Hydro-Dynamic Behavior of Multi-Body Floating Solar Platform with Beam or Shell Connectors and Comparison of Design Capacity

Abstract

Floating solar platform is recently designed as an eco-electric plant and the offshore mechanical feasibility is studied by many researchers. Designers usually prefer connected multi-body type to a whole ship type because small connected floaters save engineering costs. In this paper, a sample structure of multi-body floating solar platform designed by KRISO is presented and its hydro-dynamic behaviors and design performances were investigated. Breadth & length of the platform is 162 m？144 m and the total power is 2.16 MW. It has 648 floating bodies and 204 mooring lines. Two types were tried for floating body connectors. One is beam connector and the other is shell connector. This paper numerically compares hydro-dynamic responses in regular & irregular waves for the two design cases. In the calculation, wave forces at floating bodies & connector responses were calculated by HOBEM (Higher Order Boundary Element Method) & FEM (Finite Element Method), respectively, and floating body motions, connector stresses and mooring line tensions were obtained from the calculation. Responses by wind load, snow load, self-weight & marine growth, human load as well as wave load were also calculated and their combined responses & fatigue lives were checked to compare design capacity of beam type and shell type.