Articulations in floating arrays

This thesis describes an investigation principally to explore the displacements due to static loading of floating structures, which consist of several similar modules connected together. The study includes theoretical development and experimental work of both in-line and mat arrays of modules. To establish module displacements it is necessary to find the stiffness matrix. For the in-line array two methods have been employed. First, by the use of constraint equations which are inserted in the global stiffness matrix. In this case each module is considered as a rigid body and the displacements result from hydrostatic stiffness represented by elastic foundation. The second method is by the use of the finite element method, and potential energy, in which the structural stiffness matrix is due to the elasticity of the structure, and the hydrostatic stiffness matrix represented as an elastic foundation. The effects of connections play an important role and these are considered in the study. For the mat array constraint equations are employed. Different connections, such as hinged, elastic, rigid, and hinged- rigid are evaluated. The main emphasis is concentrated on hinged-rigid connections. For these the system behaves as a hinged connection between consecutive modules up to threshold value and after that the system will act rigidly. The experimental work for in-line arrays is reported for hinged-rigid connections with different arrangements, different locking angles between consecutive modules, and also for several loading conditions. The hinged and hinged-rigid connections were used in experimental work for the mat array with several loading conditions. Based on the developed theory computer code has been generated to model the stiffness matrices for different types of connections to calculate the displacements. The theoretical and experimental results for displacements in in-line arrays are shown to be very similar. However the mat array exhibits some differences