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Hybrid Buoy-Vessel Modelling

Introduction
Generally, the floater for a particular system will fall within either the diffraction or
drag/inertia regime. It can then be modelled in OrcaFlex either as a vessel (for the
diffraction regime) or 6D spar buoy (for the drag/inertia regime).
However, it is occasionally necessary to consider a hybrid model, using both a vessel and
a buoy rigidly connected together. For example, it may be desirable to allow a non-linear
variation in buoyancy force with floater pitch/roll.
This note describes how this can be done for a circularly symmetric object whose axis is
vertical, e.g. a CALM buoy or SPAR, by attaching a 6D spar buoy to a calculated vessel in
OrcaFlex.
Section 0 gives a brief summary of the typical approach in this type of model, while
Section 0 gives further detail and background information.

Modelling Summary
Object Connections
Create a vessel object and a spar buoy object and connect these together. Either the
vessel can be connected to the buoy, or the buoy to the vessel. The objects should be
connected so that their origins are coincident with zero relative rotation.
Mass and Buoyancy
On the spar buoy data form, enter the mass, mass moments of inertia and centre of
mass location. Also fill in the Geometry page appropriately.
On the Structure page of the vessel type data form, set the Mass and Moments of Inertia
to be negligible (say 1E-6, since OrcaFlex won’t allow zero values) and set the Centre of
Gravity to zero.
On the Stiffness, Added Mass, Damping page of the vessel type data form, set the
Hydrostatic Stiffness matrix to be all zeros, since the buoyancy is being modelled by the
spar buoy. Set the Displaced Volume to zero.
Vessel and 6D Buoy Hydrodynamic Loads
On the Added Mass & Damping page of the buoy data form, set the added mass &
damping to be specified by "RAOs and matrices for Buoy" and set all the other data on
that page to zeros. Set the data on the buoy Drag & Slam page to zeros. This is required
because both these effects will be modelled using the vessel object.
On the vessel data form set the vessel length to '~' (meaning same as vessel type length).
And on the Calculation page set the Primary Motion to "Calculated (6DOF)" and the
Superimposed Motion to "None". The vessel may be excluded from statics (by setting the
Included in Static Analysis option on the Calculation page to “None”) or have its static
position calculated (by setting the Included in Static Analysis option on the Calculation
page of the vessel data form to “6DOF”).

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Set the Included Effects on the Calculation page of the vessel data form to include "Wave
Load (1st order)", “Added Mass and Damping”, “Current Load”, “Wind Load” and possibly
also "Wave Drift Load (2nd order)", “Wave Drift Damping” and “Other Damping”.
Vessel Type Properties
On the vessel type data form, set the vessel type length to the object diameter, and on
the Conventions page set the Symmetry to "circular".
Corresponding vessel type data need to be set for each Included Effect selected. Data for
“Wave Load (1st order)", “Added Mass and Damping” and "Wave Drift Load (2nd order)"
are usually imported from a diffraction package output while data for “Current Load”,
“Wind Load” and “Other Damping” must be entered manually.
Filtering Vessel Response
Since the floater motion includes both first and second order (wave and low frequency)
contributions, the ‘Primary Motion is treated as’ setting on the Calculation page of the
vessel data form needs to be set to “Both and wave frequency”. An appropriate Dividing
Period should also be set on this page; typically to a dividing period whose
corresponding frequency is about half way between the expected significant wave and
low frequency response frequencies.
Floater Drawing
You might also want to hide the vessel in the 3D view, since the spar buoy will probably
draw the object in a more convenient way. This can be done by right-clicking the vessel in
the model browser and choosing Hide. Alternatively you could set the Number of Edges
on the Drawing page of the vessel type data to zero.

