Ship Collision, Risk analysis- Emergency systems- Collision dynamics

Some offshore wind farms in Europe have been built and numerous projects are on the drawing tables. It is necessary to study the effects of these wind farms with respect to the safety of shipping in order to estimate the related risks to people, ship traffic and the environment. Here the formal risk definition is the product of collision frequency (collision rate) and collision consequence (size of ship damage or emission of harmful substances). This paper puts emphasis on the determination of the consequences. For offshore wind farms within the German Exclusive Economical Zone (EEZ) the so-called “Collision Friendly Foundation Design (CFFD) ” is required by the responsible authorities. In case of a ship collision with such a foundation type, the ship will not be damaged or more generally spoken emission of harmful substances will be minimal. Within this paper results from research projects SafeShip [9] and TUHH[10] are summarised concerning consequence modelling. Collision simulations for 4 different ship types and 3 different foundation designs have been performed by means of Finite Element Models considering the structural behaviour of wind turbine and ship. The calculated collision mechanisms will be discussed. Finally the question of the “Collision Friendly Foundation Design ” will be discussed for each foundation type.