A comparative assessment of approximate methods to simulate second order roll motion of FPSOs

Ship shaped FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) units are the most commonly used floating production units to extract hydrocarbons from reservoirs under the seabed. These structures are usually much larger than general cargo ships and have their natural frequency outside the wave frequency range. This results in the response to first order wave forces acting on the hull to be negligible. However, second order difference frequency forces start to significantly impact the motions of the structure. When the difference frequency between wave components matches the roll natural frequency, the structure experiences a significant roll motion which is also termed as second order roll. This paper describes the theory and numerical implementation behind the calculation of second order forces and motions of any general floating structure subjected to waves. The numerical implementation is validated in zero speed case against the commercial code OrcaFlex. The paper also describes in detail the popular approximations used to simplify the computation of second order forces and provides a discussion on the limitations of each approximation.