An Improved Failure Mode and Effect Analysis of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

Abstract

This paper proposes an improved failure mode and effect analysis method for a comprehensive failure analysis that provides a holistic perspective of actions on the potential failures of floating offshore wind turbines. A new way of constructing risk priority numbers was developed by considering the background knowledge of the specialists involved in the failure analysis. The failure analysis was conducted based on an extensive dataset from multiple specialists that covers five floating offshore wind turbine systems, 15 main components, 42 failure modes, and 104 failure causes. Consequently, 21 recommendations are suggested for designers and operators to prevent and mitigate the risk of unexpected failures of floating offshore wind turbines. Furthermore, a comparison analysis was conducted to illustrate the similarities and differences between the proposed failure mode and effect analysis and the conventional method.