19.9.4. The ECAB Data Record - Elastic Catenary Bending Stiffness

This data record is used to define the bending stiffness for a cable dynamic analysis and should be input after an ECAT data record (elastic catenary). If this data record is omitted for a particular section of a mooring line the bending stiffness will be zero.

      2   5  7   11    16    21    26    31         41        
    - --- -- ---- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---------- ------- 
   |X|   |  |ECAB|XXXXX|XXXXX|XXXXX|XXXXX|          |       
    - --- -- ---- ----- ----- ----- ----- ---------- ------- 
       |  |   |                               |
       |  |   |                               |_(2) Bending Stiffness EI (E10.0)
       |  |   |
       |  |   |_(1) Data Record Keyword(A4)
       |  |
       |  |_Optional User Identifier (A2)
       |
       |_Compulsory END on last data record in Data Category (A3)

(2) For a prismatic section the bending stiffness is the product of the elastic modulus and the 2nd moment of area. For a chain or laid hawser an equivalent value must be defined.

Note: It is not possible to input a very high stiffness to create a straight rod. The maximum bending stiffness is related to the axial stiffness as follows.

EI_max = (EA)(L²/30)

This check is carried out for the individual elements into which the cable is split, so the length (L) is the length of the element. This is not available to the user but is approximately the total length of the line divided by the total number of elements. See the NCEL data record.