AN OPTIMIZATION-BASED APPROACH FOR CALCULATION OF FLOATING STRUCTURES’ MOORING LINES

Abstract

This paper proposes a new method of calculating mooring lines by using the particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) to solve the analytical equations describing the mooring line trajectory. The equations of water depth and mooring line length are applied to establish the objective function of the PSO algorithm. The unknowns are the mooring line tilt angle at the bottom and the drift of the floating object are solved automatically by this algorithm. Thereby, the parameters to determine the trajectory and tension of the mooring line are also determined. This calculation method opens up a new approach for calculating this type of structure besides the popular methods today such as the analytical method, the finite element method, etc..