scholarly journals Characterization of the unsteady aerodynamic response of a floating offshore wind turbine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Mancini ◽  
Koen Boorsma ◽  
Marco Caboni ◽  
Marion Cormier ◽  
Thorsten Lutz ◽  
...  

Abstract. The disruptive potential of floating wind turbines has attracted the interest of both industry and scientific community. Lacking a rigid foundation, such machines are subject to large displacements whose impact on the aerodynamic performance is not yet fully acknowledged. In this work, the unsteady aerodynamic response to an harmonic surge motion of a scaled version of the DTU10MW turbine is investigated in detail. The imposed displacements have been chosen representative of typical platform motions. The results of different numerical models are validated against high fidelity wind tunnel tests specifically focused on the aerodynamics. Also a linear analytical model, relying on the quasi-steady assumption, is presented as a theoretical reference. The unsteady responses are shown to be dominated by the first surge harmonic and a frequency domain characterization, mostly focused on the thrust oscillation, is conducted involving aerodynamic damping and mass parameters. A very good agreement among codes, experiments and quasi-steady theory has been found clarifying some literature doubts. A convenient way to describe the unsteady results in non-dimensional form is proposed, hopefully serving as reference for future work.

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 1713-1730
Author(s):  
Simone Mancini ◽  
Koen Boorsma ◽  
Marco Caboni ◽  
Marion Cormier ◽  
Thorsten Lutz ◽  
...  

Abstract. The disruptive potential of floating wind turbines has attracted the interest of both the industry and the scientific community. Lacking a rigid foundation, such machines are subject to large displacements whose impact on aerodynamic performance is not yet fully explored. In this work, the unsteady aerodynamic response to harmonic-surge motion of a scaled version of the DTU 10 MW turbine is investigated in detail. The imposed displacements have been chosen representative of typical platform motion. The results of different numerical models are validated against high-fidelity wind tunnel tests specifically focused on the aerodynamics. Also, a linear analytical model relying on the quasi-steady assumption is presented as a theoretical reference. The unsteady responses are shown to be dominated by the first surge harmonic, and a frequency domain characterization, mostly focused on the thrust oscillation, is conducted involving aerodynamic damping and mass parameters. A very good agreement among the codes, the experiments, and the quasi-steady theory has been found, clarifying some literature doubts. A convenient way to describe the unsteady results in a non-dimensional form is proposed, hopefully serving as a reference for future works.


Author(s):  
Xin Shen ◽  
Xiaocheng Zhu ◽  
Zhaohui Du

Unlike fixed-base offshore wind turbine, the soft floating platform introduces 6 more degrees of freedom of motions to the floating offshore wind turbine. This may cause much more complex inflow environment to the wind turbine rotors compared with fixed-base wind turbine. The wind seen locally on the blade changes due to the motions of the floating wind turbine platform which has a direct impact on the aerodynamic condition on the blade such as the angle of attack and the inflow velocity. Such unsteady aerodynamic effects may lead to high fluctuation of the loads and power output. The present work aims to study the high unsteady aerodynamic performance of the floating wind turbine under platform surge motion. The unsteady aerodynamic loads are predicted with a lifting surface method with a free wake model. A preview predict control algorithm is used as the pitch control strategy. A full scale U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 5 MW floating wind turbine is chosen as the subject of the present study. The unsteady aerodynamic performance and instabilities have been discussed in detail under prescribed platform surge motions with different control targets. Both minimizing the power output and rotor thrust fluctuation are set as the control objectives respectively. The theory analysis and the simulation results indicate that the blade pitch control can effectively alleviate the variation of the rotor thrust under platform surge motions. Larger amplitude of the variation of blade pitch is needed to alleviate the variation of the wind turbine power and this leads to high rotor thrust fluctuation. It is also shown that negative damping can be achieved during the blade pitch control process and may lead the floating platform wind turbine system into unstable condition.


Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krishnamoorthi Sivalingam ◽  
Steven Martin ◽  
Abdulqadir Singapore Wala

Aerodynamic performance of a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) is significantly influenced by platform surging motions. Accurate prediction of the unsteady aerodynamic loads is imperative for determining the fatigue life, ultimate loads on key components such as FOWT rotor blades, gearbox and power converter. The current study examines the predictions of numerical codes by comparing with unsteady experimental results of a scaled floating wind turbine rotor. The influence of platform surge amplitude together with the tip speed ratio on the unsteady aerodynamic loading has been simulated through unsteady CFD. It is shown that the unsteady aerodynamic loads of FOWT are highly sensitive to the changes in frequency and amplitude of the platform motion. Also, the surging motion significantly influences the windmill operating state due to strong flow interaction between the rotating blades and generated blade-tip vortices. Almost in all frequencies and amplitudes, CFD, LR-BEM and LR-uBEM predictions of mean thrust shows a good correlation with experimental results.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaodong Wang ◽  
Zhaoliang Ye ◽  
Ziwen Chen ◽  
Yize Guo ◽  
Yujun Qiao

