Mooring line performance in warm climate and dynamic conditions

The use of HMPE mooring lines has matured over the past years. Early failures because of human error, suboptimal rope constructions, or total system designs have been reduced considerably. Nowadays, the operational lifetime is therefore very much determined by adequate maintenance and the specific characteristics of the type of HMPE fiber.
Mooring lines with Dyneema® are used across the globe, in tropical environments and cold weather, in benign mooring conditions, and increasingly at exposed terminals. With global temperatures rising and ship sizes increasing, it is becoming more and more important to determine the (fatigue) loading conditions and their impact on rope residual life.
In this document, we present a co-development by DSM and Samson Rope Technologies: a tool to predict lifetime of mooring lines with Dyneema® SK78 subjected to tension-tension fatigue in any environmental temperature.