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Load Groups
The load group is a generalization of a nodal load. Here, a collection of load attributes is associated
together as a group. For simulations, the load due to each of the attributes is computed and applied to
the proper body. A load group also has a list of points associated with it. This list is given a name
(normally the name of the load group) and is called a load map. When a stress analysis is performed,
the total load on the group will be distributed to the nodes associated with the points by a least squares
technique. Thus, if there is only one node associated with the group, it acts as a nodal load.
There are two primary differences between a load group and a nodal load. First, load groups allow for
the association of not only loads, but also load attributes, with nodes. Secondly, the load attributes of
a load group can be distributed to more than one node. In addition to the obvious advantages of using
attributes instead of loads, the load group allows one to define gross properties to entire bodies when
he is not interested in the structural details.
The load map may be either defined with a set of selectors as described below, or MOSES will define
it for you. In particular, if one has not defined a map explicitly, the loads will be mapped to the points
where load attributes have been defined. Whenever a body or part is defined, MOSES will
automatically define a load group with the same name as the body or part.
Load groups are defined in much the same manner as bodies and parts. In other words, one issues:
&DESCRIBE LOAD_GROUP, LG_NAME, :NODE_SEL(1), .. :NODE_SEL(n), -OPTIONS

where the options are:

-DAMP_FUSE, YES/NO
-AMASS_FUSE, YES/NO

and all load group attributes which follow belong to the specified load group. Here, LG_NAME is the
name which one wishes to give to the following load group, and :NODE_SEL(i) are a set of selectors
defining the points to which the loads will be mapped. The force from a load group is automatically
distributed to the specified nodes as if the nodes were connected to the point of application by a rigid
structure. Note, however, the rigid structure is not required, since the force is distributed by a least
squares technique, as shown in Figure 21. The options -DAMP_FUSE and -AMASS_FUSE control
the use of matrices defined with #AMASS and #DRAG commands in the frequency domain. By
default, they are not used. If YES/NO is set to YES, the matrices will be included.

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One can obtain the values of some of the present attributes of a load group with the string function:
&LOADG(:LSEL, -OPTION)

the valid options are: -PERCENT, -WEIGHT, -RADII, and -CG. The string returned here is the
name of the load group followed by the applicable values for each load group which matches the
selector :LSEL. This value is multiplied by the load group multiplier and margin. The CG and radii of
gyration are returned in the part system.
One can define mass, added mass, viscous damping, linear damping, wind, and buoyancy attributes
for a load group. Here, the linear damping is not strictly associated with wave radiation, since it is a
constant. Both the added mass and viscous drag are computed according to Morison's Equation. Most
of the load attributes defined are applied at a point previously defined by the user. If the point
reference is omitted, then the loads will be applied at the part origin.
Many option apply to all load attributes described, In particular, all load group attributes are assigned
a Category of the default "extra" category by default. If one wishes to alter this, he may use the
-CATEGORY option where indicated. Thus, one can have load attributes associated with different
categories within the same load group. Also, MOSES associates a multiplier with the load group as a
whole. This multiplier may be changed as can the multipliers for categories with the &APPLY
command. This allows one to be able to "turn off" an entire load group as well as alter the force
computations for some of the attributes.
Each of the attributes allows one to define a NUMBER, defined by an option, -NUM_APPLIED,
which multiplies the results of an attribute before it is applied. In other words, the force, mass, drag,
and added mass are first computed based on the properties defined. Then, each of these quantities are
multiplied by the number specified before they are applied to the body.
The forces which will be applied are determined by a set of multipliers defined by the -WIND,
-DRAG, and -AMASS options. These multipliers are similar to shape coefficients in that a force is
computed and then the multiplier is applied. If any of these options are omitted, the corresponding
multiplier is set to one. The forces which result from these commands are computed according to
Morison's Equation. Wind only acts on the area defined by #AREA if its center is above the water
surface. Similarly, water loads are only attracted when the center of area is below the water surface.

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-WAVE_PM is used to define WAVMUL which is a multiplier for wave particle velocity and
acceleration. If WAVMUL is greater than zero, it is used to factor the wave particle velocity and
acceleration before it is added to the other velocities and accelerations to compute a force. The default
value of WAVMUL is zero, in which case wave velocity and acceleration will not be considered for
the load attribute.
The buoyancy due to these commands is defined by the -BUOY_THICK option. Here, BTHICK is a
thickness (inches or mm) which, when multiplied by the submerged area, will yield the buoyancy
force.
Weight can also be defined with the other commands by using one or both of the options
-TOT_WEIGHT or -MULT_WEIGHT. Here, WT is a weight, in bforce, which will be applied at
the point of application. With the -MULT_WEIGHT option, WMULT is a weight/area
(bforce/blength**2) which is multiplied by the area defined by either a #PLATE or a #AREA
command to yield a weight applied at the centroid. Both options can be used on the same command.
For any of the load attributes that follow, the options:

