Design and validation of a hybrid marine renewable energy platform: A structural integrity case study incorporating wind, solar, and wave energy

The world turning into sustainable energy technologies requires the immediate establishment of integrated, high-density energy capture systems on the renewable energy sources, to use ocean spaces to the full. Nonetheless, their co-location with Offshore Wind Turbines (OWT), Solar Photovoltaics (PV), and Wave Energy Converters (WECs) create complex and coupled loads in aero-hydro-servo dynamics that impose serious loads on structural integrity. Thus, the objectives of this study are to confirm the level of structural performance and fatigue life of an innovative hybrid semi-submersible platform in harsh environmental circumstances. This study utilized a high-fidelity Finite Element Analysis (FEA) system, where a mixed element mesh of shells and beams was used, where the hydrodynamic wave forces and the aerodynamic thrust interact in a coupled manner. The outcomes of the simulation under the 100-year storm loads proved the viability of the design; von Mises was valued as the highest, being 198 MPa, and was able to hold the 16 percent safety margin that was necessary, which was a successful achievement against the limit of 235 MPa. What is more, the platform met the 20-year fatigue life requirement, with the localized reinforcements such that resultant cumulative damage at the worst WEC connection hotspots (D = 0.28) was kept at a safe level (D < 0.33). This study evidences the technical capacity of tri-hybrid platforms, whereby measures of structural trade-offs of tri-hybrid development of resilient offshore infrastructures are quantified.