Acta Mech. Sin.

(2012) 28(3):870876
DOI 10.1007/s10409-012-0075-x

RESEARCH PAPER

Numerical analysis of added mass and damping of floating production,

storage and ooading system
Ke Wang Xi Zhang Zhi-Qiang Zhang Wang Xu

Received: 30 May 2011 / Revised: 9 January 2012 / Accepted: 27 February 2012

The Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012

Abstract An integral equation approach is utilized to investigate the added mass and damping of floating production, storage and ooading system (FPSO system). Finite
water depth Green function and higher-order boundary element method are used to solve integral equation. Numerical results about added mass and damping are presented for
odd and even mode motions of FPSO. The results show robust convergence in high frequency range and can be used in
wave load analysis for FPSO designing and operation.
Keywords FPSO Added mass Damping Green function
Higher-order boundary element method
1 Introduction
Floating production, storage and ooading system (FPSO
system), a large oshore platform characterized by oil production, storage, ooading, living and power, is widely
applied in deep sea oil development, which is usually fixed
in a certain sea area working continuously. FPSO system is
in the shape of a ship with drilling equipment on the bow and
turret systems. The special working style of FPSO makes
the research and designing of its added mass and damping
dierent built on the basis of studies of hydrodynamic coecient of ships with forward speed. The added mass and
damping of FPSO have dierent designing requirements in
hull form optimization, amplitude motions stability analysis and dynamic positioning analysis, and the accuracy of the
The project was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for
the Central Universities (DVT10LK43) and the Returned Overseas
Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry (2007[24]).
K. Wang
X. Zhang Z.-Q. Zhang W. Xu
Department of Engineering Mechanics,
State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis
for Industrial Equipment,
Dalian University of Technology, 116024 Dalian, China
e-mail: kwang@dlut.edu.cn

added mass and damping directly influences other important

key factors, such as the motion response analysis [13] and
ooading problems [4, 5]. The basic ship design parameters
according to the calculation of the added mass and damping
of FPSO system should meet its safety demands [68].
When floating objects make forced harmonic motion in
still water, even though there is no incident wave, the motion
will generate outgoing radiation waves, and fluid pressure is
changing on the object surface. Added mass and damping
can be solved by the integral of the fluid pressure on the object surface. Therefore, the added mass is actually the force
and force moment on the object rather than the real mass
of the moving fluid attached to the object. The value of the
added mass could be positive or negative, depending on the
objects boundary conditions. When the underwater floating object moves close to the free surface, the added mass
could be negative while the damping is always positive due
to the spreading wave energy. The fluid pressure on the object surface can be solved by the velocity potential that satisfies Laplace equation. Because of the symmetry plane of the
ship type FPSO platform, odd mode motions (SurgeHeave
Pitch) are independent of even mode motions (Sway-RollYaw). As a result, half of the 36 components of added mass
and damping generated by the six rigid body motions are
zero. When the FPSO has harmonic motion without incident waves, the components of added mass and damping are
symmetrical.
In the 1960s, Landweber and Macagno [911] attempted
a number of added mass coecient calculations methods including two parameter, three parameter and conformal mapping developments to calculate added mass coecients of
two dimensional forms. The method of conformal mapping
was found comparatively better than the other two methods.
The coecients for the entire ship may be found by strip
theory and is applicable to slender bodies [12] i.e., when the
length of the body is much larger compared to the lateral dimension. It is based on the assumption that the radiated wave
lengths are of the same order of magnitude as the beam of

Numerical analysis of added mass and damping of floating production, storage and ooading system

the tanker and short as compared to the length of the tanker.

Strip theory has the limitation of predicting transverse motions better than longitudinal motions.
The boundary element method was firstly developed by
Hess and Smith [13] for three- dimensional bodies in unbounded fluid domains. The fundamental basis for this
method is a form of Greens theorem where the velocity potential at any point in the fluid is represented by surface distributions of singularities over the boundary surfaces. Substantial eorts have been made to apply the boundary element method to free surface wave problems involving floating or submerged bodies [12, 14]. The common procedure
adopted in these methods is to discretize the underwater surface into discrete elements and solve for the incompressible,
irrotational velocity potential of the flow around the body.
The method of Hess and Smith is referred to as the loworder panel method, which performs engineering analysis
with coarse representations of the geometry based on discretizations with a few hundred panels, and often at a considerable expense of computing time.
In the field of marine hydrodynamics, the interaction
between waves and the floating objects is usually to solve
the velocity potential on the object surface by applying the
boundary element method [1517]. Currently state-of-theart boundary element methods permit the geometry to be described by any explicit expressions of continuous surfaces
by B-spline representation or higher-order isoparametic elements. An advantage of using higher-order element is that
their derivatives are continuous over the entire portion of the
surface where the geometry is continuous.
The present study utilizes higher-order boundary element method, considers the symmetry of the FPSO, and introduces finite water depth Green function to calculate the
added mass and damping of the FPSO at work. In the calculation, the influence of the irregular frequencies is eliminated
by the new boundary integral equation established by adding
constant potential on the object surface. The above method is
more accurate and ecient than the constant element method
in solving problems concerning complex structures of FPSO,
which lays a solid foundation for the solutions of the second order wave force problems [1820]. Sections 24 in
this paper elaborate basic equations of the three dimensional
higher-order boundary element method for solving the added
mass and damping of FPSO platform. Section 5 analyzes the
interrelation of the added mass and damping with the wave
frequencies by examining the odd and even mode motions
of a FPSO. Section 6 discusses the implication of the added
mass and damping results on the ship design and provides
suggestions.
2 Theoretical formulation
As shown in Fig. 1a three dimensional object of arbitrary shape is located in the fluid domain with water depth
h, and the Cartesian coordinates is defined as static relative

