Objective Floating hoses constitute a key component in offshore crude oil transmission. Their operational reliability and safety significantly affect the efficiency of crude oil pipelines. However, due to the influence of marine environments, operating vessels, and hose lengths, these hoses experience varying degrees of hydrodynamic responses, thereby increasing the risks associated with crude oil transportation.
Methods This study focused on analyzing the dynamic responses of floating hoses within Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring (CALM) systems and optimizing their design using numerical simulation methods. A shuttle tanker-floating hose-buoy coupling response model was established utilizing OrcaFlex software. This model specifically targeted floating hoses in single buoy mooring systems to analyze key factors influencing their dynamic responses, including hose lengths, distances between buoys and shuttle tankers, as well as connection angles of bow and stern tubes. The outcomes were utilized to optimize design variables for connected hoses, by minimizing effective tension and curvature.
Results By lengthening the connected hoses and reducing the distance between the buoy and shuttle tanker, the maximum effective tension of the floating hoses initially decreased but increased later, whereas the bending moment and curvature rose consistently. An increase in the bow tube connection angle led to a subsequent rise in maximum effective tension following an initial decrease, while increases in the stern tube connection angle resulted in a U-shaped curve for maximum effective tension, demonstrating initial declines, subsequent rises, and final decreases. Correspondingly, bending moment and curvature exhibited diverse trends of changes. These results indicate the significance of selecting appropriate hose lengths, buoy-to-tanker distances, and bow/stern tube connection angles to optimize the dynamic responses of transmission hoses. Subsequently, the genetic algorithm was leveraged to facilitate the optimization of floating hose configurations, leading to a multi-objective optimized design aimed at minimizing effective tension and curvature. This optimization process ultimately delivered an optimal solution for resolving dynamic response challenges in hoses.
Conclusion The research findings may serve as engineering guidance for the overall design and configuration optimization of transmission hoses.
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