Feasibility Study of Offshore Triceratops-Supported Floating Offshore Wind Turbine

Many countries have updated their renewable energy policies, in which considerable attention is drawn towards offshore wind energy. Offshore industry has witnessed many evolved structural platforms, whether they are fixed or floating. As far as the oil and gas industry is concerned, there are various floater schemes currently in practice, such as SPAR, Tension-Leg Platform, and Semi-Submersible. Among these, Triceratops is a new concept which has many structural benefits over existing floating platforms. Several studies have reported their advantages and applications in oil and gas industry. The current study focuses on the feasibility of offshore Triceratops as an alternate floater scheme for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs) in deep waters. The coupled dynamic analysis due to wind-induced motion and hydrodynamics of the platform under waves are examined. Wind loads are modelled using OpenFAST, and the results are coupled in ANSYS Workbench to obtain hydrodynamic diffraction and motion responses. The responses for the two floater schemes, i.e. SPAR and Triceratops-supported FOWT, are compared, and the necessary conclusions are laid to provide insights into the feasibility of using the Offshore Triceratops for supporting FOWT.