An international research team has tested a floating PV system with a “softly connected” configuration under offshore conditions, with the help of six modular pontoons coupled by elastic rod elements to simulate moor lines and connections.
Researchers from Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway have used a numerical model to assess the hydrodynamic response of a floating PV system prototype with soft connections for offshore conditions.
“Every array consists of many standard floats, softly connected with the help of ropes to reduce fatigue problems,” said researcher Jian Dai PV -Magazine. “Different Arrays are electrically connected to each other via the floating coupling formed by standard floats. The generated power can be transferred to a floating transformer stationed on the side for easy access via boats.”
The “soft-bound” system consists of six modular pontoons linked by sun plate lines and ropes modeled as elastic rod elements. Each pontoon contains four double solar panels and has six cylindrical floats that offer buoyancy, hydrostatic stability and mooring support.
The porous pontoons are designed to improve the air circulation and to stimulate the water cooling of PV modules, while in advance vast flexible ropes prevent clashes and can adjust the array vertically to wave movement. In contrast to the present setups, the sleek mooring system offers recovery power through line voltage, making it more suitable for the implementation of deep water.
“The hydrodynamic properties and golfe excitative transfers functions for the pontoons are evaluated using potential power solar in the frequency domain,” explained the scientists and noted that their analysis was based on the Cummins -comparison, which is usually used for the floating manual. “The numerical model is calibrated against available experimental results under both regular and irregular waves.”
Image: Oslo Metropolitan University, Marine Structures, CC by 4.0
The scientists tested the systems through regular and irregular tests in a tow tank in Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, with wave heights ranging from 1.9 meters to 15.3 meters. Through the numerical model they tried to predict the movement reactions and mooring forces of the system.
“The results of the Case Study show that the heavy movements are hardly affected by the variations in the properties of the lounger line, except for short waves,” they explained. “Such variations appear to significantly influence the Surge Motion Response -Operator (RAO) in the vicinity of the natural period around 6 s. The effect is rapidly decreasing for waves outside this frequency range.”
They also discovered that, under irregular golf conditions, the stiffness of the delivery of the recovery of system stability offers.
“The stiffness of ligarks influences the voltage forces more than the exerted pretensics forces. An increase in the stiffness of the berth leads to a higher variability of the mooring power,” they added.
The research team concluded by saying that the tests they performed demonstrated the complexity of assessing stability and reliability of floating PV systems under offshore golf conditions.
“The parametric research results show that the float movements are insensitive to the variations in the properties of the lounger line, except for very short waves,” Dai said. “This means that in offshore areas the floats are virtually transparent for incoming waves and follow the wave movements in the directional direction, which is desirable.”
The researchers introduced the system “Numerical study of softly connected modular offshore floating photovoltaic array“Which was recently published in Marine structures. The research group included scientists from the Technology Center for Offshore and Marine, Singapore (TCOMS) and the University of Agder van Norway.
“The contribution of the study is triple,” said Dai. “First of all, fundamental insights are provided in the dynamic behavior of a mutually interconnected floating array under golf excitation. Secondly, a practical calibration procedure has been proposed to facilitate the numerical calibration process for such multi-body systems. Thirdly, the influence of Mooring Parameters is aware facilitate. ”
Dai said that in November 2025 the team will perform large-scale models tests at the Tcoms-Wave basin of Singapore to quantify the hydrodynamic behavior and uncertainties of the offshore-drifting PV system. The results will support the development of models with reduced order for future research and digital twin applications.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to work with us and reuse part of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Popular content
