Floating Wind

01 About

02 Competences

03 Feasibility Study

04 News & Insights

05 Contact

Offshore wind farms capture wind resources that are stronger and more consistent than those on land. However, offshore is limited by the depth of the water. That’s where floating wind technology allows turbines to be deployed in deep waters where traditional fixed-bottom structures aren’t feasible. This expands the areas where wind power can be harvested and takes advantage of stronger offshore breezes.

New conditions also mean new testing requirements—increased accelerations, loads, movements, and unseen challenges to components, subsystems, and service operations. We know the challenges, understand the technology, and have experience with failure modes and testing.

Testing Solutions

The solution calls upon new testing topologies and methods. Especially the nacelle and its sub-components on the new floating platforms will face substantial changes in loading profiles experienced during its service life. These new loading profiles cannot be verified through previous testing methods but can be mitigated through newly developed testing solutions. At R&D Test Systems, we know the challenge and the solution. We are here to guide, advise, develop, and deploy new test solutions specifically for floating wind turbines and their subcomponents.

Discover the testing possibilities

Extreme load verification

Floating wind turbines need to be tested for extreme movements and accelerations of the nacelle. The wind turbine’s floating platform will provide completely new load scenarios that have never been tested on a full-scale prototype test bench before.

Fatigue test and service life verification

The service life of wind turbines installed on floating platforms is heavily influenced by a new spectrum of accelerations and movements in roll, surge, pitch, sway, heave, and yaw. All these accelerations impact the wind turbine’s service life and must be verified to plan service inspections.

Fluid functional behavior verification

Due to the floating platform’s low-frequency oscillating motion, especially the systems in the nacelle might not work as intended. For example, the fluid system will be more prone to sloshing, which may cause failure or reduced performance in, e.g., pitch hydraulics, bearing, and gearbox lubrication systems. Ultimately, this may lead to compromising even more critical systems like the gearbox.

Frequency sweep

Due to the much larger spectra of forced loads at different frequencies on floating platforms, it is important to understand the behavior and eigenfrequencies of the nacelle components. A frequency sweep is essential in understanding the potential resonances in the nacelle systems and subsystems.

Service and maintenance feasibility

Service at over 100m height on a floating structure exerted by waves is a totally different scenario than non-floating turbines. A previously possible operation may become unsafe for technicians or pose heavy restrictions on weather windows. This calls for new methods for developing and verifying service operations. This ensures safe procedures and potentially increases the size of the service window, thereby decreasing the overall service cost.

Discover possibilities with a Feasibility Study

Discover how R&D Test Systems can elevate the potential of your floating wind projects. Connect with our experts to learn more about the possibilities to work with us on a future project, or start with a feasibility study to understand better your testing needs and the best test solution to match this.