Presented at MTS Oceans 1998 Conference

THE EFFECT OF ROPE ELASTICITY ON

DISTRIBUTION OF MOORING LINE LOADS
John F. Flory
Tension Technology International, Inc.
4 Tower Lane, Morristown, NJ 07960

ABSTRACT Typical load-extension curves for wire rope and

This paper explains how fiber and wire ropes of different
elasticities can be used together effectively as mooring
lines in conventional mooring systems alongside piers. It
cautions against the use of improper combinations of
different ropes.
If ropes having different elasticities are improperly used
together as mooring lines, then some lines might carry most
of the load and be at risk of failing while other lines remain
ineffective. However, ropes with different elasticities can
be used together effectively and safely in many situations.
synthetic fiber rope are shown in Fig. 1. These are for
broken-in ropes. When loaded to 50% of its new
breaking strength, steel wire rope extends about 1%.
Broken-in polypropylene and polyester ropes typically
extend about 6% at 50% of new breaking strength. At
50% strength, nylon rope typically extends between
12% to 15%, depending on other variables.
Aramid and HMPE (high-modulus polyethylene) fiber
ropes are now commonly used for mooring lines. *
These newer fibers are much stronger and also stiffer
than the conventional rope-making fibers.

Substitution of one type of rope for another influences a
mooring system’s capabilities and performance. The new
high-strength, high-modulus ropes may be more desirable
than steel wire or conventional synthetic ropes in some
configurations. Inappropriate substitutions can result in
problems and mooring system failures.
INTRODUCTION
Because they are stiffer, aramid and HMPE are called
high-modulus fibers. The ropes made of high-modulus
fibers extend about twice as much as steel wire rope,
that is about 2% extension at 50% of strength.1
The Optimoor Mooring Analysis Program
The Optimoor program, developed by Tension

An old rule of thumb is that “wire and synthetic ropes

should not be used together”. This is true in some
circumstances but not others.

Synthetic fiber rope are more elastic than wire ropes.

If synthetic fiber ropes are used in parallel with stiffer
wire ropes of essentially the same length, the wire
mooring lines will carry most of the mooring load. But
there are many circumstances in which synthetic fiber
ropes can and even should be used in conjunction with
wires.

