A Fugro-led consortium has designed a mooring line fatigue tracker that monitors offshore floating wind turbines.
A Fugro-led consortium has designed a mooring line fatigue tracker that monitors offshore floating wind turbines.
The consortium has won funding from the Scottish Government to develop the tracker, which fuses the motion and position measurements of floating hulls with a simulation model to monitor fatigue.
Drawing on their existing satellite positioning, structural and metocean monitoring systems, Fugro worked with AS Mosley and the University of Strathclyde to combine a physics-based simulation model with fatigue analysis to develop a streamlined methodology. Instead of the current conventional five-year subsea inspection regime, mooring line fatigue will be tracked so that inspection activities – which require vessels and remotely operated vehicles – are only carried out when necessary. Another benefit is that the monitoring is continuous and can be used to detect any problems or failure scenarios, such as anchor drag or trawler snagging, as they happen for quick resolution.
