FloatLab FloatLab

Floating wind energy is a cornerstone of a carbon-free electricity supply. The Danish offshore wind industry is in a key position to play a leading role in the coming market, which is estimated to exceed 16.5 GW by 2030. In FloatLab, DTU, DHI, Ørsted, Siemens-Gamesa Renewable Energies, Stiesdal Offshore Technologies and STROMNING collaborate to secure a strong Danish market share through reduced time-to-market, reduced development costs (DEVEX) and a de-risked design method based on targeted lab tests and digital twin models. 
 

The project results are anchored in six Key Innovations. During the project, 4 lab-scale campaigns are conducted, tackling a total of 7 Fundamental Unknowns for design of floating wind turbine support structures. Each campaign is designed as a rapid prototyping of a digital –twin-supported pre-simulate – test – re-simulate approach. The digital twin model complexity increases for each campaign, starting in year 1 with existing models and relatively low model fidelities and ending in year 4 with models that span real time with high levels of accuracy.


The Fundamental Unknowns have been chosen to reflect the current needs of the industry partners. They span 3D storm waves with swell, dynamic mooring, damping from heave plates, nonlinear hydrostatic loads of partially submerged cylinders, turbine operation in strong turbulence, gusts and shear, slamming loads on buoyancy tanks and validation against full scale data.