• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.191-218
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• 2019

The tower-platform interface and mooring system of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) are some of the most critical components with significant influences on overall project costs. In addition to satisfying strength requirements, it is typical and vital to meet fatigue criteria for a service life of 25 years or more. Wind spectra characteristics considered in analysis can penalize fatigue designs, leading to unnecessary costs. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC, 2009) recommends the use of site-specific wind data (spectrum, turbulence intensity, etc.) in design of FOWTs, but for offshore sites it is often the case that such data is unavailable and land-based data are used as surrogates in design. For such scenarios, it is worth investigating whether such alternative approach is suitable and accurate, and understanding the consequence of the selection of wind spectral characteristics on fatigue design. This paper addresses the impact of the subsequent selection on fatigue responses of towerbase and mooring system in a FOWT, as a sequel to the paper by Udoh and Zou (2018) which focused on impacts on strength design. The 5 MW semi-submersible FOWT platform with six mooring lines implemented in the preceding study is applied in analysis. Results indicate significant variations in resulting fatigue life with considered wind parameters. Thus, it is critical to apply proper wind spectra characteristics for analysis and design of FOWTs to avoid unnecessary conservatism and costs. Based on the findings of this study, more explicit guidance on the application of turbulence intensities for IEC-recommended models in offshore sites could lead to more accurate load estimates in design of FOWTs.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.390-402
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• 2022

Offshore wind energy has become a major energy source, and various studies are underway to increase the economic feasibility of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT). In this study, the characteristics of wave-induced motion of a combined wind-wave energy platform were analyzed to reduce the variability of energy extraction. A user subroutine was developed, and numerical analysis was performed in connection with the ANSYS-AQWA hydrodynamic program in the time domain. A platform combining the TLP-type FOWT and the Wavestar-type wave energy converter (WEC) was proposed. Each motion response of the platform on the second-order wave load, the effect of WEC attachment and Power take-off (PTO) force were analyzed. The mooring line tension according to the installation location was also analyzed. The vertical motion of a single FOWT was increased approximately three times due to the second-order sum-frequency wave load. The PTO force of the WEC played as a vertical motion damper for the combined platform. The tension of the mooring lines in front of the incident wave direction was dominantly affected by the pitch of the platform, and the mooring lines located at the side of the platform were mainly affected by the heave of the platform.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.367-375
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• 2020

This paper presents an integrated analysis about dynamic performance of a Floating Offshore Wind Turbine (FOWT) OC4 DeepCwind with semi-submersible platform under real sea environment. The emphasis of this paper is to investigate how the wave mean drift force and slow-drift wave excitation load (Quadratic transfer function, namely QTF) influence the platform motions, mooring line tension and tower base bending moments. Second order potential theory is being used for computing linear and nonlinear wave effects, including first order wave force, mean drift force and slow-drift excitation loads. Morison model is utilized to account the viscous effect from fluid. This approach considers floating wind turbine as an integrated coupled system. Two time-domain solvers, SIMA (SIMO/RIFLEX/AERODYN) and FAST are being chosen to analyze the global response of the integrated coupled system under small, moderate and severe sea condition. Results show that second order mean drift force and slow-drift force will drift the floater away along wave propagation direction. At the same time, slow-drift force has larger effect than mean drift force. Also tension of the mooring line at fairlead and tower base loads are increased accordingly in all sea conditions under investigation.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.26-34
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• 2024

Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) have been developed to overcome large water depths and leverage the abundant wind resource in deep seas. However, wind-wave misalignment can occur depending on the weather conditions, and most megawatt (MW)-class turbines are horizontal-axis wind turbines subjected to yaw errors. Therefore, the power performance and dynamic response of super-large FOWTs exposed simultaneously to these external conditions must be analyzed. In this study, several scenarios combining wind-wave misalignment and yaw error were considered. The IEA 15 MW reference FOWT (v1.1.2) and OpenFAST (v3.4.1) were used to perform numerical simulations. The results show that the power performance was affected more significantly by the yaw error; therefore, the generator power reduction and variability increased significantly. However, the dynamic response was affected more significantly by the wind-wave misalignment increased; thus, the change in the platform 6-DOF and tower loads (top and base) increased significantly. These results can be facilitate improvements to the power performance and structural integrity of FOWTs during the design process.

• Journal of Wind Energy
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.26-41
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• 2022

Three similarities (i.e., geometrical similarity, kinematic similarity and dynamic similarity) between a prototype and model must be satisfied to perform an experiment for a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT). For dynamic similarity, most of the model tests in ocean engineering basins are performed based on the Froude number, so the scale effect for the wind turbine of an FOWT occurs by different Reynolds numbers between the prototype and model. In this study, various model test techniques for overcoming the scale effect of the wind turbine part of the FOWT are investigated. Firstly, model test techniques using simple approaches are reviewed, and the advantages and disadvantages of the simple approaches are summarized. Secondly, the model test techniques in recent projects that apply improved approaches are introduced including advantages and disadvantages. Finally, new approaches applying digitalization are reviewed, and the characteristics of the new approaches are introduced.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.231-253
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• 2013

