Integrated modelling of the whole system of large floating offshore wind applications

PhD student

Ran Tu

Supervisors

Prof Yinghui Tian	Prof Mark Cassidy

Project Start Date: June 2023

Project Details

Offshore wind is increasingly commissioned to power the world, as a promising alternative to fossil energy. To access more abundant wind resources, offshore wind applications are moving to deeper waters (>60 m) where floating structures are more feasible economically and technically than fixed structures. This requires effective anchoring system to moor the floating facilities (i.e. floater) in position by a series of long chains and anchors. Moreover, larger capacity wind turbines (10+ MW) are attracting investors’ interest as their advantage in economy of scale. But the consequent environmental loads, from both larger size of wind facilities and harsher conditions in deeper seas, are challenging security offered by anchoring system. The current design method assumes that mooring lines are hinged on the seabed surface below which geotechnical behaviour of embedded anchor-chain is, however, simplistically ignored. This may lead to unconservative practice, especially in abovementioned situation. To secure larger offshore wind capacity installed in deeper waters, an integrated model of floater-chain-anchor system is proposed to be developed in this study, which can holistically consider geotechnical, hydrodynamic, aerodynamic and structural response of floating wind applications. Comprehensive numerical simulations are to be conducted by the integrated model, aiming at advancing academic understanding of mooring system and offering technical reserves to launch the next generation floating wind project.