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Advances in Marine Science and Engineering: Stabilizing Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

A team of researchers at Korea University has made a breakthrough in marine science and engineering, developing a passive stability-enhancing barge platform geometry to improve the operational efficiency of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs). The innovative design, funded by the Korea Government, incorporates skirts and a trapezoidal cross-sectional shape to mitigate platform motion caused by wave action. The research, published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, demonstrated that the new platform configuration yields consistently lower peak motions across different wave angles, showcasing improved stability.

Key Takeaways:

  • The researchers developed a passive stability-enhancing barge platform geometry to improve the operational efficiency of FOWTs, reducing platform motion caused by wave action by up to 70%.
  • The proposed design incorporates skirts and a trapezoidal cross-sectional shape for the barge platforms, which were optimized to achieve effective stability while minimizing cost.
  • The positioning of the skirt with a height-to-diameter ratio of 0.8 reduces platform movements, decreasing heave by approximately 20% and pitch by up to 70% relative to the original design.
  • Increasing the moonpool area to approximately 400 m² led to an additional reduction in heave and pitch responses, with a specific moonpool diameter saturation point value identified to increase stability.
  • The platform configuration yielded consistently lower peak motions across different wave angles, demonstrating improved stability compared to traditional surface-supported FOWTs.
  • The research was funded by the Korea Government and conducted by a team of researchers from Korea University, including Hanbyeol Kim, Hassan Saghi, Injae Jeon, and Goangseup Zi.

Statistics:

  • The new platform design reduces heave by approximately 20% and pitch by up to 70% relative to the original design.
  • The platform configuration yielded a reduction in heave motion by up to 30% and pitch motion by up to 55% compared to traditional surface-supported FOWTs.
  • The moonpool area was increased to approximately 400 m², which led to an additional reduction in heave and pitch responses.

Sources:

  • NewsRx. Korea University Researchers Describe Recent Advances in Marine Science and Engineering (Stabilization of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines with a Passive Stability-Enhancing Skirted Trapezoidal Platform). Journal of Engineering. October 13, 2025; p 1462.
  • Stabilization of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines with a Passive Stability-Enhancing Skirted Trapezoidal Platform. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 2025, 13(9): 1658.

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