Strength Analysis of Bottom Structure of a Wind Power Installation Vessel

Abstract

Aiming at the structural safety of the offshore wind power installation during a ship’s bottom operation, taking the wind power installation in a certain sea area of the East China Sea as an example. Water was found in the pump room of the Wind Power Installation Vessel during the bottom operation. After inspection, it was found that the ship was obviously arched, the deck was deformed, the right side of the hull had cracks in the front and rear, and the left side of the hull was bulging. According to the different draught depths of the ship, three operating conditions are selected, namely, sitting on the bottom, the highest tide level on the day of incident, and at the time of the incident. Finite element analysis on hull structural strength is carried out to find out the cause of the hull rupture and water flooding in owing to the arch-in-the-ship accident. The calculation results show that due to the large area of scouring on the bottom of the ship, the bottom of the ship is not solid, and with the alternate change of the tide, there are both middle arching and sagging phenomenon on the ship. Hence, the force acting on the ship sitting on the bottom changes periodically, resulting in large local stresses in ship structures, which is the main cause of ship accidents.

Keywords

• wind power installation ship
• ship sitting on the bottom
• structural strength
• finite element analysis