AccScience Publishing / IJOCTA / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/IJOCTA025460198
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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Numerical analysis of stiffness-driven passive heave control in a semisubmersible platform

Srinivasan Chandrasekaran1* ,  Ajaya Kumar Das2
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1 Department of Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
2 Department of Civil Engineering, Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), Burla, Odisha, India
IJOCTA, 025460198 https://doi.org/10.36922/IJOCTA025460198
Received: 10 November 2025 | Revised: 4 December 2025 | Accepted: 10 December 2025 | Published online: 8 January 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
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Abstract

In recent years, semisubmersibles have increasingly replaced fixed and semi compliant platforms in deep water deployments. Their larger deck area and superior operational stability under severe environmental loads have contributed to their widespread use. However, excessive heave motion remains a critical design concern. Passive and active control strategies have been explored to address this concern. The present study proposes a novel passive damping system suspended beneath the platform deck to suppress excessive heave motion. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed passive damper in controlling heave motion under low and moderate sea states. At high sea states, however, its performance declines because it does not adequately suppress second-order effects and coupling between degrees of freedom. The controlled response behavior may result from complex inter-degree-of-freedom coupling effects, including second-order interactions. It requires more detailed higher-order analysis, which is beyond the scope of the present study. Additionally, the proposed damper system is uniquely driven by the buoyancy forces generated during submergence, eliminating the need for external power. Thus, the control action is inherently self-induced through the platform’s motion, offering a simple, energy-efficient, and reliable solution for heave mitigation.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Heave motion
Mass ratio
Offshore floating platform
Passive damper
Response control
Semisubmersible
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.
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An International Journal of Optimization and Control: Theories & Applications, Electronic ISSN: 2146-5703 Print ISSN: 2146-0957, Published by AccScience Publishing
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