Wave turbines get wind knowledge
The contemporary onshore knowledge base leaves a lot of room for uncertainty as far as offshore turbine design is concerned. The need to develop design standards covering offshore turbines is therefore imperative. Given the growing need for clean energy sources, the social impact of such design standards could be enormous. Since the design knowledge base for offshore turbines is still limited, researchers had to turn to the already existing knowledge source that of onshore wind turbines. A major focus was to combine onshore wind turbine engineering practices with that of offshore engineering procedures. In order to deliver a state-of-the-art knowledge base for offshore turbine design, certain critical elements where investigated utilising prior knowledge sources. Load bearing, probabilistic methods for new models for decision making on load cases, structural integrity, safety performance, maintenance etc were just some of these criteria. Currently, the EU-funded project has met with success. It has established guidelines for more effective and efficient manufacturing processes, also resulting in the development of recommendations for good practice. Furthermore it has established proposals for safety factors in fatigue and extreme load events, maintenance safety and turbine performance. The project members will distribute the results in the hopes of firstly establishing industry standards compliant with the European CENELEC criteria. The project is looking for further research and development support and offers the emerging expertise for consultancy.
