Access to a floating wind turbine

Shanley, Matthew; Wright, Christopher S.; Otter, Aldert; Desmond, Cian J.; Murphy, Jimmy

Access to a floating wind turbine

Files

ShanleyM_Access_to_a_Floating_Wind_Turbine.pdf(574.97 KB)

Accepted version

Date

2017-03

Authors

Shanley, Matthew

Wright, Christopher S.

Otter, Aldert

Desmond, Cian J.

Murphy, Jimmy

Publisher

The Royal Institution of Naval Architects

Abstract

The offshore wind turbine service industry is now well established with a large number of turbines being successfully operated and maintained. A number of methods and technologies are available to allow the safe transfer of service crews to these primarily fixed monopile installations. The most common of these is the bow transfer method which uses a combination of a high friction fender and a large vessel thrust to minimise relative motion between the bow and the turbine foundation. An upcoming challenge for the offshore wind turbine service industry will be the increasing use of floating foundations in far offshore and deep water sites. A number of structures are currently being developed and the first commercial floating wind farm is expected to be commissioned in late 2017. The use of floating structures will make it more difficult to ensure crew safety and comfort during transfer operations as the interaction between two floating bodies needs to be considered. Thus, the bow transfer method used to access fixed foundations may not be suitable for accessing floating turbine platforms. This paper will use a combination of physical and numerical modelling to assess the ability of a wind farm service vessel to maintain contact with a floating offshore wind turbine structure by use of the bow transfer method.

Keywords

Offshore wind farm service vessel , Hull design optimisation , Crew transfer vessel , CTV , WFSV

Citation

Matthew S., Wright, C.S., Desmond, C. J., Aldert O. and Murphy, J. (2017) 'Access to a floating wind turbine', Design & Construction of Wind Farm Support Vessels 2017 Proceedings, The Royal Institution of Naval Architects, London, UK, 29-30 March.