A face-contact connector for modularized floating structures

For a large modularized floating structure, the connection load between adjacent modules could be tremendous under wave excitations. Traditional articulated connection method hardly meets the requirements of structural strength at connection. It has become a major technical obstacle in the connector design. For this reason, a new type of face-contact (FC) connector is proposed here. The core idea is to disperse the huge connection load to the whole end face of modules, so as to significantly reduce the local stress level at connection areas. The face-contact connector is composed of a group of cables and cushions with the mechanism of quick assembly and release. The network modeling method and finite element method (FEM) are used to evaluate the performance of the FC connector. A numerical example of a serially connected pontoon-type floating system is conducted to show the design procedure that includes the layout of the cables and cushions, the selection of wave condition, the determination of cable stiffness and elasticity modulus of cushions based on a proposed evaluation function. The evaluation function is a comprehensive index to assess the balance among the module responses, connection loads and strength redundancy according to designer's preference. The results indicate that the face-contact connector is much easier to meet the strength requirement comparing with the traditional hinged connectors. •A face-contact (FC) connector is proposed to disperse the huge connection load.•The mechanism of the FC connector's quick assembly and release has been elaborated.•An evaluation function has been proposed for the FC connector's stiffness design.•The FC connector can significantly reduce the connection loads and stress level.