Adapting Tradespace Exploration for Conceptual Structural Design of Monopile Upending and Lifting Tools

KENC Engineering B.V., a firm operating in the offshore wind industry, aims to optimize its conceptual design process for Monopile Upending and Lifting Tools (MPULT) to save time and resources. Currently, the design process involves iteratively balancing costs with structural strength, relying heavily on engineers' experience. Tradespace exploration was identified from literature as a method suitable for improving KENC’s conceptual design process by exploring the solution space and systematically evaluating the performance of design alternatives while balancing the multiple objectives of costs and structural strength. A method is developed to adapt tradespace exploration to the case of KENC. This method includes simplifying the structural strength analysis of MPULTs to be compatible with tradespace exploration. The method is implemented in an Excel tool and this tool is applied in a case study based on a real-life scenario. The tool proves to be effective in quickly identifying cost-effective MPULT designs streamlining KENC’s MPULT conceptual design process and assisting them to produce MPULT proposals with less time investment.