This paper discusses several mooring arrangements in

which lines with different elastic characteristics are used
together. These involve winch-mounted wire lines in Fig. 1. Typical Rope Load-Extension Curves
combination with polypropylene and high-modulus fiber
rope auxiliary lines and also an all-wire and an all high-
modulus rope mooring system. * Examples of aramid are duPont ?Kevlar” and Akzo
Nobel ?Twaron”. Examples of HMPE are Allied
Comparison of Rope Elasticities ?Spectra” and DSM ?Dyneema”.
Technology International, was used to perform the
mooring system analyses presented in this paper.
Within Optimoor, the vessel is defined by its
dimensions as well as by data on fairlead positions and
mooring line size and material. Optimoor determines the
appropriate break strength and non-linear force-extension
characteristics for the defined mooring line. The berth is
defined by data on mooring point positions and fender
characteristics.
In performing an Optimoor analysis, the user specifies
which vessel lines are connected to which mooring points
on the pier. Wind and current velocities and directions
are also entered. Optimoor contains appropriate wind
and current force and moment coefficients for typical
vessels.
As data is entered or updated, the program calculates
the resulting mooring line loads due to wind and current
conditions. Wind and current velocities can be increased
to check limiting conditions. The wind vector can be
swept through 360/ to determine the most severe
direction. Mooring line pretensions can also be varied.2
Mooring Arangements
The basic mooring arrangement used in the examples
is illustrated in Fig. 2. The fairleads are designated by
numbers and the bollards are designated by letters.
Bollards B and G are used for forward and aft breast
lines respectively. Bollards A and H are used for bow
and stern lines respectively. Bollards C and F will be
used for auxiliary lines. All of these bollards are set back
35 m (115 ft) from the pier face. Bollards J and K are
alternative breast line bollards, set back 70 m (230 ft)
from the vessel. Bollards D and E, alongside the pier
face, are used for spring lines
The mooring lines associated with fairleads 3,4,5, 10,
11, and 12 are used as breast lines. Those associated
with fairleads 1, 2, 13, and 14 are used as bow and stern
lines. Those associated with fairleads 6, 7, 8, and 9 are
used as spring lines.
All of these lines are fiber core wire rope, with 116
metric ton break strength, and mounted on winches. In
the mooring analyses, each winch-mounted line is
pretensioned to 5 metric ton before the environment is
applied.
The moored vessel is a 350 m (1159 ft) long, 250,000
dwt tanker in ballast condition. The environment used in
these analyses is a 60 kt. wind at 70° to the vessel
together with a 2 kt. current at 10° off the bow, as this
Fig. 2 Mooring Arrangement, not to scale
generally produces the highest loads.
The Use of Auxiliary Mooring Lines
It is common practice to deploy additional lines when
there is a risk of overloading the regular mooring lines.
Here these extra lines will be called auxiliary lines.
They are generally not mounted on winches but are
stored in rope lockers and deployed, pretensioned, and
tended “by hand”. Thus it is desirable that they be light
weight and easy to handle.
The mooring lines associated with fairleads 15, 16, 17,
and 18 will be used as auxiliary lines. Auxiliary lines
of wire, polypropylene, and high-modulus synthetic
fiber are used in the examples which follow, to
demonstrate the effects of different elastic
characteristics.
In all cases, the break strengths of these auxiliary lines
are essentially the same as the winch-mounted wires.
All lines are pretensioned to 5 metric ton.
The on-board length of line, that is the distance
between the fairlead and the winch or fairlead to which
the line is attached, can have a substantial influence on
the stiffness of a mooring line. In typical mooring
analyses, the on-board lengths vary greatly, and this can
significantly affect the distribution of mooring loads.
But here a uniform on-board length of 5 m has been
used for both winch mounted lines and auxiliary lines in
order to simplify presentation and discussion of the data.
Presentation of Analysis Results
The magnitudes and distribution of forces in these
examples are summarized in Tables at the end of this
paper. The Case Number and a brief description are
labeled at the bottom of each table.
In the tables, the various mooring lines are designated
by the vessel fairlead position and the shore bollard
position. For example, 1-A indicates the line from
fairlead 1 extending to bollard A. The mooring line
material is also indicated.
MIXED MOORING LINE EXAMPLE CASES
Case 1: All–Wire Mooring Base Case
In the all-wire mooring case, there are a total of ten
breast and bow/stern lines and four spring lines, arranged
as in Fig. 2. The auxiliary lines are not deployed in this
base case.
The forward breast lines 3-C and 4-C are loaded up to
61% of break strength, and line 5-C is loaded to 60%.
This is an unacceptable situation when judged against the
OCIMF criteria of a maximum load of 55% of break
strength in any line.3
In such cases, auxiliary lines would usually be
deployed to supplement the winch mounted mooring
lines.
Case 2: Wire Auxiliary Lines
Wire auxiliary lines are used to supplement the winch-
mounted wires in Case 2. The loads in the forward breast
lines 3-C, 4-C, and 5-C are reduced to 41%, 41%, and
40% of break strength respectively. This is about a 32%
relative reduction in mooring line tension. The forward
auxiliary breast lines 15-C and 16-C are loaded to 41%
and 39% respectively. This would be acceptable.
The wire auxiliary lines have the same elastic
characteristics as the winch mounted wires that they
supplement, and thus they take almost an equal
proportion of the load. The apparent imbalance in loads
is due to small differences in actual line lengths and
vectors due to the positions of the fairleads.
It would be unusual to use wire auxiliary lines, because
they are hard to handle. Synthetic fiber ropes are
generally used as auxiliary lines to facilitate handling.
Because it is light weight and low cost, polypropylene is
a common choice for auxiliary lines.
Case 3: Polypropylene Auxiliary Lines
Case 3 shows the use of 4 polypropylene auxiliary
lines. The polypropylene rope break strength is 119
metric ton to be comparable with that of the wires. This
represents a 120 mm (4.5 in.) dia. polypropylene rope
which is untypically large for this application.
The elasticity of used polypropylene is represented. At
50% of break strength, polypropylene stretches about
six times more than steel wire rope. Note also that
polypropylene has a non-linear force-deflection curve, as
