The present thesis investigates the dynamic characteristics of mooring lines. For the analysis of the system, a finite element model has been constructed, and the equations of motion, which is the coupled nonlinear equations, are solved numerically by two different approaches.
Firstly, the updated Lagrangian formulation and Newmark's method is used to solve the governing equations which include the effect of tension variation along the length and nonlinear effects, such as fluid drag forces, and large displacements away from equilibrium position. Secondly, the state vector formulation, together with modal expansion technique by using linear eigen modes, is also developed for the numerical efficiency. The results of these two methods are compared with each other.
Finally, the effects of non-linearity which are known to play a significant role in the dynamic behavior of mooring lines, is studied in details by applying the forced harmonic motion at the upper end of a mooring line.
