Tourist Living on Off-Shore Wind Turbine: Floating Anchorage Design and Wind/Wave – Structure Interaction Study

This paper aims to show a refurbishment project of an off-shore wind turbine, combining its natural purpose of exploiting the wind resources in the windiest sea areas along the coasts of Italy (Sardinia, Sicily, Abruzzo, Apulia) together with the possibility of using its structure as a tourist accommodation. Therefore, the main purpose of the paper is not to evaluate the wind turbine fluid dynamic response, but to study the interaction between civil architecture and mechanical structure. In this way, an economical contribution to the sustainability of the wind farm is possible. On this basis, a floating wind turbine called ARYA, has been designed as case-study. First of all, the 2 tourist-receptive structures (Hotel and bar-restaurant) around the wind tower have been designed and checked. Later, in order to study the effects on vertical cables fixed to the sea bottom, a detailed analysis of the floating anchorage TLP (Tension Leg Platform) was carried out. TLP consists of a nearly fully submerged cylindrical platform, which supports a 5 MW wind turbine and is linked to the sea bottom by 3 ties which assure stability and limited tilting, even under the worst loads induced by wind and sea. Morison’s equation is used to compute the hydrodynamic loading on the TLPs. A numerical model has been implemented and nonlinear dynamic analysis have been performed, investigating both the wind-structure and the wave-structure interaction. The analysis was based on the extreme environmental conditions of the site where it has been suggested to install the system.