Structural analysis of a floating photovoltaic plant in the marine environment
- R. Claus 1
- A. Cebada 1
- F. Soto 1
- M. Gallego 1
- 1 Grupo Dynamics, Materials and Structures (DyMAST) y Dpto. De Construcción e Ingeniería de la Fabricación. Escuela Politécnica de Mieres. Universidad de Oviedo
ISSN: 2792-4246
Year of publication: 2022
Issue: 3
Pages: 193-198
Type: Article
More publications in: Revista española de mecánica de la fractura
Abstract
Floating photovoltaic (FPV) technology raises as a strong alternative to terrestrial since it does not take up land that could benefit from other uses. In this work, a marine FPV plant allocated in the Ria of Vigo was structurally assessed. The purpose of this work was to compare several chain sections for the mooring system of the plant. This analysis was performed for local environmental conditions through a numerical model based on the potential theory and the boundary element method. The maximum loads on the mooring lines were caused by a dynamic phenomenon that only took place while testing the lighter chain section. The safety factors associated with those loads were substantially smaller than the rest, which clearly underlines the importance of both identifying and quantifying these dynamic phenomena.