Motion Analysis and Model Study of a Guyed Tower in Regular Waves

The use of fixed platforms of either the gravity or jacket type for water depths exceeding three hundred and fifty meters would so escalate the size of these conventional platforms as to render recovery of oil uneconomical. Alternative platform concepts such as the guyed tower take advantage of the effect of compliance of the structure. The analysis of the wave induced dynamic response and model study of a guyed tower are presented. A modified Morison's equation in which the particle velocities and accelerations were obtained from linear diffraction theory was used to determine the horizontal loads and a Crank-Nicolson finite-difference algorithm was employed to solve the equation of motion. Fairly good agreement between this method and model tests was found.