The Effect of Damping Plate on Mathieu-type Instability of Spar Platform

This paper describes motion stability of a spar platform with and without a damping plate in regular waves. The heave and pitch motion equation is derived in terms of Mathieu equation and the stability diagram is obtained. It is shown that the spar platform with damping plate has smaller unstable region than that without damping plate in the stability diagram. Model tests are carried out to verify the mathematical analysis. Under the condition that the pitch natural period is approximately double the heave natural period and the heave motion is amplified at heave resonance, unstable pitch motions are evoked. However the unstable motion is stabilized in cases of spar platform with damping plate. Therefore the damping plate is an effective device to stabilize the motion of spar platform.