Anchor loads for shallow water mooring of a 15 MW floating wind turbine—Part II: Synthetic and novel mooring systems

Novel and synthetic mooring tethers can enable tuning of a floating wind turbine’s system stiffness behaviour, eliciting specific desirable response load characteristics potential cost reductions. This paper presents the results detailed coupled dynamic simulations considering IEA 15 MW turbine VolturnUS-S semi-submersible reference platform deployed in Celtic Sea. The influence novel on anchor loads dynamics shallow waters is evaluated. Through comparison to published Part I, this study highlights that replacing chain with polyester ropes or effectively reduces peak by up 84% 75% respectively for smallest footprints (293 m), 80% 59% largest (838 m). However, significantly increased excursions, at times exceeding 25 m allowable limits. weight compliant excursions whilst maintaining lower profiles. be further minimised deploying taut moored systems, requiring sustain higher including, importantly, vertical loads. informs design optimisation large-scale turbines while also advising future research into moorings turbines.