Conceptual Design of a Concrete Multi-Column Floating Platform Supporting a 10 MW Offshore Wind Turbine

Abstract Wind energy is clean, eco-friendly, economic, and infinite-resource. In reducing carbon emissions, onshore and offshore wind energy becomes one of the essential considerations. The purpose of this paper is to conceptually design a concrete semi-submersible floating structure for 10 MW wind turbine using precast panel-based concrete, i.e. a concrete floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT). The design was applied by considering different parameters, such as main floater dimensions, thickness of the concrete panels, heave plate dimensions, draft of the platform, thick concrete portion at the connecting part between concrete floater and steel tower. The environmental conditions were taken from the Japanese coast, to analyze the dynamic behavior of the proposed concrete semi-submersible floater in waves and wind. A seawater ballast system was proposed for maintaining the draft of the platform during the operation and during the installation phase of the concrete FOWT. A parametric study was conducted based on some restrictions to check the feasible cases. A detailed comparison was presented for three cases and the best potential case was proposed. This paper successfully illustrated the hydrostatic, hydrodynamic and aerodynamic behavior to confirm the stability of the concrete floater for 10 MW FOWT.