shown in Fig. 1.
Deploying these polypropylene auxiliary lines had only
a small effect on the magnitude and distribution of the
forces in the wire lines. Forward breast lines 3-C is
loaded to 56% of break strength and the other two lines
are loaded to 55%. This is only about an 8% relative
reduction compared to Case 1.
The 4 polypropylene ropes serving as breast lines are
tensioned only 11% or less of their break strength. They
carry almost no mooring load, because they are much
more elastic than the wire breast lines which are in
parallel with them.
Case 4: High-Modulus Synthetic Auxiliary Lines
The new high-modulus synthetic fiber ropes are
typically about twice as elastic as steel wire rope, and
they are essentially linear. Thus they can more
effectively share the mooring load than polypropylene.
In Case 4, high-modulus auxiliary lines are used. The
break strength is 119 ton, essentially the same as that of
the wires. The diameter to strength relationship for the
high modulus ropes varies. Some have essentially the
same break strength as equivalent size wire ropes.
The high-modulus auxiliary lines are much more
effective than the polypropylene auxiliary lines of Case
3. The loads in breast lines 3-B and 4-B are now at 48%
of break strength, and the load in 5-B is at 47%. This
is a 21% relative reduction compared to Case 1.
The highest loaded high-modulus auxiliary line is
loaded to 34% of break strength, indicating a relatively
good sharing of load.
Case 5 : Different Length Wire and
High-Modulus Lines
In Case 5, the wire mooring lines are redeployed to
bollards J and K, which are set back further on the pier.
The high-modulus mooring lines remain on bollards C
and F, in line with Bollards A and J.
Extending the length of these wire breast lines
effectively reduces their stiffnesses with respect to the
high-modulus auxiliary breast lines. Now the wires 4-J,
and 5-J are loaded to 37% of break strength. The
forward auxiliary lines are now loaded to 30% and 28%.
The forward high-modulus synthetic auxiliary lines
are loaded to 32% of break strength. Thus they are now
almost fully effective in sharing the load. Although the
outboard lengths of the wires are essentially twice that
of the high-modulus synthetics, the inboard lengths are
the same, thus upseting the effective balance of
stiffnesses.
Case 6 : High-Modulus Mooring and Auxiliary Lines
High-modulus synthetic fiber ropes are now replacing
wires in some critical applications. They are easier to
handle and there is less risk of injury to deck and shore
personnel when handling the lines.
In Case 6, the 14 winch-mounted wires are replaced
with high-modulus ropes of essentially the same strength,
and high-modulus auxiliary lines are also used.
Compare this all-high-modulus rope Case 6 with the
all- wire Case 2. The magnitudes and distribution of
mooring loads are very similar. The highest loaded line
is 3-B, at 42%, compared to 41% for that line in Case 2.
In effect, the stiffnesses of all of the mooring lines have
been reduced by about half. This causes a slight
redistribution of mooring loads among the various lines.
Load distribution imbalances caused by differences in
mooring line lengths are generally less when more elastic
lines are used.
However, vessel motions are also generally greater. In
the comparable Case 2, with all-wire lines, the moored
vessel was pushed 0.2 m (0.5 ft) off the pier by the
forcing environment. In this all-high-modulus Case 6,
the vessel moved 0.4 m (1 ft) off the pier.
If much more elastic synthetic mooring lines, such as
nylon or polyester, were used, the vessel motion would
probably be unacceptable. This effect is illustrated in an
earlier paper.4
DISCUSSION
Mooring line elasticity can have significant effects on
the magnitudes and distributions of mooring loads
alongside a pier. Cases involving auxiliary mooring lines
of wire, polypropylene, and high-modulus fiber were
compared in this paper.
In Case 2, wire auxiliary lines were used in parallel
with the wire breast lines with good results. These wire
auxiliary lines almost fully shared the mooring loads.
But wire rope is too heavy and hard to handle to be
generally used as auxiliary lines.
In Case 3, polypropylene auxiliary lines of the same
strength as the wires were used, even though this was an
untypically large polypropylene rope. The polypropylene
auxiliary lines were not very effective in reducing loads
in the most highly loaded winch mounted wire lines.
This is because the polypropylene ropes are much more
elastic than the wire ropes.
In Case 4, high-modulus fiber ropes were used as the
auxiliary lines. They were effective in reducing the
high line loads, because they were only about twice as
elastic as wire rope. In Case 4, the winch-mounted wire
lines were made essentially twice as long as the high-
modulus auxiliary lines. This caused the relative line
stiffnesses to be almost the same and resulted in a very
good distribution of mooring loads.
Other factors should also be considered when judging
mooring line elasticity. Peak dynamic loads are
generally less with elastic mooring lines. Short lengths
of nylon are used as tails in series with wires on spring
lines at some oil terminals where passing ship dynamic
effects are a concern. The new high modulus fiber
ropes can also provide this extra elasticity in spring
lines.
If mooring lines are too elastic, then vessel motions
can be excessive. For this reason, wires are generally
preferred as mooring lines on tankers because it is
necessary to limit vessel motions relative to the loading
arms or hose rack.
But if mooring lines are too stiff, then they must be
watched and tended frequently to avoid becoming slack
or overloaded. This can be a major concern where the
lines are at steep angles because the bollards are close to
the vessel side and where relative elevations change due
to tide or freeboard fluctuations. In these
circumstances, nylon or polyester lines may be
preferred.
______________
References:
1 Flory, J.F., H.A. McKenna, and M.R. Parsey, ”?Fiber Ropes
for Ocean Engineering in the 21st Century”, Proceedings of Civil
Engineering In the Oceans V, ASCE, New York, Nov. 1992
2 Flory, J.F., and A. Ractliffee, “Mooring Management by
Computer”, Proceedings of Ship Operations, Management and
Economics Symposium, SNAME, Jersey City, NJ, May, 1994
3 OCIMF, Mooring Equipment Guidelines, Oil Companies
International Marine Forum, Witherby & Co.,, London, 2nd
edition, 1997.
4 Flory, J.F., S.P. Banfield, and A. Ractliffe, “Computer
mooring Load Analysis to Improve Port Operations and Safety”,
Proceedings of Ports ‘98, ASCE, Reston, VA, March, 1998
Example Analyses of the Effect of Rope Elasticity on Distribution of Mooring Line Loads

