MOORING LINE AS A SPRING MASS SYSTEM

Mooring line is represented by a F(t)

finite set of discrete masses mn
z
connected to each other by kn
Cn
restoring and damping
mn-1
elements.

System parameters are

determined from the physical
characteristics of the mooring c2
line components (weight and m2
c1
elasticity of the mooring line, m1 k2 y
O k1
weight and drag of inserted
instrumentation or equipment

x
 Two Degree of freedom Systems Analysis
o
Undamped Free Oscillation
Consider the simple spring –mass
system consisting of two masses m1 k1

and m2 and two springs with spring

m1
constant k1 and k2. x1
End of the first spring is attached at
point o. The two masses are k2
constrained to move along the vertical m2
line ox.
Let x1 and x2 represent the x2
displacement of the masses m1 and m2
from their equilibrium position
x
Applying Newton’s law to these two masses yields

 k1x1  k 2  x2  x1   m1x1

 k2  x2  x1   m2 x2

m1x1   k1  k2  x1  k2 x2  0

m2 x2  k 2 x1  k 2 x2  0
 Introducing the parameters
k1  k 2
a
m1

k2
b
m1
k2
c 
m 2

Equations of motion reduce to

x1  ax1  bx2  0

x2  cx1  cx 2  0
Assuming the motion of two masses to be periodic, the
tentative solutions are arrived.
 Let x1  A sin t    and x2  B sin t   
are introduced in the equations of motion. hence

 A 2 sin  t     aA sin  t     bB sin  t     0

 B 2 sin  t     cA sin  t     cB sin  t     0

It follows that

 
A a   2  Bb  0

 A c   B c   2  0 
Conditions for the two Eqs. to be simultaneously satisfied is
that the determinant of the coefficient of A and B vanishes. ie

a 2 b =0
c c  2

Expansion of the determinant yields

a   2 c   2   bc  0
 4   2  a  c   c a  b   0
2
The latter expression is a quadratic equation in  with solution
2
ac a c
2      c a  b 
2  2 
The two natural frequencies of the system are
12
a  c  a  c  
2
1      c a  b  
2  2  

12
a  c  a  c  
2
2      c a  b  
2  2  
Either one of these two frequencies can be used in the tentative
solutions. The two possible solutions are
x1  A1 sin 1t  1  x2  B1 sin 1t  1 
and

x1  A2 sin  2t   2  x2  B2 sin  2t   2 
Maximum displacement of the second mass B can be expressed in
terms of the maximum displacement A of the first mass as

a  12 c
B1  A1  A1  1 A1
b 2
c  1
and similarly
a   22 c
B2  A2  A2   2 A2
b 2
c   21
Expressions can therefore be written as

x1  A1 sin 1t  1 
x2  1 A1 sin  1t  1 
and x1  A2 sin  2t  2 
x2   2 A2 sin  2t  21 
Displacement x1 and x2 of these two masses can be generally
expressed by

x1  A1 sin 1t  1   A2 sin  2t   2 

x2  1 A1 sin 1t  1    2 A2 sin   2t  2 

The four arbitrary constants A1 , A2,1 , 2 are determined by the

initial displacements x1  0  and x2  0  , the initial speeds x 1  0 
and x 2  0  of the two masses.
If these initial conditions are such that either A1orA2 are zero
then the two masses will oscillate with same frequency and
phase 1 if A2 =0; 2 if A1 =0).
In that case the system is said to oscillate in one of its principal
modes. The modes having the lowest frequency of vibration is
called the first or fundamental mode. The mode with the higher
frequency is called second principal mode.

