Floating Offshore Wind

considerations for dynamic

subsea infrastructure
Will Brindley

22.02.2023
About ORE Catapult PRINCIPLE SITE

Research Hub
ORE Catapult was established in 2013 by the UK Government and is
part of a network of Catapults set up by Innovate UK in high growth
industries. ABERDEEN

LEVENMOUTH
It is the UK’s leading innovation center for offshore renewable GLASGOW
energy.
Electrical Infrastructure: BLYTH
Glasgow & Manchester
ORE Catapult convenes the sector and delivers applied research,
accelerating technology development, reducing risk and cost and THE HUMBER
Powertrains:
enhancing UK-wide economic growth. Sheffield

LOWESTOFT

PEMBROKE Turbine Blades:

Bristol

HAYLE
Floating Offshore Wind Centre of
Excellence (FOW CoE)
• Accelerating the commercialisation of Floating Offshore
Wind – to deliver net zero and drive economic growth;
• Collaborative programme with industry, stakeholder,
academic and supply chain partnerships;

• Developing and delivering a portfolio of collaborative

project activity across four workstreams…
• Technology Development;
• Supply Chain, Infrastructure, Construction and
Operations;
• Development and Consent;
• Delivering Net Zero (Policy);
https://ore.catapult.org.uk/FOWCoE/
FOW CoE Strategic Programme

Dynamic Cabling Systems Environmental Interaction Construction, Operations

Technology Development Data and Research and Maintenance
and Qualification Prog. Programme Programme

Mooring Systems Supply Chain Data and

Technology Development Development Programme
and Qualification Prog.
Floating Wind, Fixed Wind, O&G
O&G Floating Technology Floating Wind Fixed Wind Turbines
ScotWind Scale:
12GW Floating

ScotWind Floating Sites in Green

(Offshore Wind Scotland)
Typical 1GW Array (60 x 15MW)

Dynamic cable
Mooring line
 1GW Array: picture of mooring and cable failures over 10-years

Dynamic cable
Mooring line

Cable failure, 5 failures, ≈0.9% per year per turbine [Note 1]

Mooring failure, 4 failures, ≈0.7% per year per turbine [Note 2]

Note [1]: Failure rates of offshore wind transmission systems 2019 paper, 0.003 failures/km/year x 2.2km = 17% for static cables.
Note [2]: 2.4E-3 failures per mooring line per year x 3 lines = 18%. From Deepstar mooring integrity study of permanent O&G units.
High Profile O&G Mooring Failures

TOTAL INSURED LOSS TOTAL INSURED LOSS

1 BILLION USD * 1,000,000,000
440 MILLION USD * 440,000,000

GRYPHON FPSO BANFF FPSO

ALL RISERS FAILED xxx,000,000 ALL RISERS FAILED xxx,000,000

LUIHUA FAILURE NHFX FAILURE

What are we trying to avoid?
What are we trying to avoid?
What are we trying to avoid?
Cable Loading
• Bending radius must match realistic floating wind bending and tension
o Indicative 15MW semi-submersible & 66kv dynamic cable
o 100m water depth, 10m waves & 25m offset

10kN tension
5m bend radius
5m scale
3m bend radius
10000 cycles

5m scale

5m bend radius
Cable Integrity Risk Insulation water tree &
electrical tree growth

Fibre Optic
Failure
Sheath Damage

E. Ildstad, The influence of strain on water treeing in

XLPE power cables

Insulation thermal degradation

Armour Wire
fatigue &
corrosion Copper wire fatigue

Thies et al, Accelerated reliability testing of articulated

cable bend restrictor for offshore wind application
How to Mitigate Mooring and Cable Failure?

Qualification

Health Monitoring

Testing
Cable Testing Focus: Dynamic Cable Flex Tests

3.5m bend radius

former

Cable
 FLOWIC Test Building: Irvin House, Aberdeen

FLOWIC Aberdeen Facility

Dynamic Cable Flex Test Rig
• Tenders awarded for design competition (3 suppliers awarded)

• Designs evaluated and 1 supplier awarded for build contract

• Fabrication of rig complete: Sep/Oct 2023

Possible Configuration of the Dynamic Cable Test Rig

Dynamic Cables & Moorings Technology Qualification

Filter Technology: Filter Suppliers: TQ Part 1 TQ Part 2

1 or 2 items per year 1-21 per
or 2technology
per year Desk based TQ plan Practical activity

Based on FOW CoE Competitive structured With Classification Identify partners and
partner interest application process Society partner secure funding
- AC power cores - Technical - Define target TRL, - Detailed testing
- Monitoring capability project definition plan
- Quick-connect - Commercial - Review existing - Test and demo
- … impact documentation activity
- … - Qualification - Develop TQ plan - Model validation
- ... Needs - Scope and budget - Plan/TRL review

