• Wind and Structures
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.461-471
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• 2023

The main objective of this study was to establish design guidelines for three key design variables (spar thickness, spar diameter, and total draft) by examining their impact on the stress distribution and resonant frequency of a 2.5-MW spar-type floating offshore wind turbine substructure under extreme marine conditions, such as during Typhoon Bolaven. The current findings revealed that the substructure experienced maximum stress at wave frequencies of either 0.199 Hz or 0.294 Hz, consistent with previously reported experimental findings. These results indicated that the novel simulation method proposed in this study, which simultaneously combines hydrodynamic diffraction analysis, computational dynamics analysis, and structural analysis, was successfully validated. It also demonstrated that our proposed simulation method precisely quantified the stress distribution of the substructure. The novel findings, which reveal that the maximum stress of the substructure increases with an increase in total draft and a decrease in spar thickness and spar diameter, offer valuable insights for optimizing the design of spar-type floating offshore wind turbine substructures operating in various harsh marine environments.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.267-279
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• 2014

Hydrodynamic analyses of classic and truss spar platforms for floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) were performed in the frequency domain, by considering coupling effects of the structure and its mooring system. Based on the Morison equation and Diffraction theory, different wave loads over various frequency ranges and underlying hydrodynamic equations were calculated. Then, Response Amplitude Operators (RAOs) of 6 DOF motions were obtained through the coupled hydrodynamic frequency domain analysis of classic and truss spar-type FOWTs. Truss spar platform had better heave motion performance and less weight than classic spar, while the hydrostatic stability did not show much difference between the two spar platforms.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2013.05a
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• pp.1063-1064
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• 2013

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.683-705
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• 2016

A semi-active algorithm for edgewise vibration control of the spar-type floating offshore wind turbine (SFOWT) blades, nacelle and spar platform is developed in this paper. A tuned mass damper (TMD) is placed in each blade, in the nacelle and on the spar to control the vibrations for these components. A Short Time Fourier Transform algorithm is used for semi-active control of the TMDs. The mathematical formulation of the integrated SFOWT-TMDs system is derived by using Euler-Lagrangian equations. The theoretical model derived is a time-varying system considering the aerodynamic properties of the blade, variable mass and stiffness per unit length, gravity, the interactions among the blades, nacelle, spar, mooring system and the TMDs, the hydrodynamic effects, the restoring moment and the buoyancy force. The aerodynamic loads on the nacelle and the spar due to their coupling with the blades are also considered. The effectiveness of the semi-active TMDs is investigated in the numerical examples where the mooring cable tension, rotor speed and the blade stiffness are varying over time. Except for excessively large strokes of the nacelle TMD, the semi-active algorithm is considerably more effective than the passive one in all cases and its effectiveness is restricted by the low-frequency nature of the nacelle and the spar responses.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.37-46
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• 2017

This paper is concerned with the numerical study on the resonance response of a rigid spar-type floating platform in coupled heave and pitch motion. Spar-type floating platforms, widely used for supporting the offshore structures, offer an economic advantage but those exhibit the dynamically high sensitivity to external excitations due to their shape at the same time. Hence, the investigation of their dynamic responses, particularly at resonance, is prerequisite for the design of spar-type floating platforms which secure the dynamic stability. Spar-type floating platform in 2-D surface wave is assumed to be a rigid body having 2-DOFs, and its coupled dynamic equations are analytically derived using the geometric and kinematic relations. The motion-variance of the metacentric height and the moment of inertia of floating platform are taken into consideration, and the hydrodynamic interaction between the wave and platform motions is reflected into the hydrodynamic force and moment and the frequency-dependent added masses. The coupled nonlinear equations governing the heave and pitch motions are solved by the RK4 method, and the frequency responses are obtained by the digital Fourier transform. Through the numerical experiments to the wave frequency, the resonance responses and the coupling in resonance between heave and pitch motions are investigated in time and frequency domains.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.42 no.2 s.140
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• pp.124-128
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• 2005

This paper describes motion stability of a spar platform with and without a damping plate in regular waves. The heave and pitch motion equation is derived in terms of Mathieu equation and the stability diagram is obtained. It is shown that the spar platform with damping plate has smaller unstable region than that without damping plate in the stability diagram. Model tests are carried out to verify the mathematical analysis. Under the condition that the pitch natural period is approximately double the heave natural period and the heave motion is amplified at heave resonance, unstable pitch motions are evoked. However the unstable motion is stabilized in cases of spar platform with damping plate. Therefore the damping plate is an effective device to stabilize the motion of spar platform.

• 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.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.333-350
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• 2017

Differing from the fixed-type, the dynamic motion of floating-type offshore wind turbines is very sensitive to wind and wave excitations. Thus, the sensing and monitoring of its motion is important to evaluate the dynamic responses to the external excitation. In this context, a monitoring system for sensing and processing the wind-induced dynamic motion of spar-type floating offshore wind turbine is developed in this study. It is developed by integrating a 1/00 scale model of 2.5MW spar-type floating offshore wind turbine, water basin equipped with the wind generator, sensing and data acquisition systems, real-time CompactRIO controller and monitoring program. The scale model with the upper rotatable blades is installed within the basin by means of three mooring lines, and its translational and rotational motions are detected by 3-axis inclinometer and accelerometers and gyroscope. The detected motion signals are processed using a real-time controller CompactRIO to calculate the acceleration and tilting angle of nacelle and the attitude of floating platform. The developed monitoring system is demonstrated and validated by measuring and evaluating the time histories and trajectories of nacelle and platform motions for three different wind velocities and for eight different fairlead positions.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.331-343
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• 2013

The natural sloshing frequencies of annular cylindrical TLD are parametrically investigated by experiment, aiming at the exploration of its successful use for suppressing the structural vibration of spar-type floating wind turbine subject to multidirectional wind, wave and current excitations. Five prototypes of annular cylindrical TLD are defined according to the inner and outer radii of acryl container, and eight different liquid fill heights are experimented for each TLD prototype. The apparent masses near the first and second natural sloshing frequencies are parametrically investigated by measuring the apparent mass of interior liquid sloshing to the acceleration excitation. It is observed from the parametric experiments that the first natural sloshing frequency shows the remarkable change with respect to the liquid fill height for each TLD model with different container dimensions. On the other hand, the second natural sloshing frequency is not sensitive to the liquid fill height but to the gap size, for all the TLD models, convincing that the annular cylindrical sloshing damper can effectively suppress the wave- and wind-induced tilting motion of the spar-type floating wind turbine.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.559-579
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• 2015

An experimental study of the effect of mooring systems on the dynamics of a SPAR buoy-type floating offshore wind turbine is presented. The effects of the Center of Gravity (COG), mooring line spring constant, and fairlead location on the turbine's motion in response to regular waves are investigated. Experimental results show that for a typical mooring system of a SPAR buoy-type Floating Offshore Wind Turbine (FOWT), the effect of mooring systems on the dynamics of the turbine can be considered negligible. However, the pitch decreases notably as the COG increases. The COG and spring constant of the mooring line have a negligible effect on the fairlead displacement. Numerical simulation and sensitivity analysis show that the wind turbine motion and its sensitivity to changes in the mooring system and COG are very large near resonant frequencies. The test results can be used to validate numerical simulation tools for FOWTs.