-TEXTURE, NAME_TEX, X_SCALE, Y_SCALE

-COLOR, COLOR(1), FRAC(1), ... COLOR(n), FRAC(n)

can be used to define the color and texture of the attribute. These will be used when one asks for a
picture with -COLOR MODELED. Here, NAME_COL is any color which has been previously
defined. See the section on Colors for a discussion on defining colors. The NAME_TEX value for
-TEXTURE is the name of a file in either /X/data/textures or /X/data/local/textures (here MOSES is
store in /X). The X_SCALE and Y_SCALE are scale factors which will be applied to the texture. The
NAME_TEX of NONE will yield a null default texture.
Perhaps the most popular of the load group class commands is the one which associates a weight with
the group. The form of this command is:
#WEIGHT, *PT, WT, RX, RY, RZ, -OPTIONS

and the available options are:

-LDIST, X1, X2
-NUM_APPLIED, NUMBER
-CATEGORY, CAT_NAME

This command instructs MOSES that a weight of WT bforce is attached to the part at the location
specified by the point *PT. This weight has radii of gyration RX, RY, and RZ (feet or meters) about
the point *PT. The -LDIST option defines the longitudinal distance over which the weight will be
applied when computing traditional longitudinal strength. Here, X1 and X2 are the beginning and
ending longitudinal coordinates (feet or meters) of the interval over which the weight will be applied.

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To define an applied force within a load group, one uses the command:
#LSET, *PT, FX, FY, FZ, MX, MY, MZ

This command defines an applied generalized force with the magnitude of the components given by
FX, FY, etc. (bforce and bforce-blength). The force is applied at the point defined by *PT, and is a
member of the load set #LSET. As with all user defined load sets, one must "activate" the load set
with an &APPLY command before it will actually be applied.
To instruct MOSES to build an added mass matrix for the load group, one should issue:
#AMASS, *PT, DISP, CX, CY, CZ, RX, RY, RZ -OPTIONS

and the available options are:

-CATEGORY, CAT_NAME

Here, the added mass will be DISP/G, where G is the gravitational constant. CX, CY and CZ are the
added mass coefficients, and RX, RY, and RZ are added radii of gyration, taken about the point
specified by *PT.
Similarly, one can define a constant, linear drag matrix with the command:
#DRAG, *PT, DISP, D(X), D(Y), D(Z), R(X), R(Y), R(Z) -OPTIONS

and the available options are:

-CATEGORY, CAT_NAME

Here, the force that will be produced is:

F(X)
F(Y)
F(Z)
M(X)
M(Y)
M(Z)

=
=
=
=
=
=

DISP/G
DISP/G
DISP/G
DISP/G
DISP/G
DISP/G

*
*
*
*
*
*

D(X) * V(X)
D(Y) * V(Y)
D(Z) * V(Z)
R(X)**2 * OMEG(X)
R(Y)**2 * OMEG(Y)
R(Z)**2 * OMEG(Z)

Where G is the gravitational constant, DISP, D(i) and R(i) are the quantities specified, V(i) is a
velocity at the point *PT, and OMEG(i) is an angular velocity in rad/sec.
Point buoyancies can be associated with the load group by:
#BUOY, *PT, DISP, -OPTIONS

and the available options are:

-CATEGORY, CAT_NAME

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-NUM_APPLIED, NUMBER

-TOT_WEIGHT, WT

Here, DISP (bforce) is the magnitude of the buoyancy which will be applied. Again, this is applied at
the location specified by the point *PT, and is applied only when this point is below the water surface.
Weight can also be specified with this command by use of the -TOT_WEIGHT option. Here, WT is
a weight (bforce) which will be applied at the same point as the buoyancy.
The following two commands, #AREA and #PLATE, are somewhat similar in that they both define
an area which attracts water and wind forces. The format of the first of these is:
#AREA, *PT, AX, AY, AZ, -OPTIONS

and the available options are:

-CATEGORY, CAT_NAME
-NUM_APPLIED, NUMBER
-WIND, WINMUL
-DRAG, DRGMUL
-AMASS, AMSMUL
-WAVE_PM, WAVMUL
-BUOY_THICK, BTHICK
-TOT_WEIGHT, WT
-MULT_WEIGHT, WMULT

