SAFE

Supervivencia de Aerogeneradores Flotantes

 

CONVOCATORIA: Proyectos Estratégicos Orientados a la Transición Ecológica y a la Transición Digital (2021)

REFERENCIA: TED2021-129479A-I00

PRESUPUESTO: 101.200 €

PERIODO: 01/12/2022 – 30/11/2024

 

SUMMARY 

Marine renewable energies are crucial for achieving international commitments to combat climate change. Among them, offshore wind energy is the only one that has reached a high level of maturity that has allowed its exploitation for decades. However, the narrow continental shelf on the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula makes it difficult to install offshore wind turbines, so the development of this renewable energy in this area is linked to the development of floating structures that allow installation at greater depths. The main objective of the SAFE project is to develop and validate a numerical tool (using the DualSPHysics code as a starting point) that will be used to study the survivability of floating structures used to install wind turbines in the ocean. This analysis will be carried out considering the impact of climate change on future extreme events of waves and wind. The project methodology is based on three steps: i) obtaining present and future extreme wave conditions in our coasts, ii) implementing and validating new functionalities in the DualSPHysics code and iii) applying the improved model to a real case study to carry out an in-depth survivability analysis under the extreme conditions obtained before. The application of the numerical tool will focus on the calculation of pressure maps on the surface of the floating structure and the analysis of solutions to overflow problems in the areas most exposed to waves. Using the new version of DualSPHysics, the aim is to assist designers in survival studies under extreme sea states (present and future). The success of the presented process could lead to updating and improving the current guidelines for the design of floating wind platforms, as this task is still under development. According to the Spanish Wind Business Association, 9 different floating platform concepts are currently being tested in Spain.
The numerical tool will be released as an open-source software including a user-friendly interface that facilitates its use by other researchers, companies, and administrations involved in marine energy. The complete experimental database used in the code validation phase will be made available to the scientific community for public use. With all these objectives and deliverables, the aim is to promote and accelerate the development of new floating devices for wind turbines, as well as to introduce improvements over the existing ones in order to increase their competitiveness and safety, through metocean information and methods of analysis of greater detail and complexity compared to those currently used.
Given that the use of floating platforms increases the cost of offshore wind exploitation, this research has the potential to contribute to the cost reduction of offshore wind energy projects in Spain and, therefore, to significantly reduce their potential economic impacts.