The increasing global demand for renewable energy has accelerated the deployment of offshore wind farms, thereby highlighting the need for advanced development and performance assessment techniques for dynamic submarine cables used in floating offshore wind systems. These cables are continuously subjected to combined thermal, electrical, and mechanical stresses, with mechanical loading playing a particularly dominant role. As a result, dynamic submarine cables exhibit degradation behaviors that differ significantly from those of conventional fixed submarine cables. This paper presents the design and implementation of a comprehensive evaluation system capable of applying combined thermal, electrical, and mechanical stresses to dynamic submarine cables. The system was validated using a 66 kV wet type submarine cable through commissioning tests and insulation performance measurements. Electrical stress of 72 kV, thermal stress exceeding 95°C, and mechanical stress corresponding to a bending radius of 20 times the cable diameter over 20 cycles were applied to verify system reliability. The subsequent insulation assessments quantitatively confirmed performance variations induced by the combined stresses. The results demonstrate that the proposed platform is the first system capable of simultaneously applying thermal, electrical, and mechanical stresses to dynamic submarine cables, and its operational performance has been successfully validated. This platform enables realistic reliability evaluation of dynamic cables used in floating offshore wind farms and is expected to improve the overall operational reliability of offshore wind power systems.
With the ongoing rise in renewable energy demand, offshore wind farms are rapidly expanding, increasing the need for advanced development and diagnostic techniques for submarine cables. These cables are essential for efficient and reliable power transmission. A critical issue with these submarine cables is the formation of internal hot spots, which can deteriorate the insulation’s performance and negatively impact the overall reliability of offshore wind energy infrastructure. This research focuses on developing an innovative real-time monitoring system to detect hot spots within submarine cable insulation under varying electrical loads. Experimental tests were conducted on a 66 kV-grade wet-type submarine cable specifically designed for offshore wind applications, applying incremental current loads ranging from 200 A to 500 A. Temperature changes within the insulation due to the generated heat were continuously monitored using Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS). Additionally, to evaluate the DTS system’s precision, repeatability, and overall reliability, the measured temperatures were compared against values obtained from validated spot-type sensors. Experimental results showed a discrepancy of less than 1% between DTS and spot-type sensor measurements at a reference temperature of 60℃, demonstrating the high accuracy and reliability of the developed DTS-based monitoring system. The outcomes of this study suggest that the proposed monitoring system can significantly enhance the capability for early detection and continuous monitoring of hot spots, thereby improving the operational reliability of submarine cables employed in offshore wind energy installations.
This study investigates the insulation performance of a 66 kV dry-type submarine cable used in offshore wind farms under mechanical aging. During installation and operation, submarine cables are subjected to various mechanical stresses, including tension, compression, and bending, which can lead to insulation deterioration. In this study, XLPE samples extracted from a submarine cable were prepared and subjected to controlled tensile strain below the yield strain to evaluate their mechanical and electrical performance. Changes in tensile strength, elongation, and tan δ (dielectric loss factor) were measured to assess the extent of aging. The results indicate that as the applied strain and exposure duration increased, tensile strength and elongation decreased, while tan δ values increased, signifying a decline in electrical insulation performance. A strong negative correlation (R = -0.809) was observed between tan δ and tensile strength, demonstrating that mechanical aging significantly affects electrical properties. These findings highlight the importance of minimizing excessive mechanical stress during the installation and operation of submarine cables. The results provide valuable insights for enhancing the reliability of submarine cables in offshore wind farms and emphasize the necessity of optimized design and maintenance strategies to mitigate the effects of mechanical aging.
The increasing demand for renewable energy is driving the rapid expansion of the offshore wind industry, leading to intensified research on subsea cables. These cables endure combined thermal, electrical, and mechanical stresses, with mechanical stress being a critical failure factor. Environmental changes, such as seabed scouring, free spans, and seismic activity, accelerate cable degradation by introducing additional dynamic loads. Conventional monitoring systems primarily track thermal stress, lacking the ability to assess mechanical impacts. This study develops a system to simultaneously measure thermal and mechanical stress in subsea cables. Laboratory experiments confirm the system’s reliability, showing a temperature measurement error within 0.8% at 60℃ and a strain measurement error within 13% at 378 με. The proposed system aims to enhance failure prediction and maintenance strategies for offshore wind subsea cables.
With the expansion of offshore wind farms, research on power cables for delivering electricity from offshore to onshore has become increasingly important. In offshore wind farms, submarine cables are introduced and secured to the platform through J-tube conduits. During this process, the cables are exposed to three distinct thermal profiles: high temperatures in the upper section, temperature fluctuations due to water level changes in the middle section, and low temperatures in the seabed region. This study investigates the impact of thermal variations on the insulation performance of submarine cables. To analyze this effect, accelerated aging tests were conducted on both insulation specimens and actual cables. Additionally, dielectric breakdown tests were performed to quantitatively assess insulation degradation. Experimental results revealed that the insulation performance of the specimens exposed to periodic temperature fluctuations due to water level changes deteriorated by up to 7.5%. Based on these findings, the vulnerable sections of submarine cables in offshore wind farms were identified. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the necessity for monitoring and protective measures to mitigate insulation degradation in these critical regions.
Research on aged insulation of cables by stress is constantly being considered for reliable and stable power transmission of offshore wind farms. This study aimed to evaluate the insulation characteristic of aged XLPE (cross-linked polyethylene) insulation for application of offshore wind farms. In this study, The XLPE insulation of cable was set as various mechanical strains. The XLPE insulation is exposed to the mechanical stress below yield strain of 5%, 10%, and 20%. Aged samples were tested by using the method of AC BDV (alternative current breakdown voltage), tensile strength, elongation, and SEM (scanning electron microscope) to obtain insulation characteristics. The experimental results show that the dielectric breakdown of the sample with a strain 20% was 50% lower than the unaged sample; thereby, demonstrating that the mechanical strain that occurred in the submarine cables can weaken the insulation characteristics. Therefore, mechanical strain should be monitored when laying and operating submarine cables for offshore wind farms.