The impact of spar-nacelle-blade coupling on edgewise dynamic responses of spar-type floating wind turbines (S-FOWT) is investigated in this paper. Currently, this coupling is not considered explicitly by researchers. First of all, a coupled model of edgewise vibration of the S-FOWT considering the aerodynamic properties of the blade, variable mass and stiffness per unit length, gravity, the interactions among the blades, nacelle, spar and mooring system, the hydrodynamic effects, the restoring moment and the buoyancy force is proposed. The aerodynamic loads are combined of a steady wind (including the wind shear) and turbulence. Each blade is modeled as a cantilever beam vibrating in its fundamental mode. The mooring cables are modeled using an extended quasi-static method. The hydrodynamic effects calculated by using Morison's equation and strip theory consist of added mass, fluid inertia and viscous drag forces. The random sea state is simulated by superimposing a number of linear regular waves. The model shows that the vibration of the blades, nacelle, tower, and spar are coupled in all degrees of freedom and in all inertial, dissipative and elastic components. An uncoupled model of the S-FOWT is then formulated in which the blades and the nacelle are not coupled with the spar vibration. A 5MW S-FOWT is analyzed by using the two proposed models. In the no-wave sea, the coupling is found to contribute to spar responses only. When the wave loading is considered, the coupling is significant for the responses of both the nacelle and the spar.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2016

The global performance of the 5 MW OC4 semisubmersible floating wind turbine in random waves with or without steady/dynamic winds is numerically simulated by using the turbine-floater-mooring fully coupled dynamic analysis program FAST-CHARM3D in time domain. The numerical simulations are based on the complete second-order diffraction/radiation potential formulations along with nonlinear viscous-drag force estimations at the body's instantaneous position. The sensitivity of hull motions and mooring dynamics with varying wave-kinematics extrapolation methods above MWL(mean-water level) and column drag coefficients is investigated. The effects of steady and dynamic winds are also illustrated. When dynamic wind is added to the irregular waves, it additionally introduces low-frequency wind loading and aerodynamic damping. The numerically simulated results for the 5 MW OC4 semisubmersible floating wind turbine by FAST-CHARM3D are also extensively compared with the DeepCWind model-test results by Technip/NREL/UMaine. Those numerical-simulation results have good correlation with experimental results for all the cases considered.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.253-265
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• 2014

The platform and floating structure of spar type offshore wind turbine systems should be designed in order for the 6-DOF motions to be minimized, considering diverse loading environments such as the ocean wave, wind, and current conditions. The objective of this study is to optimally design the platform and substructure of a 3MW spar type wind turbine system with the maximum postural stability in 6-DOF motions as well as the minimum material cost. Therefore, design variables of the platform and substructure were first determined and then optimized by a hydrodynamic analysis. For the hydrodynamic analysis, the body weight of the system was considered, and the ocean wave conditions were quantified to the wave forces using the Morison's equation. Moreover, the minimal number of computation analysis models was generated by the Design of Experiments (DOE), and the design variables of the platform and substructure were finally optimized by using a genetic algorithm with a neural network approximation.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.139-160
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• 2015

The global performance of the 5MW OC4 semisubmersible floating wind turbine in random waves was numerically simulated by using the turbine-floater-mooring fully coupled and time-domain dynamic analysis program FAST-CHARM3D. There have been many papers regarding floating offshore wind turbines but the effects of second-order wave-body interactions on their global performance have rarely been studied. The second-order wave forces are actually small compared to the first-order wave forces, but its effect cannot be ignored when the natural frequencies of a floating system are outside the wave-frequency range. In the case of semi-submersible platform, second-order difference-frequency wave-diffraction forces and moments become important since surge/sway and pitch/roll natural frequencies are lower than those of typical incident waves. The computational effort related to the full second-order diffraction calculation is typically very heavy, so in many cases, the simplified approach called Newman's approximation or first-order-wave-force-only are used. However, it needs to be justified against more complete solutions with full QTF (quadratic transfer function), which is a main subject of the present study. The numerically simulated results for the 5MW OC4 semisubmersible floating wind turbine by FAST-CHARM3D are also extensively compared with the DeepCWind model test results by Technip/NREL/UMaine. The predicted motions and mooring tensions for two white-noise input-wave spectra agree well against the measure values. In this paper, the numerical static-offset and free-decay tests are also conducted to verify the system stiffness, damping, and natural frequencies against the experimental results. They also agree well to verify that the dynamic system modeling is correct to the details. The performance of the simplified approaches instead of using the full QTF are also tested.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.173-193
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• 2023

Reliable prediction of the motion of FOWT (floating offshore wind turbine) and associated mooring line tension is important in both design and operation/monitoring processes. In the present study, a 5MW OC4 semisubmersible wind turbine is numerically modeled, simulated, and analyzed by the open-source numerical tool, OpenFAST and in-house numerical tool, Charm3D-FAST. Another commercial-level program FASTv8-OrcaFlex is also introduced for comparison for selected cases. The three simulation programs solve the same turbine-floater-mooring coupled dynamics in time domain while there exist minor differences in the details of the program. Both the motions and mooring-line tensions are calculated and compared with the DeepCWind 1/50 scale model-testing results. The system identification between the numerical and physical models is checked through the static-offset test and free-decay test. Then the system motions and mooring tensions are systematically compared among the simulated results and measured values. Reasonably good agreements between the simulation and measurement are demonstrated for (i) white-noise random waves, (ii) typical random waves, and (iii) typical random waves with steady wind. Based on the comparison between numerical results and experimental data, the relative importance and role of the differences in the numerical methodologies of those three programs can be observed and interpreted. These comparative-study results may provide a certain confidence level and some insight of potential variability in motion and tension predictions for future FOWT designs and applications.