating container
terminal by using the gill cells. In the studies of Wang and Wang (2005), the hydroelastic
of a super-large floating container terminal under sea state of Singapore was analyzed
and they found that the deflections due to the wave loads are very small when compared
to the static deflections due to the large live loads from the containers resting on the
floating structure. Therefore, Wang et al. (2006) neglected the action of wave and they
found that when gill cells are appropriately designed and located, the differential
deflection and stress-resultants in VLFS are reduced significantly. Fig 1.13 Represents
the Cross sectional portion of the floating structure with gill cells.
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24 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
Fig 1.13 Cross sectional portion of the floating structure with gill cells
6. Minimizing motion of VLFS
There are some ways to reduce the effect of wave on the VLFS. The traditional way is
using breakwaters which reduce the height of incident water waves on the leeward side to
acceptable level. However, in many cases such as for consideration of environmental
protection and economics in open sea, breakwaters with high wave transmission are
adopted and the response at the ends of VLFS may become an obstacle to the facilities
mounted on the floating structures. Recently, anti-motion devices have been proposed as
alternatives for reducing the effect of waves on VLFS where the wave dissipation effect
of breakwaters is small or there are no breakwaters. An anti-motion device is a body
attached to an edge of VLFS so it does not need mooring system like floating
breakwaters and the time needed for construction is also shorter. Ohkusu and Nanba
(1996) proposed an approach that treats the motion of VLFS as a propagation of waves
beneath a thin elastic-platform. According to this approach the motion of VLFS is
presented as waves. That means the anti-motion coincides with a reduction of wave-
transmission from the outside to the inside of VLFS. Following this idea, some simple
anti-motion devices have been proposed and investigated. Takagi et al. (2000) proposed a
box-shaped anti-motion device and investigated its performance both theoretically and
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25 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
experimentally. They found that this device reduces not only the deformation but also the
shearing force and moment of the platform. The motion of VLFS with this device is
reduced in both beam-sea and oblique sea.
A horizontal single plate attached to the fore-end of VLFS was proposed and
investigated experimentally by Ohta et al. (1999). The experimental results showed that
the displacement of VLFS with this anti-motion device is reduced significantly not only
at the edges but also the inner parts. They suggested that it would be possible to eliminate
the construction of breakwaters in a bay where waves are comparatively small.
Utsunomiya et al. (2000) made an attempt to reproduce these experimental results by
analysis. The comparison of the analytical results with the experimental results has
shown that their simple model can reproduce the reduction effect only qualitatively. A
more precise model considering rigorously the configuration of the submerged horizontal
plate within the framework of linear potential theory is constructed in the study of
Watanabe et al. (2003a) and has successfully reproduced the experimental results.
Takagi et al. (2000) and Watanabe et al. (2003a) formulated the diffraction and radiation
potentials using the eigen-function expansion method which was originally proposed by
Stoker (1957) for the estimation of the elastic floating break-water. This method has been
widely applied in many studies such as the study of elastic deformation of ice floes (e.g.,
Evans and Davies 1968, Fox and Squire 1990, Melan and Squire 1993) and study of the
oblique incidence of surface waves onto an infinitely long platform (e.g., Sturova 1998,
Kim and Ertekin 1998). More experimental work was investigated by Ohta et al. (2002).
Typical features of anti-motion devices treated in their study are L-shaped, reverse-L-
shaped and beach-type plate. They concluded that L-shaped plate is more effective
against long waves whereas beach-type and reverse-L-shaped plates are more effective
against short waves.
There are some other ideas in reducing the motion of VLFS under wave action. Maeda et
al. (2000) proposed a hydro-elastic response reduction system of a very large floating
structure by using wave energy absorption devices with oscillating water column (OWC)
attached to its fore and aft ends. Their results show the effectiveness of this system in
reducing the hydro elastic response of VLFS. Ikoma et al. (2005) investigated the effects
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26 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
of a submerged vertical plate and an OWC to a hydro elastic response reduction of VLFS.
They found that this system is effective especially at the wave period of 14s, it is possible
to reduce the hydro elastic response up to 45%. Hong and Hong (2007) proposed a
method using pin connection from fore-end of VLFS to OWC breakwater. They derived
analytical solutions and obtained results showed that this anti-motion device is effective
in reducing the deflections, bending moments and shear force of VLFS. With the idea to
reduce vibration of VLFS under action of wave, Zhao et al. (2007) analyzed theoretically
a VLFS with springs attached from fore-end of VLFS to sea bed. They found the motion
of VLFS is reduced by adding this kind of anti-motion device. However this idea maybe
difficult in applying to real VLFS placed at deep sea condition.
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27 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
CHAPTER 3.1. CONCLUSION
The definition, applications, analysis and design of very large floating structures have
been presented. It is hoped that this report will create an awareness and interest in
structural and civil engineers on the subject of very large floating structures and to exploit
their special characteristics in conditions that are favorable for their applications.
VLFSs can be constructed to create floating airports, bridges, breakwaters, piers and
docks, storage facilities (for oil), wind or solar power plants, for military purposes,
industrial space, emergency bases, entertainment facilities, recreation parks, space-
vehicle launching, mobile offshore structures and even habitation (it could become reality
sooner than one may expect). VLFSs may be classified under two broad categories: the
pontoon-type and the semi-submersible type. The former type is a simple at box structure
and features high stability, low manufacturing cost and easy maintenance and repair. The
pontoon-type/mat-like VLFS is very exible compared to other kinds of offshore
structures, so that the elastic deformations are more important than their rigid body
motions. Thus, hydro elastic analysis takes center stage in the analysis of the mat-like
VLFSs.
Large differential deflection encountered in pontoon type , Very large floating structures
(VLFS) may be minimized by introducing gill cells at appropriate locations.
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28 VERY LARGE FLOATING STRUCTURE
2.REFERENCES
[1]. Minimizing differential deflection in a pontoon-type,very large floating structure via gill cells. C.M. Wanga, T.Y. Wua, Y.S. Chooa, K.K. Anga, A.C. Tohb, W.Y. Maoc, A.M. Heec. (2005)[2]. Wang CM, Watanabe E and Utsunomiya T. Very Large Floating Structures. Taylor and Francis, New York; 2008.[2]. Overview of Megafloat: Concept, design criteria,analysis, and design , Hideyuki Suzuki Clauss, G., Lehmann, E. and Ostergaard, C. (2005). [3]. Very Large Floating Structures: Applications, Research and Development, C.M. Wanga, Z.Y. Taya (2011)[4]. Efficient hydrodynamic analysis of very large floating structures, J.N. Newman (2005). [5]. Very Large Floating Structures: Applications, Research and Development , C.M. Wanga, Z.Y. Taya.[6]. Hydroelastic analysis of a very large floating plate with large deflections in stochastic seaway Xu-jun Chen, J. Juncher Jensenb, Wei-cheng Cui,Xue-feng Tang[7] . Full list of VLFS bridges http://en.structurae.de/structures/stype/index.cfm?ID=1051[8]. www.sciencedirect.com[9]. Sato C. Results of 6 years research project of Mega-float. In: Fourth very large floating structures,(2003).
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