Kongsberg Maritime launched a unique solution for the detection of scouring, corrosion, deformation and marine growth that can destabilise wind turbines and underwater structures causing expensive and potentially environmentally hazardous damage.
The new K-Observer system, which is part of Kongsberg Maritime’s Modular Subsea Monitoring Network (MSM), provides accurate, remote hydroacoustic 3D monitoring using the Dual Axis Scanning Sonar (DAS) to continuously monitor the seabed and the substructure. The 3D point cloud data created by the DAS is logged and transmitted to shore via the telemetry infrastructure of the K-Observer System (cabled, wireless or satellite) installed on the turbine. The system is designed for long-term installations and performs fully autonomously, from sensor control, data acquisition, to data processing, presentation of results and issuing of alarms (e.g. by text message or email).
K-Observer is a highly advanced system that not only monitors and observes the depth of the seabed around each wind turbine or subsea structure (scour and sediment displacement), which is important information in itself, but also provides insight regarding the current state of the substructure itself (deformation, marine growth and corrosion). This translates into lower intervention costs for maintaining the structure within the design parameters and avoids reductions in the life span of the wind turbine associated with unstable foundations and vibration induced structural fatigue.