Towing of Floating Wind Turbine Systems

Abstract

Towing is an important marine operation and floating wind turbines are the new way forward in our ever-expanding need for energy. In offshore floating wind turbine installation process, transport is an important phase. Presently, the turbines are assembled on shore and then towed to the installation spot one at a time. In this thesis, the theory behind the towing operation, modelling and simulation of various towing scenarios are carried out and the mathematical basis of the analysis is studied. It discusses previous research work that has been published in similar operations. The modeling and simulation has two different scenarios. In the first scenario is to find the optimum tow-point for the towing operation. It was found that it varies slightly with sea state but closer to center of buoyancy is optimal. In the second scenario, the simulation aims to find the scope of towing multiple turbines during a single tow-operation. In the process line tension was checked for a single turbine at different towing speeds. It was found that it is unfeasible to tow multiple turbines.