Reliability-based Calibration of Partial Safety Factors for Wave Energy Converters

Wave energy converters (WECs), which harvest energy from the waves and transfer them to electricity, are a new technology, where structural standards need to be developed. An important step towards standardization is the calibration of partial safety factors. A methodology for calibration of partial safety factors for design of welded details for wave energy converter applications is presented in this paper using probabilistic methods. The paper presents an example with focus on the Wavestar device. SN curves and Rainflow counting are used to model fatigue without considering inspections. The influence of inspections is modelled using a fracture mechanics approach, which is calibrated by the SN curve approach. Furthermore, the paper assesses the influence of the inspection quality. The results show that with multiple inspections during the lifetime of the device and by applying a good inspection quality, the safety factor can be significantly reduced.