Here, AX, AY, and AZ (ft**2 or m**2) define the components of an area concentrated at the point
specified by *PT.
In contrast to #AREA, a #PLATE command defines a distributed area, and load attraction does not
depend on the location of the center of area. The form of this command is:
#PLATE, *PNT(1), *PNT(2), ............, -OPTIONS

and the available options are:

-CATEGORY, CAT_NAME
-NUM_APPLIED, NUMBER
-WIND, WINMUL
-DRAG, DRGMUL

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-AMASS, AMSMUL
-WAVE_PM, WAVMUL
-BUOY_THICK, BTHICK
-TOT_WEIGHT, WT
-MULT_WEIGHT, WMULT

Here, one specifies up to four vertices of a polygon by points *PNT(i). These vertices must be input in
the order of one tracing the outline of the plate. MOSES will compute the portions which are
submerged and those which are above the water surface, applying the proper forces in each regime.
The level of detail used in the force calculation is defined by the -MAXAREA and -MAXREFINE
and the method of computing drag are defined with options of the &PARAMETER command. The
options for #PLATE function in the same manner as they do for #AREA, with one exception. When
the submerged portion of a plate is computed, an aspect ratio is also computed. The added mass for
the plate is that computed for a rectangular plate according to DNV Classification Notes 30.5.
Occasionally, it is convenient to describe a load attribute as a tubular, but without actually adding a
tubular element to the model. This can be performed with the command:
#TUBE, OD, T,

*PT1, *PT2 -OPTIONS

where the available options are:

-CATEGORY, CAT_NAME
-NUM_APPLIED, NUMBER
-WIND, WINMUL
-DRAG, DRGMUL
-AMASS, AMSMUL
-WAVE_PM, WAVMUL
-TOT_WEIGHT, WT
-MULT_WEIGHT, WMULT
-BUOY_DIA, BOD

Here, OD (inches or mm) is the diameter of the tube used to calculate environmental forces and T
(inches or mm) it the thickness. The tube is positioned between the points *PT1 and *PT2. The first
eight options behave the same as for the #AREA command, and the -BUOY_DIA option defines the
diameter used to calculate buoyant forces for the attribute. The weight computed for this element is as
described about for #AREA except that another weight is computed using the thickness, the OD, the
current default density, and the length of the tube.

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Wind and current forces can be input to MOSES and then associated with a load group. This is
achieved with the command:
#TABLE, T_NAME, *PNT, -OPTIONS

Here *PNT is the point of application of the force and the available options are:
-WAVE_PM, WAVMUL
-CATEGORY, CAT_NAME

When computing current forces, the wave particle velocity is computed a the minimum depth of the
location of *PNT or the water surface. The wind speed is always computed at standard anemometer
height so the wind is always allied regardless of the *PNT location.
For this command, T_NAME is the name of a table of user defined force coefficients for wind and
current. This table is defined using the &DATA menu:
&DATA A_TABLE, T_NAME, FLAG

where T_NAME is the name of the force table. In this menu, the commands available are:
ANGLE, ANG1
WIND_ARE, WAX, WAY, WAZ, WAMX, WAMY, WAMZ
CURR_ARE, CAX, CAY, CAZ, CAMX, CAMY, CAMZ

The ANGLE, WIND_ARE, and CURR_ARE commands are repeated for each angle, for up to 36
angles. If FLAG is specified as REFLECT, the angles specified should range from 0 to 180 degrees.
If this is not specified, the angles specified should be from 0 to 360 degrees. These angles are either
wind angles relative to the body system, or relative body/current velocity angles. The body velocity
used is that computed at *PNT, specified in body coordinates as X, Y and Z. The force acting at
*PNT is calculated by multiplying the specified coefficients by the square of the relative velocity.
These force coefficients also create damping in the frequency domain. For the WIND_ARE and
CURR_ARE commands, X, Y and Z are force coefficients, while MX, MY and MZ are moment
coefficients. The prefix WA is for wind area, and CA is for current area. Remember to exit this menu
using END_&DATA.
If one wishes, he can associate a Tanaka Damping load attribute with a load group. This is
accomplished with the command:
#TANAKA

WETSUF -OPTIONS

and the available options are:

-ROLL, SECTION, FRACTION, BLOCK, DEPKEEL, KG, BEAM, BILRAD

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-PITCH, SECTION, FRACTION, BLOCK, DEPKEEL, KG, LENGTH, BILRAD

-PERIOD, T(1), T(2), ...., T(n)
-ANGLE, AN(1), ...., AN(n)