Bow Lines Fwd. Breast Lines Auxiliary Lines Aft Breast Lines Stern Lines
Connection 1-A 2-A 3-B 4-B 5-B 10-G 11-G 12-G 13-H 14-H
Mooring line wire wire wire wire wire wire wire wire wire wire
% of Strength 30% 27% 61% 61% 60% 45% 41% 38% 29% 28%
Case 1 : Base Case, 14 Wire Mooring Lines (4 spring lines not shown)

Bow Lines Fwd. Breast Lines Auxiliary Lines Aft Breast Lines Stern Lines
Connection 1-A 2-A 3-B 4-B 5-B 15-C 16-C 17-F 18-F 6-G 7-G 8-G 9-H 10-H
Mooring line wire wire wire wire wire wire wire wire wire wire wire wire wire wire
% of Strength 20% 18% 41% 41% 40% 41% 39% 32% 30% 28% 25% 23% 21% 20%
Case 2 : 14 Wire Mooring Lines + 4 Wire Auxiliary Lines

Bow Lines Fwd. Breast Lines Auxiliary Lines Aft Breast Lines Stern Lines
Connection 1-A 2-A 3-B 4-B 5-B 11-C 12-C 19-F 20-F 6-G 7-G 8-G 9-H 10-H
Mooring line wire wire wire wire wire pp pp pp pp wire wire wire wire wire
% of Strength 27% 25% 56% 55% 55% 11% 11% 9% 9% 40% 36% 34% 27% 26%
Case 3 : 14 Wire Mooring Lines + 4 Polypropylene Auxiliary Lines

Bow Lines Fwd. Breast Lines Auxiliary Lines Aft Breast Lines Stern Lines
Connection 1-A 2-A 3-B 4-B 5-B 11-C 12-C 19-F 20-F 6-G 7-G 8-G 9-H 10-H
Mooring line wire wire wire wire wire HM HM HM HM wire wire wire wire wire
% of Strength 23% 21% 48% 48% 47% 26% 26% 21% 20% 34% 31% 28% 24% 23%
Case 4: 14 Wire Mooring Lines + 4 High-Modulus Synthetic Auxiliary Lines

Bow Lines Fwd. Breast Lines Auxiliary Lines Aft Breast Lines Stern Lines
Connection 1-A 2-A 3-J 4-J 5-J 11-C 12-C 19-F 20-F 6-K 7-K 8-K 9-H 10-H
Mooring line wire wire wire wire wire HM HM HM HM wire wire wire wire wire
% of Strength 30% 28% 36% 37% 37% 32% 32% 24% 23% 26% 26% 26% 24% 24%
Case 5: 14 Wire Mooring Lines (rearranged) + 4 High-Modulus Synthetic Auxiliary Lines

Bow Lines Fwd. Breast Lines Auxiliary Lines Aft Breast Lines Stern Lines
Connection 1-A 2-A 3-B 4-B 5-B 11-C 12-C 19-F 20-F 6-G 7-G 8-G 9-H 10-H
Mooring line HM HM HM HM HM HM HM HM HM HM HM HM HM HM
% of Strength 17% 15% 42% 41% 40% 40% 39% 32% 29% 27% 24% 22% 19% 19%
Case 6: 14 High Modulus Mooring Lines + 4 High Modulus Auxiliary Lines