Including Realistic Vessel and Human Behaviour in Simulations of Offshore Wind Farm Operations
report
During the Offshore Maintenance Joint Industry Project (OM JIP), the offshore wind farm simulation tool ECN O&M Access has been upgraded from version 1.0 to 2.0, enhancing the modelling of wind farm accessibility by incorporating vessel hydrodynamics and motion-induced human fatigue. Case studies are performed using the new version of ECN O&M Access, to evaluate the added value of this new approach. Previous case studies from an earlier phase of this project determined the optimal operation and maintenance (O&M) strategies for five European wind farms and evaluated the O&M effort in terms of costs and time [1]. These five wind farms and their optimal O&M strategies are now used as the starting point for the current case studies. The differences in O&M effort and effectiveness for these five wind farms between the old and new accessibility modelling methods are evaluated. The case studies show that vessels generally spend a longer time transiting between the port and wind farm when incorporating hydrodynamics and motion-induced human fatigue. This is because access vessels can now adjust their thrust level: reducing thrust in fierce weather (hence reducing the transit speed) in order to maintain the motion-induced fatigue of the technicians on board below a threshold. However, this also makes access vessels more capable of transiting in fierce weather, resulting in higher transitability in this new approach.
TNO Identifier
840152
Publisher
TNO
Collation
27 p.
Place of publication
Petten