Development of a Genetic Algorithm Code for the Design of Cylindrical Buoyancy Bodies for Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Substructures

The Levelized Cost of Energy for floating offshore wind must decrease significantly to be competitive with fixed offshore wind projects or even with onshore wind projects. This study focuses on the design optimization of cylindrical buoyancy bodies for floating substructures of offshore wind turbines. The presented work is based on a previously studied buoyancy body design that allows an efficient manufacturing process and integration into different substructures. In this study, an optimization framework based on genetic algorithm is developed to parameterize the buoyancy body’s geometry and optimize its design in terms of cost, considering loads acting on the structure as well as manufacturing and floater specific dimension restrictions. The implementation of the optimization process is detailed, and tested for a given study case. Two structurally different genetic algorithms are considered in order to compare the results obtained and asses the performance of the presented optimization framework.