A new integrated wet-towing method of offshore wind turbine with tri-bucket foundation

ABSTRACT

Aiming to study the feasibility of the integrated suction bucket jacket foundation wet-towing, applicable sea conditions, and factors affecting the floating stability, SESAM finite element software was used to analyse floating stability during wet towing. First, two wet-towing methods for offshore wind turbine supporting structures were introduced in this paper. Second, the influence of sea conditions, draft depth, and towing speed on the floating stability of the overall structure during the integrated wet-towing process of the two methods were studied. Finally, the influence of sea conditions and draft depth on the foundation structure dynamic response during the integrated floating process. The research results show that the tri-bucket jacket structure itself or the integrated structure (bucket foundation-tower-wind turbine-special auxiliary floating vessel) can meet the requirements of long-distance wet-towing in level 5 sea conditions.

KEYWORDS:

• Offshore wind
• tri-bucket foundation
• jacket
• deep-sea wind farm
• integrated wet-towing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation of China (grant number 51909188)