Investigation of SPM Mooring Tension and Barge Orientation With Wind, Waves and Strong Current

The vessel moored to a single-point mooring is subjected to the combined action of current, wind and waves. In this paper the vessel orientation and corresponding mooring line loads are examined in terms of the magnitude of the current force to the total force acting on the vessel. The results of systematic computer calculations are presented to show that there is relatively small influence when the ratio of current force to wind/wave forces is below 0.1. Graphs useful for preliminary design are introduced to illustrate this point. The estimates are compared with model test results showing reasonable agreement.