871

to the object and the free surface without disturbance. With

the origin locating on the free surface, the x- and y-axes are
along the horizontal direction, and the z-axis positive upward. Assuming that the object makes small amplitude oscillation with frequency around its equilibrium position and
generates outgoing waves, this motion is called radiation motion. The fluid motion around the object can be described by
the linear wave theory. And then all of the dynamic variables
could be expressed as the real part of Aeit , where A(x, y, z)
is amplitude of the complex variables. The amplitude of normal vector V n on any arbitrary point r = (x, y, z) of the object
can be expressed as
U + c (rr r c )] n ,
V n = i[U

(1)

where U = (1 , 2 , 3 ) and c = ( 4 , 5 , 6 ) are translational

and rotational velocity vectors of the object, and n is normal
vector on the object surface pointing positive into the object.
c is defined as rotating velocity around a given point C,
r c = (xc , yc , zc ), and C is usually regarded as the center of
gravity of the object.

Fig. 1 Calculation sketch

Supposing that the fluid is non-viscous, incompressible and irrotational, when the object makes radiation motion, the velocity u of the surrounding fluid could be expressed as the gradient of the radiation velocity potential
= Re[(x, y, z)eit ], i.e. u = . Complex potential
satisfies the following equation
2 = 0, in fluid domain ,

(2)

and satisfies the following boundary conditions

K = 0, z = 0,
z

= 0, z = h,
z

= V n,
nn



lim R
ik = 0,
R
R

on free surface,
on water bottom ,
(3)
on body surface,
in far field,

where K = 2 /g is wave number and g is acceleration of

gravity.

872

K. Wang, et al.

The total radiation potential can be decomposed into

six components generated by surge, sway, heave, roll, pitch
and yaw, i.e.
= i

6


j j,

(4)

j=1

where j , j = 1, 2, , 6 is the complex amplitude components in direction j, and j is unit amplitude radiation potential corresponding to the motion mode j. If Eq. (4) is substituted into Eq. (3), then j satisfies the following surface
conditions
j
= n j,
n

j = 1, 2, , 6, on body surface,

p =

= Re[2 j j (x, y; t)eit ].

t

sb

S f

(6)

Sb

where r = (x, y, z) represents field point, r 0 = (, , ) represents source point, S f  is water line, S b is the wetted surface of the object in equilibrium position, and Green function G(rr ; r 0 ) represents the velocity potential on the point r
generated by the source point r 0 with strength 4. Green
function satisfies the wave radiation conditions on free surface and far field, and in finite water depth it can be defined
as follows
1
1 1
+ +
G(rr ; r 0 ) =
4 r r 

(k + K) cosh k(z + h) cos k( + h)
ekh J0 (kR) , (7)
2 0 dk
k sinh kh K cosh kh
(rr )2 = (x )2 + (y )2 + (z )2 ,

i, j = 1, 2, , 6.

Sb

i n j ds = ai j +

ibi j
, i, j = 1, 2, , 6.

(10)

Then ai j is added mass and bi j is damping. Equation (9)

shows that radiation force can be expressed as the sum of the
product of added mass and acceleration and the product of
damping and velocity.
4 Discrete equation
The integral on the object surface of Eq. (6) can be approximated as a series of integrals of discrete boundary elements,
and the object surface includes both the surface of the object
and the inner water plane. The value of each element can be
calculated through the value of element node and its shape
function. In the higher-order boundary element method, 6
node triangular element or 8 node quadrilateral element can
be used on the discrete surface of the object and the inner
water plane. While the element shape function Ni (, ) is
introduced, the shape function of 6 node triangular element
or 8 node quadrilateral element can be expressed as follows
(Figs. 2 and 3)

(rr  )2 = (x )2 + (y )2 + (z + + 2h)2 ,
where J0 () is zero order Bessel function, and the path of integral variable k is the real roots above the real axis, which
make the Green function satisfy the far field wave radiation
conditions. Integral Eq. (6) can eectively remove the irregular frequencies in the wave force calculations of the floating
object. The other methods for removing the irregular frequencies can be found in Ref. [22]. The calculation of Green
function can refer to Refs. [1, 12, 23, 24].

