Analysis of spar and semi-submersible floating wind concepts with respect to human exposure to motion during maintenance operations

Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) are expected to experience onsite maintenances and inspections during their lifetimes. To carry out offshore maintenance activities, a crew will be transferred to an FOWT and spend several hours on board. A challenge may arise if the motions of a floating platform affect the crew's comfort level and further jeopardise their work performance or even health. To address this challenge, this paper analyses the motion characteristics and dynamic properties of a spar and two semi-submersible FOWTs, all exhibiting very different motion characteristics. The impact of the platform motions and accelerations on the workability of the FOWTs are investigated. We c…