Mooring of a Floating Container Terminal
 
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Internal turret

Single buoy

Catenary

Taut wire

Dolphin

Transport operations of containers require the floating terminal to be positioned close to land. To maintain a fixed position, a number of mooring concepts is available. These concepts are discussed below.

 

Internal Turret

A turret mooring system is defined as a mooring system where lines are connected to the turret which, by bearings, allow the vessel to rotate around the anchor legs. In the internal case the turret is placed within the hull. This system is well proven for mooring FPSO’s.

 

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Single buoy

Single buoy mooring is a well proven FPSO mooring method. A buoy, which is moored to the sea bottom by means of anchor lines, is located nearby the floating structure. The floating structure is connected to the buoy, by means of a rotatable leg. The picture shows a leg connection.

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Catenary

A widely used mooring system is the catenary anchor spread. Anchor lines hang from the construction in a catenary shape and arrive horizontally at the seabed. This way, the anchors are only subjected to horizontal forces. The restoring force in this system is generated by the weight of the chains.

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Taut wire

In a taut wire mooring system the lines are nearly straight between the anchor and fairlead. In contrast to the catenary system, the restoring forces in a taut wire mooring system are mainly generated by line elasticity.

 

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Dolphin

In order to avoid unacceptable motions of a floating construction dolphins can be used. A dolphin is a bottom founded structure, which extends above the waterline. The dolphin is founded on steel pipes, which are piled into the sea bottom. Dolphins can be connected to a floating structure in several ways depending on the type of dolphin. Some types allow for connections along the side of the construction, others connect to the construction from underneath. Between the dolphin structure and the floating object, large fenders are installed to counteract the horizontal forces. Dolphins were used for the mooring of the Mega-Float floating airport, which was located near Yokosuka in the Tokyo Bay.

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