About 2000 wind turbines per year shall be installed and commissioned in the German North Sea by the year 2020. The construction of these facilities place special demands on the installation vessels. In order to address the specific aspects of crane operations in the offshore wind market, we develop a software tool for the design of crane ships, planning, and safety analysis of offshore crane operations. The tool is integrated in the ship design platform E4. By using this optimized product development tool, engineering offices and shipyards from Germany will be able to configure, develop and build innovative heavy-lift vessels and crane ships. Within the research project we develop numerical tools and methods which will enable the assessment of complex crane operations at sea under adverse environmental conditions. There is a lack of essential design principles for these vessel, because the successful planning of crane operations is a key element in the offshore segment. These fundamentals can be created using the developed methods, and thus it is possible to be able to include these aspects in the design of vessels. click here for further information.

For more detailed information please get in touch with one of the contact persons: Hannes Hatecke, Adele Lübcke

The following publications have been written during the research project: