The operation of a floating wind turbine may be severely affected by met-ocean conditions. In harsh climates, platform motions might exceed their safety limits and thus force the machine shutdown. It is here proposed a methodology for evaluating the effect of met-ocean conditions on the long-term energy production and dynamic response of such machines.
Given a sample wind turbine, located off the coast of Santander, Spain, met-ocean data are extracted from reanalysis databases for a twenty years lifespan.
The behavior of the wind turbine is simulated in the time domain for a subset of 500 hourly conditions, selected using a maximum dissimilarity algorithm (MDA), to reduce the computational effort. Results regarding floating platform motions are then interpolated for the whole set of data using radial basis functions (RBF).
Tower inclination and hub acceleration are selected as relevant operating parameters. When one of them exceeds its safety threshold, the machine is supposed to be stopped. If no stops are considered, the capacity factor is 39%, while imposing more restrictive tolerances results in a non-linear decrease of the energy yield.
This approach can be helpful in determining a good tradeoff between energy production and reliable operation, bridging the design and operational phases of the project.
Effects of yaw misalignment on platform motions and fairlead tensions of the OO-Star Wind Floater Semi 10MW floating wind turbine
