William Otto
Abstract – Floating mega islands can provide an attractive solution for creating temporal or more permanent space in coastal areas with a high demand for real estate. Also at open sea in the vicinity of wind farms, fish farms or logistical cross points, a floating mega island could be used as a hub, eliminating costly transfers. One of the aspects which needs to be understood is the wave induced motion of such a mega island. A piece-wise flexible island has been model tested at MARIN. The motion behaviour in mild and severe sea states has been investigated. In this paper the motion behaviour is described and explained by comparing model test results with numerical simulations. An interesting aspect in this is the relative importance of wave diffraction, wave radiation and the dissipation of energy in the construction.
William Otto has been educated as a naval architect at the TU Delft with a specialisation in ship hydrodynamcis. His main field of expertise is the dynamic behaviour of moored constructions. This expertise has been obtained by performing numerous model test campaigns at MARIN for, among others, FLNG’s, FPSO’s, semi-submersibles, drillships and floating wind turbines. Lately his focus has been shifted to large scale flexible, or piece-wise flexible, floaters. The application of these are in the field of floating islands creating multi-purpose deckspace. Next to model test campaigns, William Otto is involved in the development for complex mooring simulations for flexible and piece-wise flexible floaters with many-bodies in the Space@Sea EU project.