The ‘Offshore Wind Infrastructure Application Lab’ (OWI-Lab), a R&D initiative, has been accepted as additional partner in European project WIFI JIP.

The Joint Industry Project WIFI will investigate wave run-up on fixed foundations for offshore wind turbines by numerical modeling, model testing, offshore measurements and design and classification methods. The objective of the WiFi JIP (Wave impacts on Fixed turbines) is: To improve the way effects of steep (and breaking) waves are taken into account in the design methodology of fixed offshore wind turbines, so that optimised offshore wind turbines can be developed.

The focus of the JIP will not only be on the extreme breaking waves, but also on more moderate sea states (as their loading is complex and important as well) and waves with specific characteristics, such as steep fronted as they have an important effect on the fatigue life of an OWT.

The European consortium, led by Marin (NL), decided to integrate OWI-Lab as an additional member in this 3 year project. OWI-Lab will contribute with the field measurement & analysis of waves, vibrations and strains, and the sharing of filtered and selected “wave event” data.

The first OWI-Lab field measurements on offshore turbines date from 2011 at the Belwind offshore wind farm when the application lab was contacted by Northwind NV to acquire the damping value of an offshore wind turbine mounted on a monopile foundation. Since that date, a number of additional short term measurements and long term monitoring campaigns have been initiated on offshore wind turbines. The experience, knowledge and data are used to validate new monitoring and sensor techniques for wind turbine asset monitoring. OWI-Lab also translated some of these monitoring aspects into industrial measurment services.

Press Release, December 24, 2013; Image: OWI-Lab