(9)

If define

The above boundary problems concerning the radiation velocity potential (1)(5) can be solved by integral equations
on the surface boundary according to Green theorem. The
radiation potential j on the object surface satisfies the following integral equation [21]

j (rr 0 ) 1 K
G(rr ; r 0 )ds

sb

= j ai j j bi j ,


3 Boundary integral equation

(8)

Thus the fluid force Fi is





pni ds = Re eit 2 j
j ni ds
Fi =

(5)

where (n1 , n2 , n3 ) = n , (n4 , n5 , n6 ) = (rr r c ) n .


G(rr ; r 0 )
ds
[ j (rr ) j (rr 0 )]
+
nn
Sb

=
n jG(rr ; r 0 )ds,

The total fluid force on the object generated by the radiation motion can be got through the integral of the pressure,
and the hydrodynamic pressure P of the control points on the
object surface could be calculated by Bernoulli equation

Fig. 2 6-node shape function

Numerical analysis of added mass and damping of floating production, storage and ooading system

873

simultaneously, or by Gaussian elimination method to get velocity potential of each motion mode individually. As Gaussian method has a lower calculation speed. However, it needs
to be pointed out that in the LU decomposition method, since
the elements are higher-order elements, the influence coecient matrix is bandwidth dominant along the main diagonal instead of absolute dominant along the main diagonal.
Therefore, when the LU decomposition method is used to
calculate the high frequency waves, the calculation results
have a slower convergence, so that the Gaussian method
should be utilized in this situation.
5 Result of added mass and damping

Fig. 3 8-node shape function

Thus the value of any point and its derivative, e.g. velocity potential , can be expressed by element node values
as follows
(, ) =

s


Ni (, )i (, ),

i=1

s
(, )  Ni (, ) i

=
(, ),

i=1
s
(, )  Ni (, ) i

=
(, ),

i=1

(11)

Equation (10) shows that the added mass and damping of

FPSO is closely related to the wave frequency, and is greatly
influenced by the shape of hull surface. In two dimensional
problem, the nondimensional added mass and damping coecient depend on the breadth depth ratio B/D, the section
coecient = A/(B D) and the dimensionless frequency
(D/g)1/2 , where A is the underwater section area of the object, B is breadth and D is draft. As for three dimensional
problem, there are more dimensionless related parameters.
For brevity, this paper makes a case study of the Schiehallion style FPSO currently in use in the UK North Sea, and
provides the results of its added mass and damping. This
FPSO has a longitudinal scale of 238 m, width 45 m, draft
11.5 m, water depth 240 m, center of gravity 5.96 m under
water line, load displacement 105 t and a knuckle stern for
the convenience of shipbuilding. Figure 4 is the hull shape
lines and the meshing side view.

where s = 6 or 8, representing the number of element nodes.

By introducing Eq. (11) into the above mentioned boundary
integral equation, the following equation can be obtained

 1 

1.0 K
r
r
G(r ; 0 )|J(, )|dd j (rr 0 )
NF  1

s
  1  

G(rr ; r 0 )

+
hi (, ) j (rr ) j (rr 0 )
nn
(12)
NB 1
i=1
|J(, )|dd
 1 
=
G(rr ; r 0 )n j |J(, )|dd, j = 1, 2, , 6,
NB

where J(, ) is the Jacobian transformation matrix, NB and

NF  are the number of element nodes on the surface of the object and on the inner water plane respectively. In the present
study, since the end of FPSO have very sharp edges, the
whole hull surface is discretized with 6 node triangle element while the inner surface of water plane (Eq. (6)) on free
surface is discretized with 8 node quadrilateral element. The
numerical results confirm the eectiveness of this meshing
method, especially for the cases of end of FPSO very inclined to and near free surface.
Equation (12) can be solved by LU decomposition
method to get the velocity potentials of the six motion modes

Fig. 4 Calculation views of schiehallion type FPSO. a Shape lines;

b Meshing view. Ratio is 1:100

874

Figures 512 show the results of the added mass and

damping of the platform, while Figs. 510 show the value
of the diagonal added mass and damping in coecient matrix. Figures 11 and 12 show the coupled term of added mass
and damping. In figures the abscissa is deep water wave
frequency , and the ordinate is added mass and damping,
ai j , bi j . Since the FPSO is a symmetrical floating object in
the shape of a ship with its longitudinal scale much greater
than its width and height, and that the same Green function is applied for solving the radiation problems. It can be
concluded from Eq. (9) that the values of the added mass
and damping depend on the projection of the hull surface on
each coordinate plane, and the projected area for surge is the
smallest. Figures 57 show that the added mass and damping
for surge is far smaller than that for sway and heave, and because of the symmetry of FPSO along the xz plane and the
small radius of the hull rotation along the x-axis, the added
mass and damping coecients for roll are also far smaller
than that for pitch and yaw.

