Deepwater Mooring Lines

2007

Experience in Depth
Vryhof Anchors has been active in the offshore mooring system market for 35 years giving it an unrivalled level of experience and knowledge in the requirements of its selected clients and markets. An ISO 9001-2000 certified company; Vryhof is committed to the development of cutting edge, market leading products and works with its partners to ensure this philosophy is replicated across the whole product range. Vryhofs partner, Bexco Ropes, was one of the pioneering companies in the development of deep water polyester mooring lines introducing the DeepRope product in the early 1990s.

Innovation, Research & Development

Vryhof Anchors has grown into a world leader in state of the art engineering and manufacturing of total mooring systems. Fully understanding its clients needs are not to be met with standard products alone Vryhof focuses on specialisation and a dedication to customer needs ensuring the client reaps the benefit of innovative product developments and the competitive

advantage it affords. The research teams are constantly investing time and effort into the continuous improvement of the established product lines.

Quality, Health & Safety

ISO 9001-2000 certified the constant need for the highest quality products and services is fully recognised. Quality Assurance is a key business driver and quality controls are in place for all processes and procedures of polyester rope manufacturing, splicing and testing. The industry focus on constantly improving health and safety performance is also recognised with QHSE policies, procedures and practices implemented and maintained.

DEEP ROPE MOORING LINES

DEEPWATER MOORING LINES

Polyester Tether Manufacturing

Base Yarns
The fundamental building block of any polyester tether is the high tenacity yarn obtained from the premier manufacturing companies in the world. The yarn is made up of a large number of fine filaments twisted together. Each is individually treated with a specialist marine finish during the extrusion process to provide improved performance. Yarn material is specially selected according to specific performance requirements such as yarn on yarn abrasion and tenacity.

During manufacturing the yarn position and lay length is carefully managed to ensure equal tension between yarns within the subrope. Each subrope also has a unique marker ribbon enclosed within the construction which will be later used to aid splicing operations.

Subropes
Polyester tethers are manufactured from a defined number of high efficiency sub ropes. The subropes consist of a number of assembled yarns twisted together in either a right or left hand direction.

Full Rope Assembly

A defined number of subropes in a combination of right and left hand lay to meet the required project torque considerations are laid parallel together and overbraided with a high efficiency polyester jacket. The diameter and strength of the rope is determined by the number of subropes used whereas the torque

properties, whether torque balanced or torque matched to a wire rope, will be determined by the lay directions of the assembled subropes. Between the subropes and the braided jacket a multiple layer sand filter is installed to prevent the migration of particles into the rope; the filter has a capability to filter out particles of down to 2m.

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Termination Techniques
Polyester tethers are terminated with a specialist splice which maintains the efficiency of the rope construction. Each subrope is identified by its unique marker ribbon and spliced back into itself to minimise performance loss in the event of a damaged subrope and thereby making the rope more damage tolerant. The completed splice is further protected with the use of DeltaWeb plus a two component polyurethane. The standard connection device to adjoining mooring components dimensioned to suit a round pin shackle however alternate more complex designs may be considered. Thimble spool and shackle dimensions are to a great degree project specific being calculated from the minimum dimension requirement from a rope design perspective then adapted to suit project specific requirements such as design life and corrosion allowance. The table shows typical dimensions considering a 10 year design life assuming a 0.4mm per annum corrosion allowance. is the steel thimble spool with a hole

Termination Hardware Dimensions

Diameter (mm) Minimum Breaking Load (tf) (kN) Flange Diameter mm Dtot 151 160 175 190 219 233 246 258 700 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 6867 7848 9810 11772 13734 15696 17658 19620 430 460 510 550 625 670 705 735 Thimble Dimensions Barrel Diameter Overall Width Internal Width Shackle Dimensions Overall Width Internal Width Internal Height mm Hinw 530 560 610 650 725 770 805 835

mm Dinw mm Wtot mm Winw mm Wtot mm Winw 270 290 320 350 395 420 445 465 255 265 285 305 335 360 385 405 190 200 220 240 270 295 315 335 544 570 620 670 735 805 850 870 265 275 295 315 345 370 395 415

Hinw

Winw

Dinw

Winw
R

Performance Characteristics
Diameter, Weight & MBL
Polyester tethers may be designed within reason to any diameter or minimum breaking load requirement as required by a given project. For information purposes a range of standard designs are presented in the table.

relatively minor with creep elongation over a typical project design life expected to be in the region of 1% to 2% of the rope length. Elastic elongation is the extension of the rope when a load is applied which will fully recover immediately once the load is removed. Elastic elongation is highly load dependent with extension of 2.5% to 7.5% of the rope length expected at load ranges between 20% and 50% of MBL.

