The PREDICARG Project has reached the end of its execution with satisfactory results for the organisations in the consortium led by DEGIMA, which, in addition to Saitec, was joined by the CTC Technology Centre, the Environmental Hydraulics Institute (IH Cantabria) and Enerocean.
The new mooring-system load prediction system makes it possible to obtain, continuously and reliably, the information needed to calculate the effectiveness of the mooring systems of floating offshore platforms. The project is aimed at deepening the understanding of the dynamics of such systems, reducing the failure rate as much as possible in hostile offshore environments and, consequently, solving the problems they present.
SAITEC S.A. has actively participated in the execution of the project as the developer of its own floating offshore wind platform technology, on which to implement and validate the innovations developed. For the execution of the project, the PREDICARG System was modelled and tested on several types of platform, including Saitec's SATH wind platform, which features an innovative mooring system, Single Point Mooring (SPM), that allows the platform to align with the wind direction like a weather vane.
The PREDICARG project is of great interest to the marine renewable energy sector, as it addresses one of its main needs. Knowledge of the magnitude of the loads to which mooring lines are subjected is fundamental for the potential optimisation of current and future systems, as well as for improving decision-making in maintenance operations.
The project was carried out over an execution period of two and a half years within the Retos Colaboración 2017 call, part of the State Programme for Research, Development and Innovation Oriented to the Challenges of Society of the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2013-2016. The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities is responsible for the call, with the aim of fostering innovative solutions that help improve the competitiveness and innovation level of the country's business fabric, as well as promoting the generation of the critical mass of R&D&I needed for it.