Demand and necessity for eco-friendly offshore wind farms have been increasing. Research on submarine cables is constantly being considered for a reliable and stable power transmission. This study aimed to evaluate the thermal aging characteristic of submarine cables inside the J-tube of offshore wind farms. In this study, a submarine cable was set in three sections: The first is the part exposed to the air above the sea level at high temperature. The second is the section exposed to repeated temperature fluctuation as the sea level rises and falls. The third is the part submerged at low temperature below the sea level. Aged samples were tested by using the method of electrical evaluation to obtain insulation characteristics. The experimental results show that the dielectric breakdown of the sample with temperature fluctuation was 7% lower than the sample with a constant temperature; thereby, demonstrating that the section where the temperature fluctuation occurred in the submarine cables was weaker than the other. The sections of submarine cable with temperature fluctuations are believed as a weak point during operation; therefore, this part should be monitored preferentially.
A machine vision inspection system consists of a camera, optics, illumination, and image acquisition system. Especially a scanning system has to be made to measure a large inspection area. Therefore, a machine vision line scan camera needs a line scan light source. A line scan light source should have a high light intensity and a uniform intensity distribution. In this paper, an offset calibration and slope calibration methods are introduced to obtain a uniform light intensity profile. Offset calibration method is to remove the deviation of light intensity among channels through adding intensity difference. Slope calibration is to remove variation of light intensity slope according to the control step among channels through multiplying slope difference. We can obtain an improved light intensity profile through applying offset and slope calibration simultaneously. The proposed method can help to obtain clearer image with a high precision in a machine vision inspection system.
Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon (a-Si:H) is used as an emitter layer in HIT (heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) solar cells. Its low band gap and low optical properties (low transmittance and high absorption) cause parasitic absorption on the front side of a solar cell that significantly reduces the solar cell blue response. To overcome this, research on CSC (carrier Selective Contacts) is being actively carried out to reduce carrier recombination and improve carrier transportation as a means to approach the theoretical efficiency of silicon solar cells. Among CSC materials, molybdenum oxide (MoOx) is most commonly used for the hole transport layer (HTL) of a solar cell due to its high work function and wide band gap. This paper analyzes the electrical and optical properties of MoOx thin films for use in the HTL of HIT solar cells. The optical properties of MoOx show better performance than a-Si:H and μc-SiOx:H.
The wind power generation is an eco-friendly clean energy that produces almost zero CO2emission, and has a good economic feasibility. As for the location, the installation of large turbines and construction of large-scale wind farm is easier on the offshore than on the land. In Korea, it is inevitable to generate offshore wind power through the offshore wind farm, and the radio interference of larger wind power generators and offshore wind power farm to broadcasting, communication and radars is becoming a core issue for constructing the offshore wind farm. In this study, the wind power generation status and rotor blade technology trend were presented, along with the technical trend of radar radio interference reduction relating to construction of the offshore wind farm.
In this paper, we analyzed the effects of doctoring process on the patterns of Ag in gravure off-set printing. The parameters of doctoring process were the angle and the pressure, which was represented by the depth of movement to the gravure roll, of doctor blade to the surface of gravure roll, and the angle of patterns engraved on the gravure roll to doctor blade moving direction. The proper parameters were extracted for the fine patterns and they were 15 mm for the pressure, 60° for the blade angle. And the angle of patterns with respect to blade movement should be less than 40° for the best results. The gravure off-set printing with the above parameters was carried out print gate electrodes and scan bus lines of OTFT-backplane for e-paper. The line width of 50㎛ was successfully obtained. The thickness of electrodes was 2.5㎛and the surface roughness was 0.65㎛ and sheet resistance was 15.8 Ω/□.
In this paper a printing process for patterning electrodes on large area substrate was developed by combining screen printing with reverse off-set printing. Ag ink was uniformly coated by screen printing. And then etching resist (ER) was patterned in the Ag film by reverse off-set printing, and then the non-desired Ag film was etched off by etchant. Finally, the ER was stripped-off to obtain the final Ag patterns. We extracted the suitable conditions of reverse Using the process we successfully fabricated gate electrodes and scan bus lines of OTFT-backplane used for e-paper, in which the diagonal size was 6 inch, the resolution 320x240, the minimum line width 30 um, and sheet resistance 1 Ω/□.
A uncooled infrared ray sensor used in an infrared thermal imaging detector has many advantages. But because the uncooled infrared ray sensor is made by MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system) process variation of offset is large. In this paper, to solve process variation of offset a ROIC for uncooled infrared ray sensor that has process variation of offset compensation technique using differential delta sampling and reference signal compensation circuit was proposed. As a result of simulation that uses the proposed ROIC, it was possible to acquire compensated output characteristics without process variation of offsets.
In this study, we proposed a novel electrode structure for the fringe field switching (FFS) mode LCD and performed a three-dimensional computer simulation to calculate the optical transmittance for the new structure. In the simulation Erickson-leslie equation and Berreman 4×4 matrix were used for obtaining the director distribution profiles of liquid crystal molecules and the electro-optical characteristics, respectively. Considering the complexity of the motional equation of the liquid crystal molecules, FDM (finite difference method) was used as a numerical method. From the results, We revealed that the light transmission of the newly designed pixel structure is expended to the edge of the pixel electrode. We also confirmed that the light transmittance increased more than 13% compared to that of the conventional electrode structure.