When the displacement of the masses is expressed as the sum of

two periodic displacements of different amplitudes, frequency,
and phase, the resulting periodic motion is no longer simple
harmonic.
 Undamped Forced Oscillation o

F  t   F0 sin pt
k1
Angular frequency p  2f
F0 = the cyclic force amplitude applied to m1
the mass m1 of the spring-mass system F(t)
x1
Applying Newton’s law to the two masses
m1 and m2 yields k2

k1  k 2 k2 F0 m2
x1  x1  x2  sin pt
m1 m1 m1 x2

k2 k2
x2  x1  x2  0 x
m2 m2
 Introducing the constants

k1  k 2 k F0
a k2 c 2 f 
b m2 m1
m1 m1
Equation of motion becomes
x1  ax1  bx2  f sin pt

x2  cx1  cx2  0

Solution of eqns. is the sum of the solution previously obtained

for the homogeneous case (free oscillation) and of a particular
solution
 x2  D sin pt x1  C sin pt
where p is the frequency of the exciting force, be the particular
solution.
 
a  p 2 C  bD  f

 
 cC  c  p 2 D  0

Solving for C and D

f b a  p2 f
D c  p 2  D=
c 0
C=
a  p 2   b a  p 2  b
c c  p 2  c  c  p2 
  
f c  p2 fc
C=
a  p 2 c  p 2   bc
D=
a  p 2 c  p 2   bc
Displacement of the masses m1 and m2 under forced oscillation are
thus given by
x1  A1 sin 1t  1   A2 sin  2t  2   C sin pt

x2  1 A1 sin  1t  1    2 A2 sin  2t  2   D sin pt

Constants A1 , A2 , 1 and 2 are determined by the initial

conditions, and C and D are from eqns. above.
 Resonance

Equation a   2 c   2   bc  0 is satisfied if   1

or    2 , 1 and  2 being the natural frequencies of the

system.

At frequencies of excitation p equal to the natural frequencies,

the amplitudes of the motion of the masses m1 and m2 are
infinite.

With damping the amplitudes at resonance may still be very

large, and this is one of the reasons for studying the natural
frequencies of systems with several degrees of freedom.
 o
Free Oscillation with linear Damping.
Consider the spring –mass system c1
The system consist of two masses k1
m1 and m2 connected by two springs
with constants k1 and k2 and two m1
damping elements with linear x1
damping coefficients c1 and c2. c2 k2
The motion of the two masses is
again assumed to takes place along
the vertical line ox. m2
x2

x
Applying Newton’s law to the two masses m1 and m2 yields

m1x1   c1  c2  x1   k1  k 2  x1  c2 x 2  k 2 x2  0

m2 x1  c2 x 2  k 2 x2  c2 x1  k 2 x1  0

The tentative solutions, x1  Ae st x2  Be st

m1s 2   c1  c2  s   k1  k2 A   c2 s  k2  B  0

  c2  k 2  A  m2 s 2  c2 s  k 2 B  0 
 The condition for these equations in A and B to be
simultaneously satisfied is that the determinant of the
coefficients of A and B vanishes, or that

m1s 2   c1  c2  s  k1  k2 m2 s 2  c2 s  k2    c2 s  k2  2  0
the characteristic equation in s, thus obtained has four roots, and
therefore the complete solution for the displacements x1 and x2 is

i 4 i4
x1   Ai e x2    i Ai e ,
s ,t st

i 1 i 1

The four constants Ai are to be found from the four initial

conditions of the system, namely
x1 0  x2 0  x 1  0  x 2  0 
Coefficients i are obtained from

Bi m1si2   k1  k 2 
i  
Ai c2 si  k 2
where i = 1,2,3 ……
If two of the four roots are complex and conjugate, that is , if
s1   r  id  s2   r  id 
then the sum becomes A1e s1t  A2 e s 2 t


A1e s1t  A2 e s 2 t  e  st A1e  idt  A2 e  idt 
 Ce  st sin  dt  
This indicates that in all cases, free oscillations with linear
damping exponentially decay with time.
 Free oscillation with Linear Damping

When a periodic force F(t) F (t )  F0 sin pt

is applied to the mass m1, of the spring mass system the
equations of motion of the two masses becomes
m1 x1  (c1  c 2 ) x 1  (k1  k 2 ) x1  c 2 x 21  k 2 x 2  F0 sin pt
and m 2 x 2  c 2 x 2  k 2 x 2  c 2 x 1  k 2 x 1  0