Background Information
Object Connections
Historically, vessels were not permitted to be “child” objects in OrcaFlex, however, it is
now possible to have either the vessel or the buoy as the child in the connection
relationship. In terms of the floater’s response, it doesn’t particularly matter which object
is the parent, as the objects are rigidly connected together.
Connecting the objects together at their origin ensures that their local axes are
coincident. Although not essential, this makes it easier to set consistent data for both
objects – which is important as they both represent the same physical object.
Mass and Buoyancy
6D Buoy
Both the buoyancy and the mass properties of the floater will be applied through the 6D
buoy.
The buoyancy is defined through the 6D buoy because OrcaFlex determines the
buoyancy of a spar buoy directly from the submerged cylindrical volume. Specifically, the
instantaneous wetted volume and centre of volume are calculated directly for each
cylinder in the buoy stack based on its defined geometry (outer diameter and length).

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Thus, the buoyancy force can be calculated accurately for an object with circular
symmetry, varying in a non-linear way as the buoy pitches / rolls. Vessels only permit a
linear hydrostatic stiffness matrix to be defined, which is less accurate for larger
rotations.
It would be equally reasonable to set the mass, mass moment of inertia and centre of
mass data on the vessel. However, since the buoyancy calculation must be carried out by
the 6D buoy, it makes some sense to also set the mass (and hence weight) properties on
this object too.
It should be noted that the mass moments of inertia are those about the local 6D buoy
axes, passing through the specified centre of mass location.
The co-ordinates of the centre of mass are given relative to the buoy origin. The position
of the origin for a 6D spar buoy, relative to its geometry, is effectively defined through
the Stack Base Centre Position data item on the Geometry page of the buoy data form.
This defines the position of the base of the stack of cylinders relative to the buoy origin.
The default setting of zero has the buoy origin at the base of the stack, on the buoy
centreline.
Vessel
The mass, moments of inertia and centre of gravity must be set to negligible values in the
vessel type data as these are already defined on the 6D buoy.
The vessel’s hydrostatic stiffness describes the vessel’s buoyancy force – if the vessel tries
to heave downwards (or pitch or roll) then the hydrostatic stiffness resists this motion.
Since the buoyancy effects have already been included through the 6D buoy, we would
be double-accounting if they were also applied to the vessel.
Vessel and 6D Buoy Hydrodynamic Loads
6D Buoy
Selecting “RAOs and matrices for Buoy” ensures that the buoyancy calculation is
determined using the 6D buoy’s instantaneous position relative to the mean water level;
and not with respect to the instantaneous sea surface. The floater buoyancy
contributions arising from wave crests and troughs should already be accounted for
through the vessel’s Load RAOs (first order wave loads) and so including them in the 6D
buoy’s buoyancy calculations would mean double-accounting.
6D buoys calculate their drag (and linear damping) loads based on the total buoy and
fluid velocities, including contributions from both current and wave water particle
velocities. This means that there is no separation of the hydrodynamic loads into low
frequency (second order) and wave frequency (first order) effects – unlike the vessel
object. Since many of the hydrodynamic fluid loads (as opposed to buoyancy) will already
be present within much of the vessel type data (e.g. RAOs, QTFs etc.), it is generally better
to model all of the hydrodynamic fluid loads, including drag / damping, through the
vessel.

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Vessel
The vessel should be treated as a free body in dynamics, with its equation of motion fully
calculated (in all degrees of freedom), thus the Primary Motion must be set to “Calculated
(6DOF)”. Since the vessel motion is then fully described, no Superimposed Motion is
required.
The vessel can also be treated as a free body in statics. This is achieved by setting
Included in Static Analysis to “6DOF”. The vessel can be removed from statics (and so will
remain at its defined Initial Position for the static calculation) by selecting “None” for
Included in Static Analysis.
The Included Effects determine what load contributions will be included in the vessel
calculation. Since we assume that the floater is large enough to lie within the diffraction
regime, then most of environmental loads will be more accurately applied through the
vessel.
It is likely that the model will need to consider wave frequency loads, therefore including
‘Wave Load (1st Order)’ is essential. Also, it is likely that hydrodynamic and aerodynamic
drag will be important second order effects and these can be captured through the
‘Current Load’ and ‘Wind Load’ Included Effects.
It should be noted that Current Load and Wind Load act only in the horizontal plane. If
the floater has significant axial and/or pitch(roll) drag then this would be included
through the ‘Other Damping’ Included Effect. Other Damping permits both linear and
quadratic damping to be applied but it should be noted that this damping is not
proportional to the relative fluid velocity but, rather, to the vessel’s wave frequency
motion relative to earth.
Finally, second order (low frequency) wave drift effects may also be applied through the
‘Wave Drift Load (2nd Order)” Included Effect. It is possible to include the influence of the
vessel’s low frequency motion on the wave encounter frequency by checking ‘Wave Drift
Damping’ as an Included Effect. If Wave Drift Damping is not checked then the wave drift
loads will be calculated assuming that the vessel remains stationary with respect to the
incoming waves.
Vessel Type Properties
We do not wish to perform any Froude Scaling of the vessel type data and so we must set
the vessel Length to match the vessel type length. The vessel type Length is simply set
equal to the floater diameter for completeness (and for future reference).
The Symmetry should be “Circular” as we assume here that the floater is axisymmetric –
this is consistent with the fact that we use a 6D spar buoy to model the floater’s
buoyancy. Setting circular symmetry means that both Load RAO and QTF data need only
be supplied for one single wave direction.
Much of the vessel type data can be set by a single import from a diffraction package
st
output text file. These would include Load RAOs [used in Wave Load (1 Order)
calculations], QTFs (used in Wave Drift calculations) and Added Mass and Damping data
(of which, the frequency-dependent data are to be preferred).