Sept 2022 Oct 2022 – Jan 2023 Feb – July 2023 Aug 2023 + ~2yrs

Will be rerun periodically with new technology focus areas (6-12 monthly)
Parallel moorings programme
Cable Connection Technology Focus Areas
Subject Technology Topic Justification Types of Test Activity
Dynamic Cables 1) Bend Stiffener Connector • Known O&G problems; uncertainty in
Reliability terms of long-term reliability.
• Gaps in qualification test standards. • Develop consistent qualification requirements
• Laboratory fatigue and extreme load testing
Moorings 2) Compliant ropes • Highly compliant rope (e.g., nylon)​ offers • In-water connect/disconnect & load tests
huge potential cost and reliability savings • Stiffness characterization tests
• Gaps in reliability and qualification
knowledge

Examples of Bend Stiffener Connectors

Examples of Synthetic Ropes Under Test
(not an exhaustive list)
First Subsea Oil States FES Image Credit: Bridon Bekaert Image Credit: Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnológicas
Dynamic Cables Next Technology Focus Areas
• High-interest technology areas for qualification are outlined below.
• Next technology area qualification applications planned to open June ‘23 to deliver Oct ’23

Smart Condition Deep Water Cable Solutions Cable Power Cores

Bend Stiffener (Source: Hellenic)
Connectors Monitoring
Source: First Subsea

Disconnectable External Inspection

Wet Mate Connectors FOWT Quick-Connect (source: Innospection)
(Source: Siemens) (Source: SBT)
 Cables Focus: Topside and Subsea Quick Connection
• Each configuration has been combined with appropriate enabling connection technologies:
Conventional connection Wet mate Platform Quick-Connect
Dry Platform Connection Wet Mate Connection Disconnectable Dry
Disconnectable Dry Spliced Subsea Junction Box with wet mates
Spliced
Connection Connection
(Principal Power) Wet
Wet Mate
Mate Turret
Buoy (SBT) (Siemens / Subsea 7)
Switchgear Switchgear
(Principaland
66kV qualified Power)
proven Buoyconcept
Early (SBT Energy)
design
Electrical splice or
dry mate connectors
Power cores
Power cores
Tension hang off

Waterline Waterline

FOWT Column

Wet mate connection

I or J-Tube Platform connection
Bend stiffener Quick connect body
connector
Tension hang off
Bend stiffener Conventional dry
Bend stiffener
platform connection
Dynamic cable

Dynamic cable

Wet mate platform

Dry Mate Connector (ETA) quick-connect
Single Phase Wet Mate Connector (Siemens) Spliced Connection (J+S)
36kV qualified, 66kV in qualification, 132kV Early concept 66kV & 132kV qualified & proven 66kV & 132kV qualified and proven

Dry mate connector

Subsea Junction
(cable to cable)
Box (SJB)

Spliced connection
Wet mate connector (cable to cable)
Wet mate connector
(cable to SJB) (jumper to jumper)
Moorings Next Technology Focus Areas
• High-interest technology areas for qualification are outlined below.
• Next technology area qualification applications planned to open mid-to-late 2023

Condition Monitoring Novel Anchoring

Compliant Ropes

Load Reduction Devices

Quick-Connect
Floating Wind Health Monitoring (digital twin)
Enhanced Monitoring: Sample Turbine. Passive Monitoring system – rest of string or array
Focus on 1-year data model training & response validation.

Turbine
Turbine
Weather Data
Power
Power Thrust
Thrust Yaw
Yaw Wind
Site wave radar or wave buoy
Wind
for long-term high-quality
wave and current data.
Data already part
of SCADA system
Position & Motion
Position & Motion
Remaining Turbines
Passive, robust and Offset
Offset
low-cost lifetime
Motion
monitoring. Built on Motion
well-trained models.

High accuracy
DGPS. Relatively
Sample Turbine
low cost and robust. Cable electrical
Enhanced monitoring, Cable electrical
focused on a 1-year
Cable mechanical
training & validation
Passive online fiber
optic monitoring.
Cable mechanical monitoring
Moorings via inclination, acceleration,
or strain sensing.

Accurate tension monitoring via

inclination or load cell.
Floating Wind Health Monitoring (digital twin)
Weather Data Turbine
Quality: Power Quality:
Wave Good
Poor
Thrust
Wind
Quality:
Current Good

Position & Motion

Offset

Motion

Moorings

Line 1
Quality:
Good Line 2

Line 3

Cable Mechanical Cable Electrical

Bending Thermal
Quality: Quality:
Good Tension PD Good

Fatigue Power
Further Reading: Moorings and
Cables Public Reports