It has been well reported that wind farms can impact and degrade the performance of radar systems for air traffic control, air surveillance, early warning systems and navigational. The potential interference generated by the scattering characteristics of wind turbines on radar systems is considered a significant issue and has received a lot of attention from the research community and industry alike. However, due to the geometrical complexity of the turbine structure and its enormous electrical size at radar frequencies, the study and modelling of the radar scattering presented a substantial challenge to the research community. The use of commercial Computational Electromagnetic (CEM) tools and other full-wave solvers was limited to a small number of predefined turbine orientations due to the inherent requirement of supercomputing environment or extended modelling runtimes.

To accommodate for the growth in demand for renewable energy, larger wind farms are being planned for deployment further offshore -in deeper waters and less favourable seabed conditions. Floating foundations are being widely proposed to reduce costs and enable more rapid growth of offshore wind turbines. Future wind developments (Such as Hornsea Project Two and Three) included floating foundations within their Design Envelope. Some of these projects are located near a number of key shipping routes as well as offshore O&G platforms with REWS installations.

To date, the effects of floating foundation on the operation and efficiency of navigational and safety radar systems operating near or within the wind farm is currently largely unknown. Large floating wind turbines will have unique scattering characteristics due to its size, construction materials, vibration profile and movements under wind loading and adverse weather/sea conditions. Floating turbines are likely to dramatically change the radar cross section and its dynamics and consequently impact radar systems.

This project will study the effects of wind turbines mounted on floating foundations on offshore radar operations. The project will develop radar scattering models for the floating foundations and account for important parameters such as geometry, materials and platform movement under adverse weather conditions. This project will build on the recently awarded Supergen funding to measure and model the radar scattering from the large 7MW turbine managed by ORE Catapult. The project will analyse the measured data from the ORE Catapult turbine as well as the large dataset of wind farm/radar measurements made available to the University of Manchester by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa to further develop the existing turbine models and integrate them with the new models of the floating foundations. The analysis, verification and integration of measurements with the modelling capabilities will give a good representation of future offshore turbine. This will then be used to model the static radar returns and Doppler signature generated from the turbines under typical and adverse conditions for safety critical radar operations such as navigation under poor visibility, search and rescue efforts and REWS for collision prevention with offshore O&G assets.

Potential Impact:
This project will investigate, model and provide insight on the potential effects of floating wind turbines on navigation and safety related radar operations. The development of high accuracy turbine modelling and radar detection optimisation tools are of interest to various internationally renowned research teams and companies in the UK; including The University of Manchester, University of Birmingham, University College London, University of Glasgow, Aveillant Ltd, PagerPower Ltd and others. The development of modelling tools that are capable of simulating future turbines and radar technologies will benefit the wind energy industry, radar operators, Government policy makers, and ultimately the environment by enabling rapid assessment of the potential impact of offshore wind farms on various radar technologies. Similarly, by encouraging the safe development and deployment of offshore wind farms in the UK a positive impact would also be seen on the UK economy through the potential opportunities and creation of jobs.

This multidisciplinary partnership within this project will maximise the influence and benefits of the project by ensuring that the outputs are aligned with the aims of organisations and companies that have the ability to integrate the acquired knowledge and project results into products and services. Being such an important and relevant topic, and by identifying and addressing potential issues during these early stages, this research project can strengthening the UK's leading position within the international research community.

In summary, the pathways to impact are aimed at delivering the following:
* Engaging with key industrial partners and stakeholders in the UK to ensure the readiness of integrating the results of the project and the acquired knowledge into products and services.
* Impacting the UK's economy through the creation of opportunities and jobs by facilitating and enabling the safe development and deployment of offshore wind farms in the UK.
* Encouraging multidisciplinary research with other communities to enable future research on this important topic.
* Creating training opportunities for future research leaders in a multidisciplinary area that connects renewable development to radar and other wireless communication systems.
* Disseminating the advances made within this project among the research community through publishing the findings in open access scientific literature and major IEEE and IET international events on communications, radar, and associated subjects.
* Enabling and initiating future multidisciplinary collaborative work through the construction of a web based data resource whereby the measured and modelled data will be available to the research community.