K. Wang, et al.

around = 1.2. Generally the fluctuations are related to the

transverse waves perpendicular to the longitudinal direction
generated by the harmonic motions of the FPSO. Therefore,
the added mass and damping for the odd mode surge and the
even mode yaw will not be fluctuating.

Fig. 7 Added mass and damping for heave

Fig. 5 Added mass and damping for surge

Fig. 8 Added mass and damping for roll

Fig. 6 Added mass and damping for sway

Figures 510 show that in the case of the odd mode

motions (SurgeHeavePitch), added mass and damping for
heave and pitch exhibit fluctuating around = 1.0, while
in the case of even mode motions (SwayRollYaw), added
mass and damping for sway and roll also exhibit fluctuating

Fig. 9 Added mass and damping for pitch

Numerical analysis of added mass and damping of floating production, storage and ooading system

Fig. 10 Added mass and damping for yaw

Fig. 11 Added mass and damping for coupled sway-roll

875

for surge is the smallest; between these two extremum the

added mass for heave has a minimum a33 |min = 1.5 105 kg,
the added mass for surge and sway have maximum values
a11 |max = 8.0 103 kg, a22 |max = 9.0 104 kg. The damping
for surge, sway and heave all tend to be zero when 0
and , and the maximum are b11 |max = 3.5 103 kg/s,
b22 |max = 4.0 104 kg/s and b33 |max = 7.5 104 kg/s when
0 < < . Thats because when 0 and ,
the object cannot generate outgoing radiation waves that can
take away the surrounding fluid energy, which influences the
damping. Generally, the frequency of the maximal damping
for heave is lower than that for sway, and the frequency of
the maximal damping for surge is the largest which is around
= 1.15.
The trends of added mass and damping for pitch and yaw
are similar to that of surge and sway. For pitch, a55 |max =
8.7 108 kg m2 , b55 |max = 2.0 108 kg m2 /s, for yaw
a66 |max = 2.8 108 kg m2 , b66 |max = 1.5 108 kg m2 /s,
and the frequencies of the maximums of the added mass and
damping for yaw are both larger than that for pitch. Besides,
changes of the added mass and damping for roll needs special attention. When < 0.8, added mass a44 remains unchanged with a44 = 8.7 106 kg m2 . When 0.8 < < 1.4,
a44 drops slightly, and when = 1.4, a44 = 0.78 106 kg
m2 . When 0 < < 0.4, the damping is nearly 0 and unaected by the motion. When 0.4 < < 1.2, the damping
changes linearly with a slow growth rate. When = 1.2,
b44 = 2.0 106 kg m2 /s, and around = 1.2 the fluctuation
of the damping is greater than that of the added mass.
The unusual variations of a44 and b44 for roll are caused
by the special shape of the FPSO which is a slender object symmetrical along the oxz plane. The added mass and
damping for roll is solved by the integral of the water pressure on the hull side and the bottom. Integrals on the hull
sides will cancel each other and since the bottom area is
small, the influence of motion frequency is small. Therefore, added mass a44 only varies within a limited range, and
could be considered as a constant. Besides, the damping also
change gradually when 0.4 < < 1.2, and is around 0 when
< 0.4.
6 Conclusion

Fig. 12 Added mass and damping for coupled surge-pitch

In the case of translational motion, as shown in Figs. 5

7, when the wave frequency tends to zero, the added mass
for surge, sway and heave are all tend to be dierent constant values, and the added mass for heave is the largest;
when the wave frequency tends to infinity, the added mass
for surge, sway and heave all tend to be constants, and the
added mass for heave is the largest while the added mass

This paper analyzed the added mass and damping of the

Schiehallion type FPSO platform currently in use by applying the higher-order boundary element method and the finite water depth Green function. Quantitative loading values
have been obtained for engineering applications.
The new integral equation eliminates the influence of irregular frequencies, and results of satisfactory convergence
are obtained. The study shows that the added mass and
damping of FPSO has extreme values within the entire frequency range, and find that:
(1) Added mass and damping for heave and pitch exhibit
fluctuating around = 1.0, while for sway and roll also exhibit fluctuating around = 1.2.

876

K. Wang, et al.

(2) For roll the wave frequency has little influence on

the added mass which is a constant within the entire wave
frequency, while the damping changes slowly when 0.4 <
< 1.2.

11 Landweber, L., De Macagno, M. C.: Added mass of two dimensional forms by conformal mapping. Journal of Ship Research 11, 109116 (1967)

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