IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v18y2025i2p372-d1568778.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wind–Wave Misalignment in Irish Waters and Its Impact on Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Shanahan

    (Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, D02 PN40 Dublin, Ireland)

  • Breiffni Fitzgerald

    (Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, D02 PN40 Dublin, Ireland)

Abstract

This study examined the impact of wind–wave misalignment on floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) in Irish waters, analysing average weather and extreme events, including hurricane conditions. Using the ERA5 reanalysis dataset validated against Irish Marine Data Buoy Observation Network measurements, the results showed a satisfactory accuracy with an average wind speed error of − 0.54 m/s and a strong correlation coefficient of 0.92 . Wind–wave misalignment was found to be inversely correlated with wind speed (correlation coefficient: − 0.41 ), with minimum misalignment occurring approximately seven hours after a change in wind direction. The study revealed that misalignment could exceed 30 ∘ during hurricanes, contradicting standard assumptions of alignment under extreme conditions. The investigation highlighted that in western coastal areas, average misalignment could reach 57.95 ∘ , while sheltered Irish Sea regions experienced lower values, such as 23.06 ∘ . Numerical simulations confirmed that these misalignment events amplified side-to-side turbine deflections significantly. This research underscores the need to incorporate misalignment effects into industry testing standards and suggests that current methodologies may underestimate fatigue loads by up to 50%. This work emphasizes improved design and testing protocols for FOWTs in complex marine environments and highlights the suitability of ERA5 for climate analysis in Ireland.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Shanahan & Breiffni Fitzgerald, 2025. "Wind–Wave Misalignment in Irish Waters and Its Impact on Floating Offshore Wind Turbines," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-38, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:2:p:372-:d:1568778
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/2/372/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/2/372/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:2:p:372-:d:1568778. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.