The solution of eqn. is again the sum of transient solution

previously obtained and of a particular solution satisfying these
equations of motion.
After the transient, the system will move at the frequency p of the
exciting force F(t) and in as much as damping is present, that there
will be a phase difference between force and resulting motion. The
steady state displacements will therefore, be assumed to be of the
form
x1  A sin  pt     A1 sin pt  A2 cos pt
A
where A  A12  A22 and  1  tan  1 2
A1

x2  B sin  pt   2 
x2  A3 sin pt  A4 cos pt

where B A32  A42

A
and 1  tan 1 4
A3
 Substituting the values of x1 and x2 the following set of equations
are obtained

k1  k2  m1 p 2  A1  p c1  c2  A2  k2 A3  c2 pA4  F0
 
p c1  c2  A1  k1  k 2  m1 p 2 A2  c2 pA3  k 2 A4  0

 
 k 2 A1  c2 pA2  k 2  m2 p 2 A3  c2 pA4  0

 
 c2 pA1  k 2 A2  c2 pA3  k 2  m2 p 2 A4  0

The simultaneous solution of these four linear equations in

Ai(i =1, 2, 3, ……) yields the values of the constant Ai
 Multi Degrees of freedom Systems –Linear Damping
System Natural Frequencies –Free Oscillation
It is often of practical importance to know if the natural
frequencies of a buoy system represented by a n degree of
freedom spring mass system are close to wave frequencies with
high energy content. Furthermore when studying in detail the
dynamic response of the mooring line, it may be of considerable
interest to excite the model at frequencies close to resonance.

To obtain the natural frequencies of the system, the equations of

free undamped motion of the masses are first established.
Tentative solutions of the form
xi  X i sin  t    i=1,2,3………n

are then introduced in the equations of motion

The resulting set of equations in X i is then expressed by
PX =BX
Where P and B are square matrices of order of n, X is the column
2
matrix of amplitudes Xi and   m k a dimensionless
frequency parameter. The values of  satisfying the equation
[P - B] [X] =0
are obtained by solving the characteristic equation in  resulting
from the expansion of the determinant of the coefficient matrix
[P - B]
The values of , thus obtained are called Eigen values.
To each Eigen value corresponds a natural frequency

k1
i 
m
and a mode of vibration defined by a set of amplitude coefficient
called eigenvector.
The Eigen vectors fix the relative ratios of amplitude in each
mode.
The absolute value of displacement amplitude and the phase
angles are derived from 2n initial conditions.

 xi  0  and  xi  0 
 Steady state response
The method previously described to establish the steady state
response of a 2 degrees of freedom system with linear damping can
be extended to investigate the response of a system with n degrees of
freedom when periodically excited by forces of the form
F (t )  F0 sin pt
The displacement xi of each mass mi is first assumed to be
given  Ai1 sin pt  Ai 2 cos pt
xi by

Next displacements and their time derivative are introduced in the

equations of motion.
Resulting set of 2n linear simultaneous equations in Aij (i=1,2,
…..n; j=1,2) is then solved.
The set of Aij displacement coefficient thus obtained entirely
describe the response of the system.
When the degree of freedom is larger than three, there is
considerable work in expanding the determinant of the
coefficients of the matrix
[P - B] in solving for the n roots  and in establishing the n
Eigen vectors or the 2n Aijcoefficients describing the steady state
response.

The analysis of the dynamic response of the system with a large

number of degrees of freedom requires special algorithms and
computation techniques usually designed to performed with the
help of digital computers.
 Non linear damping

When damping terms of the form F Di  c x i x i

are introduced to account for the hydrodynamic resistance on the
set of masses, mi  the resulting equation of motion are no longer
explicitly integrable.
Replace the nonlinear damping force by a linear force of the form

F ' Di  c ' x i

'
where the coefficient of linearization c is such that the total
energy per cycle dissipated by the equivalent force F ' Di is the
same as for the actual damping force F Di
If the quadratic form is retained, the equation of motion of the mass
of the ith mass m i is given by
ki  xi 1  xi   ki 1  xi  xi 1   ci x1 x i  mi xi

The solution of a set of n such equations can be directly

obtained with the help of digital computers