The two options -ROLL and -PITCH are instructions to compute a set of Tanaka data and add it to
what exists, and one can have up to 20 different occurrences of these options. The degree of freedom
which will be effected by the damping is defined by the option name. Here, WETSURF is the total
wetted surface of the body (ft**2 or m**2), and one can think of each pair of -ROLL and -PITCH
options as defining the damping for a part of the body which has a fraction, FRACTION, of the
wetted surface. All of the other variables for the option apply to the piece being defined. SECTION
defines the type of section, and must be either BOW, MIDBODY or STERN. BLOCK is the block
coefficient, DEPKEEL is the distance from the waterline to the keel (feet or meters), KG is the
vertical center of gravity above the keel (feet or meters), BEAM is the breadth of the body (feet or
meters), LENGTH is the length of the body (feet or meters), and BILRAD is the bilge radius (feet or
meters). No pitch damping is produced by default. If you define no additional data on the #TANAKA
command, you will be put into a new submenu menu.
Once in the submenu, the equivalent linear damping coefficients are defined with the commands
R_TANAKA PER, VDM(1), ......, VDM(N)

or
P_TANAKA PER, VDM(1), ......, VDM(N)

Here, PER is one of the periods specified with the -PERIOD option, and VDM(i) are the coefficients
corresponding to the angles specified with -ANGLE. Notice that VDM(1) corresponds to ANGL(1),
VDM(2) with ANGL(2), etc. The units for VDM are bforce-sec-feet or meters. R_TANAKA refers to
roll damping coefficients, while P_TANAKA is for pitch. This menu is "exactly" the same as the one
you have before with I_TANAKA.
The final command which can be used for defining load group attributes is different from the others.
Here, instead of defining specific load attributes, one defines the wind and current load attributes of
an entire vessel. The particular form of this command is:
#TANKER, SIZE, TLEN, TDEP, TBEAM, AEX, AEY, LCP, -OPTIONS

and the available options are:

-CATEGORY, CAT_NAME
-CBOW
-YAW_FACTOR, YF
-WAVE_PM, WAVMUL

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This command causes wind and current forces to be computed for a tanker of the specified size
according to the data presented in Prediction of Wind and Current Loads on VLCCs by the Oil
Companies International Forum (OCIMF). NOTICE, these curves assume that the vessel is defined so
that the X axis goes from bow to stern and that the keel of the vessel is at the origin of the part. These
forces will be added to any other forces computed for the load group. The option -CBOW should be
used if the tanker has a bulbous bow, and the option -YAW_FACTOR controls the yaw viscous
damping during a time domain simulation. The OCIMF formulae were derived for computing the
wind and current force on a stationary tanker. Instead of simply using the current velocity in the
formulae, MOSES uses the relative current tanker velocity, so that viscous damping is obtained as
well as applied force. This approach works quite nicely for the basic forces and yaw moment, but
produces zero moment for a tanker which has zero velocity about the center of pressure regardless of
the yaw angular velocity. To overcome this problem, an additional term has been added which
depends on the lateral coefficient and the yaw angular velocity. The -YAW_FACTOR option
specifies a multiplier for this extra term. A value of zero for YF means that the term will not be used
while a value of one means that it will be used with no modification.
Here, SIZE is the size of the tanker in thousands of deadweight tons (e.g. a SIZE of 100 would denote
a 100,000 DWT tanker). If all of the other dimensions are omitted, they will be interpolated from an
internal database. The other data are: length, depth, beam, extra frontal area, extra lateral area, and
distance from the origin to the longitudinal center of the tanker. Here the units are feet or meters for
distances, and ft**2 or m**2 for areas. MOSES uses the major dimensions to compute the wind and
current areas, and the extra areas are for wind only. There is an internal database of default extra areas
for AEX and AEY. These values are replaced when a non-zero value is used for AEX or AEY. In
particular, the lateral wind area is given by TDEP minus the draft times TLEN plus AEY. Likewise
the frontal wind area is (TDEP - DRAFT) * TBEAM + AEX.
In some cases, using #TANKER may cause forces in a direction opposite from one expects. This is a
function of the OCIMF data, and not a problem with the software. There are lift forces involved with
the ship shaped hull forms this data represents, sometimes causing this behavior. The OCIMF results
are based on extensive wind tunnel and tank tests on typical tankers. We have incorporated digitized
versions of these curves into MOSES, therefore, what is derived is essentially what was measured.
The question now becomes why are these forces in a direction opposite to what one may expect - the
answer is probably lift (but this depends on your expectations!), and is what permits us to sail and fly.
The hull will behave like an aerofoil where the flow does not separate immediately at the bow (and
particularly if it is cylindrical as far as wind loads are concerned). As a consequence, the longitudinal
force components may be "negative", i.e. up current or upwind, for some directions. Rest assured,
however, the resultant force is always downweather so we can't sail or fly for nothing - there is a net
drag!

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