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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Computational Methods in Structural Engineering
Volume 10 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2024.1463682
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in Structural Forms and Stability: Paradigm Shifts, Challenges, and Opportunities View all articles

Reliability analysis of mooring chains for floating offshore wind turbines

Provisionally accepted
Guangming Li Guangming Li Tianguo Pan Tianguo Pan Ruming Feng Ruming Feng *Liyun Zhu Liyun Zhu
  • Red Bay Laboratory, Shanwei, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    As offshore wind farms move into deeper waters, around 80 meters, the high costs necessitate replacing bottom-fixed turbines with floating offshore wind turbines, which require mooring systems to maintain stability within design limits. Data from previous projects in China indicate that mooring systems can constitute about 20% of the total investment. Thus, reducing mooring system costs can significantly benefit the development of next-generation floating wind farms. This paper discusses the reliability analysis of mooring chains for floating wind turbines to optimize inspection plans and strategies, thereby saving on maintenance costs over their design lifetime. A case study on S-N curve based fatigue reliability analysis is conducted using both Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) and First Order Reliability Method (FORM), with consistent results from both methods. Additionally, three sensitivity analysis cases identify key parameters for the fatigue reliability analysis.

    Keywords: reliability analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, Offshore mooring chain, first order, reliability method

    Received: 12 Jul 2024; Accepted: 17 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, Pan, Feng and Zhu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ruming Feng, Red Bay Laboratory, Shanwei, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.