Abstract
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) has been attracting attention for its stabil-ity and potential for integration with deep seawater utilization. For a Floating OTECplant, developing an ultra-large-diameter Cold Water Pipe (CWP) has long been a majorchallenge. This preliminary study explores the economics, structural performance, anddesign feasibility of a concept of multiple CWP system for floating OTEC. As a casestudy, a baseline design comprising a ship-shaped platform, a spread mooring system,and a GFRP CWP is considered. The economics of multiple CWPs are evaluated byvarying the diameter, flow velocity, and number of pipes while maintaining a constantflow rate. The results revealed that, for each pipe configuration, there exists an opti-mal combination of diameter and flow velocity, and that the economic impact associatedwith adopting multiple CWPs is negligible when optimal designs are considered. Further-more, the dynamic characteristics of the coupled platform–mooring–CWP system underextreme environmental conditions are investigated using the optimal design candidates.Time-domain simulations confirm that the concept using multiple CWPs is technicallyfeasible for floating OTEC applications.