Abstract Offshore wind energy developed rapidly in recent years. Due to the platform motions causing by ocean waves, the aerodynamics of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT) show strong unsteady characters than onshore wind turbines. The widely used methods to investigate the unsteady aerodynamic performance of wind turbine are Blade Element Momentum (BEM) and Free-Vortex Wake (FVW) methods. The accuracy of these two methods strongly depend on empirical formula or correction models. However, for dynamics motions of wind turbine, there is still a lack of accurate models. CFD simulations using overset or dynamic mesh methods also have been used for FOWT aerodynamic investigations. However, the mesh deforming or reconstruction methods are usually suitable for small movement of wind turbine blade. In this paper, a dual-sliding mesh method is employed to simulate the unsteady aerodynamic characters of an offshore floating wind turbine with supporting platform motions using Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulations. Both rotor rotation and platform motions are treated as rigid angular motions. The relative motion and data exchange were simulated using sliding mesh method. The NREL 5MW reference wind turbine with platform pitching and rolling motions are considered. The pitching and rolling motions of floating platform are simplified in the form of a prescribed sinusoidal function. Different conditions with two amplitudes and two frequencies of pitching and rolling motions were investigated. URANS were performed with full structured mesh for wind turbine rotor using commercial software FLUENT. The platform motions were set using User Defined Function (UDF). Transitional Shear Stress Turbulence (T-SST) model was employed. The simulation results were compared with BEM method and FVW method results. Both steady status and dynamic pitching processes are investigated. The variations of wind turbine aerodynamic load, as well as the aerodynamic character of airfoils at different spanwise positions, were obtained and analyzed in detail. The simulations results show that the platform pitching introduce remarkable influence on the wind turbine aerodynamic performance. The platform pitching has much larger influence on the wind turbine power and thrust than the platform rolling. The dual-sliding mesh method shows potentials to investigation the dynamic process with multiple rigid motions.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. de Wilde ◽  
C. G. J. M. van der Nat ◽  
L.. Pots ◽  
L. B. de Vries ◽  
Q.. Liu

Abstract CABLE JIP research project in 2017-2019 was initiated with the aim of studying the feasibility of deploying a novel semi-static electrical cable for the power take-off from a TLP-type Floating Offshore Wind Turbine (FOWT). Today, expensive dynamic electrical cables are mainly used for the power take-off from demonstrator project FOWTs or from new FOWTs on the drawing board. For a TLP-type FOWT, the use of a semi-static electrical power cable instead of a fully dynamic electrical power cable (umbilical) is an attractive option to reduce the levelized cost of energy (LCoE). However, the electrical power cable in a dynamic offshore environment is vulnerable to failure, either at the floater side or at the seabed touchdown area. Moreover, the electrical power cable for power take-off is typically non-redundant, while the availability of the turbine(s) highly depends on this critical component to transport the produced power to the substation. The paper discusses the results of the CABLE JIP research project, with focus on the verification and calibration of the numerical models for the ULS and FLS assessment of the electrical power inter-array cable for a harsh weather test case with a TLP-type floating offshore wind turbine in 96.5 m water depth.


Author(s):  
Koji Tanaka ◽  
Iku Sato ◽  
Tomoaki Utsunomiya ◽  
Hiromu Kakuya

Abstract In this paper, we describe the analysis of the dynamic response of a 2 MW floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) at the time of typhoon attack in the actual sea area. In order to introduce floating offshore wind turbine in Asia, it is essential to evaluate the influence of typhoon attack accurately. This FOWT, named HAENKAZE is the only FOWT to operate commercially in areas where typhoons occur. On July 3rd, 2018, the strongest typhoon (Prapiroon) at the installed area of the FOWT since its installation approached the HAENKAZE. The central atmospheric pressure of the typhoon at the closest time was 965 hPa, the maximum instantaneous wind speed at the hub height was 52.2 m/s, and the maximum wave height was 7.1 m. In this paper, the dynamic response of the floating body at the time of typhoon attack is compared for the measured and the simulated values. As a result of the comparison, basically a good agreement has been obtained between the measured and the simulated values except for yaw response, for which the simulated values considerably overestimate the measured values.


Metals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 689 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Redondo ◽  
Ali Mehmanparast

The use of bolted joints to connect the transition piece and monopile is nowadays widely applied in the offshore wind industry. Traditionally, grouted connections were used in the early generation of offshore wind turbines, but the experienced failures in such connections led to an increased tendency towards bolted flange connections to join the transition piece and monopile in the new generation of offshore wind turbines. The bolts used for this purpose have high strength and huge sizes, and are subjected to a preload that is applied during the tightening process. The present study is focused on the analysis of preload effects on stress distribution in M72 bolted connections by considering different friction coefficients between the bolt and nut threads. The bolt is considered to be made of grade 10.9 steel, whereas the nut is assumed to be made of grade 8.8 steel, which is a softer material. Using the finite element commercial software package Abaqus, numerical models were developed and analysed to establish trends for stress distribution and plastic strains during the bolt tightening process, and to quantify stress concentration factors in individual engaged threads.


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