Maintenance Planning of Offshore Wind Turbine Using Condition Monitoring Information

Deterioration processes such as fatigue and corrosion are typically affecting offshore structures. To “control” this deterioration, inspection and maintenance activities are developed. Probabilistic methodologies represent an important tool to identify the suitable strategy to inspect and control the deterioration in structures such as offshore wind turbines (OWT). Besides these methods, the integration of condition monitoring information (CMI) can optimize the mitigation activities as an updating tool. In this paper, a framework for risk-based inspection and maintenance planning (RBI) is applied for OWT incorporating CMI, addressing this analysis to fatigue prone details in welded steel joints at jacket or tripod steel support structures for offshore wind turbines. The increase of turbulence in wind farms is taken into account by using a code-based turbulence model. Further, additional modes t integrate CMI in the RBI approach for optimal planning of inspection and maintenance. As part of the results, the life cycle reliabilities and inspection times are calculated, showing that earlier inspections are needed at in-wind farm sites. This is expected due to the wake turbulence increasing the wind load. With the integration of CMI by means Bayesian inference, a slightly change of first inspection times are coming up, influenced by the reduction of the uncertainty and harsher or milder external agents.

Drift Forces on a Floating Body of Simple Geometry Due to Second Order Interactions Between Pairs of Harmonics With Different Frequencies

The paper presents an investigation of the slowly varying second order drift forces on a floating body of simple geometry. The body is axis-symmetric about the vertical axis, like a vertical cylinder with a rounded bottom and a ratio of diameter to draft of 3.25. The hydrodynamic problem is solved with a second order boundary element method. The second order problem is due to interactions between pairs of incident harmonic waves with different frequencies, therefore the calculations are carried out for several difference frequencies with the mean frequency covering the whole frequency range of interest. Results include the surge drift force and pitch drift moment. The results are presented in several stages in order to assess the influence of different phenomena contributing to the global second order responses. Firstly the body is restrained and secondly it is free to move at the wave frequency. The second order results include the contribution associated with quadratic products of first order quantities, the total second order force, and the contribution associated to the free surface forcing.

An Investigation Into the Non-Linear Effects Resulting From Air Cushions in the Orecon Oscillating Water Column (OWC) Device

When designing an Oscillating Water Column (OWC) device, the motions and structural responses in waves are of great interest. However, predictions of these motions are complicated by the presence of air chambers above a large proportion of the waterplane area. Modeling the stiffness provided by air cushions at model scale presents a number of problems as air stiffness does not scale according to the laws of Froude scaling. To-date, the closest analogy might be an air-lifted gravity base structure, or crane vessel. However, in an OWC device, the air is not trapped as it is allowed to vent through a turbine. As a result, in still water, none of the mass of the buoy is supported by the air column. However, as the buoy is subjected to waves of increasing height the influence of the air chambers on the motions response becomes more pronounced. Experiments into the behavior of structures with trapped air springs have focused largely on benign sea conditions as the air cushions are generally used in vessels or structures involved with installation operations or similar. In contrast, the behavior of an OWC device must be predicted in all conditions up to, and including, survival conditions. BPP-TECH are providing technical support to the designers of the Orecon MRC wave energy buoy. This buoy uses chambers of varying drafts to generate electricity from the waves. The buoy is tension moored to the sea bed in order to constrain the heave motions to maximize the air pressure within the chambers as waves pass. A series of tank tests were undertaken at the OCEANIDE facility in order to investigate the motions of the buoy while tension moored and also measure the mooring line tensions. This paper will focus on the methods used to represent the air chambers at model scale and will present the results of the tests. A variety of different orifice sizes were used in the test campaign in order to provide a spread of values that would offer an insight into the effect of the air chambers on the motions of the structure in waves.

Global Hydroelastic Analysis of Pontoon-Type VLFS

A two-dimensional composite strategy given by Greco et al. [1] is applied to couple a linear global solution with a nonlinear local analysis. Globally a linear hydroelastic analysis is performed by an accurate Beam-On-Elastic-Foundation (BOEF) method. A parameter analysis of hydroelastic response of the structure is also carried out. Locally, a two-dimensional fully-nonlinear numerical wave tank (NWT) in combination with a Boundary Element Method (BEM) is developed to estimate the interaction between regular waves and the structure restrained from rigid and elastic motions. The effect of air cushion is considered. Present results are compared with experimental data and other numerical solutions.

Distribution of Wave Impact Forces From Breaking and Non-Breaking Waves

Impact loads from waves on vessels and coastal structures are highly complex and may involve wave breaking, making these changes difficult to estimate numerically or empirically. Results from previous experiments have shown a wide range of forces and pressures measured from breaking and non-breaking waves, with no clear trend between wave characteristics and the localized forces and pressures that they generate. In 2008, a canonical breaking wave impact data set was obtained at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, by measuring the distribution of impact pressures of incident non-breaking and breaking waves on one face of a cube. The effects of wave height, wavelength, face orientation, face angle, and submergence depth were investigated. A limited number of runs were made at low forward speeds, ranging from about 0.5 to 2 knots (0.26 to 1.03 m/s). The measurement cube was outfitted with a removable instrumented plate measuring 1 ft2 (0.09 m2), and the wave heights tested ranged from 8–14 inches (20.3 to 35.6 cm). The instrumented plate had 9 slam panels of varying sizes made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and 11 pressure gages; this data was collected at 5 kHz to capture the dynamic response of the gages and panels and fully resolve the shapes of the impacts. A Kistler gage was used to measure the total force averaged over the cube face. A bottom mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) was used to obtain measurements of velocity through the water column to provide incoming velocity boundary conditions. A Light Detecting and Ranging (LiDAR) system was also used above the basin to obtain a surface mapping of the free surface over a distance of approximately 15 feet (4.6 m). Additional point measurements of the free surface were made using acoustic distance sensors. Standard and high-speed video cameras were used to capture a qualitative assessment of the impacts. Impact loads on the plate tend to increase with wave height, as well as with plate inclination toward incoming waves. Further trends of the pressures and forces with wave characteristics, cube orientation, draft and face angle are investigated and presented in this paper, and are also compared with previous test results.

