Motion characteristics of large arrays of modularized floating bodies with hinge connections

Hinged arrays have garnered increasing interest due to their potential to provide flexible and adaptable solutions for the various challenges faced in ocean development. The effectiveness of these arrays in engineering applications heavily depends on the motion characteristics of each individual module, rather than specific modules, such as the one with the strongest motion. However, the presence of hinge constraints results in coupled motion responses of all modules instead of independent ones. The objective of this study is to investigate the motion behavior of large arrays formed by multiple floaters hinged together, while existing literature mainly focused on two-body hinged systems. Based on the potential flow theory and Rankine source panel method, a numerical program was developed to calculate the hydrodynamic interactions and the coupled motion responses. First, a model test was conducted to validate the developed frequency-domain simulations. A good agreement was achieved. Then, the effects of hinge constraints, the number of modules, and two external constraints on the motion responses of the entire array were discussed. The results indicated that the heave motion of the array subjected to hinge constraints was significantly suppressed, but a strong pitch motion occurred in a larger wavelength range. For hinged arrays, the floaters located at the two ends were most likely to be excited with the strongest motions. Moreover, a shorter hinged array could be used to quantify the trends in the motion of arrays with more floaters. The calculation results also revealed that the motion responses of a hinged array were highly sensitive to the external constraints, e.g., mooring lines.