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Output from AQWA and WAMIT can be automatically imported by OrcaFlex; data from
other packages require the user to “mark-up” up text output file with header text strings
prior to input. Both the diffraction package units and conventions can be specified in the
marked-up text file, allowing OrcaFlex to convert into the prevailing units / conventions at
the time of import.
Current and Wind Load arise from hydrodynamic drag (i.e. they represent quadratic
damping) and so cannot be determined by a diffraction package, which would consider a
potential flow solution only. OrcaFlex uses the OCIMF (Oil Companies International
Marine Forum) method to describe these second order drag loads. The necessary drag
areas and associated load coefficients must be manually entered into OrcaFlex on the
Current and Wind Load pages of the vessel type data.
Other Damping is also not something that would be determined by a typical diffraction
package. However, the additional damping it represents might be included in the
diffraction analysis as a manually input constant damping term, in which case the data
values may be in the diffraction package output text file. If so, but only for AQWA files,
OrcaFlex can (optionally) include it in the automatic import of vessel type data. Otherwise
it needs to be entered manually by the user, on the Other Damping page of the vessel
type data.
Filtering the Vessel Motion
Most of the vessel Included Effects require only a part of the vessel’s total motion as
input. For example, Current and Wind Load are assumed to be relative to the vessel’s low
frequency motion only; damping of the wave frequency motion is assumed to arise from
Added Mass and Damping and possibly also Other Damping. Thus, only the low
frequency part of the vessel motion should be input to the Current and Wind Load
calculations.
A filter is used to permit the vessel motion to be split up into these wave and low
frequency parts. Since OrcaFlex has to use a time domain filter, the cut-off achieved
cannot be very sharp. This means that the Dividing period specified for the filter should
be as far removed from both the first order and second order response periods as
possible. Generally we recommend using a dividing period whose corresponding
frequency is the arithmetic mean of the most significant first order and second order
response frequencies. But a good separation is not always achievable, and in these
circumstances it is always advisable to perform a sensitivity check on the choice of
dividing period.
Floater Drawing
The vessel drawing does not affect the calculations, but it may be confusing to show both
vessel and buoy in the 3D view.
Since the 6D spar buoy is drawn using a stack of cylinders of the same dimensions as
those specified in the Geometry page of the buoy data form, it will probably produce a
reasonable image of the floater in the 3D view.
However the vessel or vessel type drawing page data could be used to give more control
over the 3D wire frame view of the floater, by specifying your own drawing vertices and

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edges. Or the floater could be represented in the 3D view using connected Drawing type
shapes or, in the shaded view, through an imported .x 3D drawing image. In each of
these cases, the 6D spar buoy drawing would need to be suppressed by setting the Pen
Style to be blank (on the Drawing page of the buoy data form).

We hope that the information in this article is useful, but do

contact us if you have any comments or questions.
The Orcina Team
orcina@orcina.com

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