Design benefits for plate anchors for floating offshore wind through coupling floater, mooring and geotechnical responses

This study presents analysis of a floating offshore wind system to illustrate methodologies for reducing the mooring loads transmitted to the anchor and the required anchor size. These design efficiencies support acceleration of the development of floating offshore wind, to help meet the growth required for 2050 net zero targets. The anchor loading and size reductions are achieved by combining techniques that (i) reduce the anchor loads by considering load reduction devices (LRD) in the mooring line configuration, and (ii) mobilise additional seabed resistance by considering beneficial seabed effects due to inertia and changing strength. This study demonstrates the benefits of combining these effects through an integrated floater-mooring and anchor-seabed analysis approach. The method is applied to an example whole-life application spanning the operating life of a floating offshore wind (FOW) system. This analysis indicates a potential 50% reduction in the required anchor size for the same system reliability.