Three-Dimensional Hydroelasticity of Multi-Connected Modular Offshore Floating Solar Photovoltaic Farm

Abstract

This paper investigates the hydroelastic responses of offshore floating solar photovoltaic farms (OFPVs). OFPVs usually occupy a large sea space in the order of hectares and structural deformation under wave action has to be taken into consideration due to their huge structural length-to-thickness ratio. The flexible deformation of the structure under hydrodynamic loading is termed the hydroelastic response. In the hydroelastic analysis of an OFPV, the diffraction and radiation of waves have to be taken into account to accurately represent the hydrodynamic loadings on the floating platform. In this study, the numerical model is first validated by comparing the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of an OFPV, obtained from the proposed numerical scheme, with their counterparts obtained from an established finite element software. This is followed by an investigation of the hydroelastic responses of various OFPVs designed in varying layout configurations. The various layout configurations are obtained by altering the floating modular units’ dimensions as well as the spacing of the OFPVs when deployed adjacent to each other. The optimal configuration that gives the best performance in terms of the overall smallest response, known as compliance, is then suggested. The results suggest that a long-ish OFPV layout has a lower hydroelastic response and that the motion could be further reduced by rearranging the layout arrangement to increase the global flexural stiffness.