Strainstall’s Vessel Motion Monitoring System (VMMS)™ has been successfully installed on a vessel running trials for the Carbon Trust Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) programme, a joint industry program aiming to reduce the cost of offshore wind by 10% for UK Round 3 sites, the company said in its press release.
The OWA trial focuses on turbine access systems, proving and de-risking design concepts. VMMS is supporting the Carbon Trust during prototype testing phases to quantify vessel conditions during personnel transfers. Marc Costa Ros, manager from the Carbon Trust, states “Sea Trials are very important in order to verify the R&D activities that are currently being developed within the OWA, providing row data that feeds into the current developments, being one of the most relevant ones the definition of performance metrics for wind farm support vessels”. This is achieved by using a 6 degree-of-freedom (6DOF) motion sensor to record X, Y, Z acceleration, as well as heave, pitch and roll rate.
The involvement of Strainstall and its innovative VMMS™ solution in such a high-profile project is evidence of the success of the system, and demonstrates how it has developed in line with the requirements of the offshore industry.
Scott Cruttenden, business development manager of Strainstall, commented “We are delighted to be supporting the Carbon Trust in the latest OWA concept trial. VMMS is being widely used across the offshore wind and oil and gas industries and there seems to be a more pragmatic approach towards implementing solutions that can facilitate cost effective operations whilst enhancing safety levels. We are looking forward to supporting the trial and seeing the data provided being used towards achieving the goals of the Carbon Trust”.
Past VMMS projects include the provision of systems to successfully aid barge loading operations and wind farm construction to maximise operational windows, as well as systems to monitor personnel “bucket transfers” in the oil and gas industry.
VMMS™ significantly improves safety levels of wind turbine transfer boats through accurate motion monitoring and the supply of user-friendly data for analytical purposes. The system provides an objective assessment of offshore conditions, protects personnel from injury during transfers, and also protects the vessel and equipment from sustaining damage.