R Panner Selvam

Tension Leg Platforms (TLPs) are one of the reliable structures in the offshore industry in deep waters because of its motion characteristics in heave, roll and pitch degrees of freedom (dof). Heave motion is very important in offshore facilities and have to be kept as minimum as possible. As the water depth increases TLPs suffers from some limitations and hence has to be modified to cater to deeper waters. One such concept proposed is Tension Based Tension Leg Platform (TBTLP). In this paper, experimental investigations carried out on a 1:150 scaled model of a Tension Based Tension Leg Platform in regular waves in 3 m water depth is reported. These are the first ever experiments which were carried out on a scaled model of the new concept. To investigate the effects of Tension Base, experiments were also conducted on the TLP (without Tension Base). Responses have been compared in terms of Response Amplitude Operators (RAOs) for surge, heave and pitch dof for TBTLP and TLP. Numerical modeling of the TLP and TBTLP responses using ANSYS® AQWA™ software is included as well for comparisons.