Autonomous Structural Health Monitoring and Remaining Useful Life Estimation of Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Cables: Part I

Abstract

Floating offshore wind (FOW) farms are key in meeting Europe's renewable energy targets, harnessing wind energy from waters 60 m or deeper, where bottom-fixed farms are unfeasible. Additionally, floating structures allow for the installation of larger turbines than stationary farms, which in turn leads to a greater energy output. However, cable failures dramatically impact the energy transmission from the farms and cause most of the financial losses. Monitoring and maintenance tasks are challenging due to the harsh ocean conditions. The FLoating Offshore Wind turbine CAble Monitoring (FLOW-CAM) project, supported by European Union's HORIZON 2020 programme, studies the structural health monitoring (SHM) of defects in the power cables of the FOW farms which encompass inspection and detection applications. An SHM system integrated with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was developed for underwater inspection and maintenance, supporting collection and presentation of essential data through an advanced interface. Part I details the technologies and methods used in this research.