Wave-Vessel Interactions in Beam Seas

This paper concerns the nonlinear interaction of waves with a floating vessel. A detailed experimental study has been undertaken in a 3-D wave basin, using a scaled model tanker subject to a variety of incident wave conditions. The vessel, which is free to move in heave, pitch and roll, has a draft of 14m (at full-scale) and is subject to a range of incident wave periods propagating at right angles to the side shell of the vessel. Measurements undertaken with and without the vessel in place allow the diffracted-radiated wave field to be identified. The laboratory data indicate that the diffracted-radiated wave pattern varies significantly with the incident wave period. Detailed analysis of the experimental results has identified a hitherto unexpected second-order freely propagating wave harmonic generated due to the presence of the vessel. Given its frequency content and its relatively slow speed of propagation, this harmonic leads to a significant steepening of the wave field around the vessel and therefore has an important role to play in terms of the occurrence of wave slamming. Physical insights are provided concerning the latter and the practical implications of the overall wave-structure interactions are considered.

Design Synthesis of a Wave Energy Converter

A demonstration ocean wave energy project is planned for Hesquiaht Sound, British Columbia, Canada in 2010. This project is led by SyncWave Systems and involves the University of Victoria, Dynamic Systems Analysis Ltd. and Marinus Power. The design process for this demonstration wave energy converter (WEC) including site selection, linear dynamics, control system scheduling and non-linear dynamics modelling is presented. The WEC is a heaving point absorber that extracts energy through the relative motion between two axisymmetric bodies and utilizes an internally housed mechanical system with adjustable inertia characteristics for frequency response tuning. Site selection for the device was completed by using an established wave propagation model to translate off-shore sea conditions calculated from WAVEWATCHIII (WW3) into near-shore conditions. By analysis of the predicted near-shore conditions a suitable location with a frequently energetic sea state was chosen. The design process of the WEC consists of a linearized dynamics model to optimize the controller and a nonlinear dynamics model to analyze the mooring and hull components. The resulting unit effectively captures energy from the prevailing sea-states while ensuring adequate survival capability.

Wave Devouring Propulsion System: From Concept to Trans-Pacific Voyage

In the spring of 2008, the Mermaid II began her historic voyage from Hawaii to Japan. According to the log of the vessel, the journey took 110 days and covered about 7800 km. The successful conclusion of the voyage demonstrated the possibility that Wave Devouring Propulsion System (WDPS) could be adapted to practical use. In order to capitalize on the success of this voyage, the author intended to design and tested a new WDPS hull within a year to build it. A WDPS is a thrust generator for a vessel that converts wave forces directly into forward thrust. Additionally it efficiently reduces hull pitch and roll motion, while also performing as a motion stabilizer. The Mermaid II, which is equipped with a WDPS, incorporates a specially designed catamaran hull form and twin hydrofoil system. A solid hydrofoil system that captures wave forces is set on the underside of the bow of the vessel. Those hydrofoils are connected to the hull with pin joints and are supported by soft springs that provide foil pitch restoring force.

Hydroelastic Motion of Aircushion Type Large Floating Structures With Several Aircushions Using a Three-Dimensional Theory

This paper describes hydroelastic motion and effect of motion reduction of aircushion supported large floating structures. Motion reduction effects due to presence of aircushions have been confirmed from theoretical calculations with the zero-draft assumption. A three-dimensional prediction method has been developed for considering draft influence of division walls of aircushions. It is investigated that hydroelastic motion reduction is possible or not by using the three-dimensional theoretical calculations. In addition, the aircushion types are supported by many aircushions which are small related to wavelengths. The Green’s function method is applied to the prediction method with the linear potential theory in which effect of free water surfaces within aircushions are considered. Hydroelastic responses are estimated as not only elastic motion but also a vertical bending moment. From the results, the response reduction is confirmed, in particular, to the vertical bending moment in wide wavelength range and in whole structure area.

Influence of Multidirectional Irregular Wave Sampling to Second-Order Hydroelastic Responses of VLFS

Hydroelasticity theory considering the second-order fluid forces induced by the coupling of first-order wave potentials is introduced briefly in this paper. Based on this theory, four types of multidirectional irregular wave samplings are introduced, the frequency steps Δω of the four samplings are 0.04, 0.04, 0.02 and 0.01 rad/s, and the corresponding numbers of wave components N are 17, 75, 147 and 285 respectively. The result of principal coordinates and displacements of a very large floating structure (VLFS) for the four types of sampling are presented and discussed. The influence of the sampling is analyzed. The conclusions show that the sampling of the multidirectional irregular waves influence the second-order hydroelastic response of the VLFS. The accuracy and the computer time of the calculating with sampling of frequency step Δω = 0.02 rad/s are acceptable.