Optimum Design of a Passive Suspension System of a Semisubmersible for Pitching Reduction

With the development of ocean energy exploration, reliable semisubmersible platforms with very small motion are expected to develop. Especially, in a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) system, the maximum pitching amplitude is required to be less than a few degrees. To reduce wave-induced pitch motion, a new type semisubmersible with suspensions and a design method of the suspension coefficients are presented. In practical case, an add-on wave energy dissipation device mounted on a floating platform, such as the combined wave-wind energy converter system, could be regarded as the suspension system. In this study, first, the conceptual semisubmersible is described. Then, the hydrodynamic loads to the semisubmersible are linearized so that the whole system is expressed by a state-space model. The suspension design problem is transformed into solving a constrained H_∞ optimization problem, which after all is the optimal controller design of a feedback system. Finally, numerical examples are performed to verify the effectiveness of the design. The results illustrate that the pitch motion of the semisubmersible can be remarkably reduced by the designed suspensions.