Tail-Equivalent Linearization Method in frequency domain and application to marine structures

An extension of the Tail-Equivalent Linearization Method (TELM) to the frequency domain is presented. The extension defines the Tail-Equivalent Linear System in terms of its frequency-response function. This function is obtained by matching the design point of the nonlinear response with that of the linearized response, thus guaranteeing the equivalence of the tail probability of the latter and the first-order approximation of the tail probability of the nonlinear response. The proposed approach is particularly suitable when the input and response processes are stationary, as is usually the case in the analysis of marine structures. When linear waves are considered, the Tail-Equivalent Linear System possesses a number of important properties, such as the capability to account for multi-support excitations and invariance with respect to scaling of the excitation. The latter property significantly enhances the computational efficiency of TELM for analysis with variable sea states. Additionally, the frequency-response function of the Tail-Equivalent Linear System offers insights into the geometry of random vibrations discretized in the frequency domain and into the physical nature of the response process. The proposed approach is applied to the analysis of point-in-time and first-passage statistics of the random sway displacement of a simplified jack-up rig model. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.