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Offshore Sustainability Energy Island
Integrated Design Project 3: 74%
Group Size: 5 Mechanical Engineers within a team of 30 Engineers from Mechanical, Civil, and Electrical Disciplines.
Skills Devevloped: CAD, Simulations (CFD & FEA), Thermodynamics and Calculations, Structural Analysis (Mechanical Calculations and FTool for Truss Structures), Environmental Analysis (Eco-Audit), Materials (Granta Edupack), Lage-Group Project Management and Presentation.
3rd Year Mechanical Engineering
2023
The project involves designing a 20 MWp Floating Photovoltaic (FPV) system to operate alongside Rotary Mass and Point Absorption wave energy converters, enhancing the resilience of the 2.2 GW Star of the South wind farm in Bass Strait, Australia. This integrated system addresses renewable energy intermittency with the civil and electrical groups who will work on the floating pontoon structures and the power systems respectively. The FPV farm will consist of 42,100 panels, each producing 475 W, optimized for energy yield, corrosion resistance, and wind protection while meeting Victorian and Australian regulations. Over its 30-year lifespan, the farm is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 77,641.9 tonnes, supporting Australia’s renewable energy goals.
My group focused on the solar power production with floating
photovoltaic (PV) panels as one of the mechanical groups.
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BRIEF OVERVIEW
Project Idea
Location: Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia
- Star of the South windfarm (2.2 GW)
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Mean annual cloud coverage (37%)
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Mean annual wave power density of
at least 70 kW/m
- Ideal for Wind, Solar, and Wave energy
Australia’s Energy Crisis
- General rise of energy costs
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Russia-Ukraine war
-
Ageing coal mines and outages
- Net zero by 2050
Team Level Design Plan
Including Floating Pontoons (Civil), PV Panels (Mechanical), Point Absorption and Rotational Mass Wave Energy Converters (Mechanical), and the Power Systems (Electrical)
Design Overview
Design
Module and Racking Schematic for one Solar Panel
This is the module and racking schematic for 1 PV panel with a tilt of 30 degrees, each producing 275 W in Bass Strait, out of 42,100 monocrystalline PV panels with a total capacity of 20 MWp.
In total, there are 1,684 strings and a single pontoon platform will have 25 modules x 13 strings.
Material Selections (Granta Edupack)
Young’s Modulus against Yield Strength
Energy and CO2 Footprint for 1 PV Module
PVSyst Software Simulated C02 Count for the PV Farm
Technical Evaluation
To produce realistic results, meteorological data pertaining to the plant’s location was synthetically generated from PVsyst for the past 10 years.
To select the ideal module tilt and pitch distance, simulations on Shading Loss & Energy of Array against Tilt Angles for different pitch distances were conducted.
From this, a pitch distance of 3 m was selected as it provides a competitive system performance output comparable to higher pitch sizes (4,5,6 m). A 30° module tilt angle produced the highest energy yield for all but the 2 m pitch size. Two panel layouts exist in the industry: the single, and gable roof layout. Gable roof layouts can be implemented to withstand strong wind conditions. However, single roof layouts provided better energy yield as all the panels align with optimal azimuth in our scenario.
CFD and FEA to Select Suitable Materials and Layout for the Panels
CFD simulations were run on ANSYS Fluent to determine the system’s capability to resist critical wind conditions for this specific tilt angle and single roof layout. In the Bass Strait region, the maximum recorded wind speeds have reached up to 35 m/s [28]. The wind force simulations were produced for front and back flow directions. The wind induced force on the surface of the panels had a maximum pressure of 1331 and 1423 Pa for the front and back flow respectively, which does not exceed its maximum pressure allowance of 2400 Pa.
The maximum stress of 65.9 kPa occurs at the edges of the glass inducing a maximum displacement of 43 mm in the FEA. This validated the use of tempered glass material for the panel surfaces and the Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate (EVA) for the encapsulate.
Racking Structure Evaluation & Anchoring Bolts Selections
From CFD, the Cl and Cd were found. The calculations on the wind load from the front and the back of the panels were calculated, with the total pull-out force determined from simulating the forces onto different racking structures. This allowed me to select the ideal anchoring bolts to the pontoon platform, as well as to design the racking structure that can withstand the highest wind forces.
CFD simulation of 35 m/s wind load on a single panel
Detailed CFD Calculations
Anchoring Bolt Selections (Structural Analysis with FTool)
The overall ‘Bracing 1’ forces displayed lower overall forces. For each anchoring bolt that resisted 𝐹𝑦1 and 𝐹𝑥1, the permissible tension and shear forces were 1734 N and of 420.2 N; and 31.6 N and 726.7N for 𝐹𝑦2 and 𝐹𝑥2. Hence, the Liebig Anchor AB A4 M8 stainless steel anchoring bolts were selected to cooperate with the non-cracked C20/25 concretefor the Civil Engineering Group.