Offshore staff
VÄSTERÅS, Sweden — Aalborg University in northern Denmark has completed testing in a wave basin of a new 15-MW floating wind power platform and mooring system.
The scaled model of the platform, designed by Windeed, was subjected to various load cases including simultaneous waves, current and wind forces. Results verified analyses performed with the Orcaflex and 3DFloat software.
Windeed says the focus of its design is on low weight without compromising structural integrity. The platform, it claims, minimizes exposure to forces from waves through mitigating slamming forces and reducing the dynamic buoyancy forces with a strategically small water plane area.
CEO Bertil Moritz said the tests showed it is feasible to create a low-weight floater that is simultaneously highly immune to powerful hydrodynamic forces, which he described as a physical contradiction.
Another feature is the concept’s modularization, said to feature easily assembled hinged couplings, which also support a reduction in internal forces.
Tank tests are said to have shown low accelerations, minimal heel angles in global motions and correspondingly low stresses on the structure.
10.27.2023