Diameter Minimum Breaking Load

Diameter (mm) Minimum Breaking Load (tf) (kN) Total Weight (kg/m) @2% MBL @20% MBL Submerged Weight (kg/m) @2% MBL @20% MBL Cycling 10-30% MBL 151 160 175 190 219 233 246 258 700 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 6867 7848 9810 11772 13734 15696 17658 19620 15.5 17.5 20.8 24.7 30.6 34.5 38.4 42.3 15.2 17.2 20.4 24.2 29.9 33.8 35.7 41.4 3.7 4.2 5.0 5.9 7.3 8.1 8.6 10.0 3.6 4.1 4.9 5.8 7.2 7.9 8.4 9.8 1.37E+05 1.57E+05 1.89E+05 2.29E+05 2.74E+05 3.14E+05 3.53E+05 3.92E+05 Stiffness EA (kN) Cycling 20-30% MBL 1.61E+05 1.84E+05 2.22E+05 2.68E+05 3.22E+05 3.68E+05 4.14E+05 4.60E+05 Cycling 40-50% MBL 2.10E+05 2.40E+05 2.89E+05 3.49E+05 4.19E+05 4.79E+05 5.39E+05 5.99E+05

Extension
Polyester tethers display a combination of permanent and visco-elastic extension when loaded. The various elements of extension may be detailed as follows:

Thus the elongation characteristic of the polyester tether needs to be carefully considered in conjunction with the predicted load cycle range to establish the required installed length of the tether.

Stiffness
Constructional Elongation is the extension exhibited due to the bedding down of the rope when first loaded. This extension is permanent and is fully accounted for after 5-10 loading cycles. Constructional extension is load dependent with extensions between 1.6% and 3.6% of rope length expected at load ranges between 20% and 50% of MBL. Creep is the elongation of the polyester material at a constant tension over time. Creep is caused by molecular realignment within the yarn structure plus physical damage to the rope structure which allows further yarn realignment. Creep is for all practical purposes permanent but is The graph (right above) depicts the stiffness performance of a polyester tether in a scenario similar to that expected of a drift stiffness condition. The graph demonstrates that stiffness is predictable and stabilises between An important consideration in the design of a mooring system is the stiffness of the polyester mooring line itself. The visco-elastic behaviour exhibited by polyester tethers must be understood to establish tether performance with regard to stiffness. The offshore industry looks at a number of load cases and the associated polyester stiffness when determining mooring line behaviour.

DEEPWATER MOORING LINES

80 and 100 cycles. In this load case the stiffness approximates to 22xMBL, however stiffness will increase with load to nominally 30xMBL for loadings between 30-50% MBL.

Handling & Packing

Reels
An important aspect of the polyester rope is its delivery package to ensure it arrives on site in sound condition. The main rope carrier is a specially designed steel transport reel engineered to accommodate the package weight and any loadings imposed during shipment and respooling. Storage reels may be painted with long life paint coating systems designed to last the project lifetime. Each reel will be subject to multi layer packaging to protect the rope from the elements during transit and storage as depicted in the diagram.

Spreader Beams
Lifting beams may be provided with any project with reels specifically designed for each project reel package. The reels may be lifted from either a flange arrangement at the reel barrel or by adding lifting pad-eyes at the outer rim of the reel flange. Both onshore and offshore rated lifting beam in accordance with VMO Maritime Regulations can be provided.

Installation Aids
Installation aids such as buoyancy lashings of tie-off lashings may be applied to the polyester tether. Buoyancy lashings with a significant holding capacity have been successfully supplied to projects such as Shell Bonga.

Deepwater

Mooring

Lines

DeepRope is exclusively marketed worldwide by Vryhof, the worlds leading anchor manufacturer.

Vryhof Anchors BV P.O. Box 109 2900 AC Capelle a/d Yssel The Netherlands Phone: +31 10 266 8900 Fax: +31 10 266 8999 e-mail: vryhof@vryhof.com

www.vryhof.com

Copyright Vryhof Anchors 2007. DeepRope is a registered trademark of Le Lis, a Bexco subsidiary. All information in this brochure is subject to change without prior notice. Vryhof Anchors, Bexco or one of its subsidiaries is not liable and/or responsible in any way for the information provided in this brochure.