Numerical investigation of the landing manoeuvre of a crew transfer vessel to an offshore wind turbine

Abstract

ABSTRACTCrew transfer vessels are a fast and cost-effective means of transportation to bring service personnel and technical equipment to an offshore wind turbine. The landing manoeuvre of such service vessels is a complex coupled process involving the ship's motion in the seaway and the frictional contact between the fender and the boat landing. With the help of numerical simulations, we aim to identify the limit conditions under which a safe crew transfer can still be ensured, and to investigate innovative transfer concepts which serve to avoid severe accidents. In our research, we draw on a partitioned solution strategy which has already been successfully applied to other sophisticated multi-field phenomena and which allows to reuse specialised existing solvers for the solution of the involved subproblems.