• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.21-42
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• 2019

In this paper, the Finite-Analytic Navier-Stokes (FANS) code is coupled with an in-house finite-element code to study the dynamic interaction between a floating buoy and its mooring system. Hydrodynamic loads on the buoy are predicted with the FANS module, in which Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is used as the turbulence model. The mooring lines are modeled based on a slender body theory. Their dynamic responses are simulated with a nonlinear finite element module, MOORING3D. The two modules are coupled by transferring the forces and displacements of the buoy and its mooring system at their connections through an interface module. A free-decay model test was used to calibrate the coupled method. In addition, to investigate the capability of the present coupled method, numerical simulations of two degree-of-freedom vortex-induced motion of a CALM buoy in uniform currents were performed. With the study it can be verified that accurate predictions of the motion responses and tension responses of the CALM buoy system can be made with the coupling CFD-FEM method.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.5 s.66
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• pp.1-15
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• 2005

The motion behaviors including hydrodynamic interaction and mechanical coupling effects on multiple-body floating platforms are simulated by using a time domain hull/mooring/riser coupled dynamics analysis program. The objective of this study is to evaluate off-diagonal hydrodynamic interaction effects and mechanical coupling effects on tandem moored FPSO and shuttle taker motions. In the multiple-body floating platforms interaction, hydrodynamic coupling effects with waves and mechanical coupling effects through the connectors should be considered. Thus, in this study, the multiple-body platform motions are calculated by Combined Matrix Method (CMM) as well as Separated Matrix Method (SMM). The advantage of the combined matrix method is that it can include all the 6Nx6N full hydrodynamic and mechanical interaction effects among N bodies. Whereas, due to the larger matrix size, the calculation time of Combined Matrix Method (CMM) is longer than the Separated Matrix Method (SMM). On the other hand, Separated Matrix Method (SMM) cannot include the off-diagonal 6x6 hydrodynamic interaction coefficients although it can fully include mechanical interactions among N bodies. To evaluate hydrodynamic interaction and mechanical coupling effects, tandem moored FPSO and shuttle tanker is simulated by Combined Matrix Method (CMM) and Separated Matrix Method (SMM). The calculation results give a good agreement between Combined Matrix Method (CMM) and Separated Matrix Method (SMM). The results show that the Separated Matrix Method (SMM) is more efficient for tandem moored FPSO and shuttle tanker. In the numerical calculation, the hydrodynamic coefficients are calculated from a 3D diffraction/radiation panel program WAMIT, and wind and current forces are generated by using the respective coefficients given in the OCIMF data sheet.

• Coupled systems mechanics
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.247-268
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• 2012

A finite element model is developed for dynamic response prediction of floating offshore wind turbine systems considering coupling of wind turbine, floater and mooring system. The model employs Morison's equation with Srinivasan's model for hydrodynamic force and a non-hydrostatic model for restoring force. It is observed that for estimation of restoring force of a small floater, simple hydrostatic model underestimates the heave response after the resonance peak, while non-hydrostatic model shows good agreement with experiment. The developed model is used to discuss influence of heave plates and modeling of mooring system on floater response. Heave plates are found to influence heave response by shifting the resonance peak to longer period, while response after resonance is unaffected. The applicability of simplified linear modeling of mooring system is investigated using nonlinear model for Catenary and Tension Legged mooring. The linear model is found to provide good agreement with nonlinear model for Tension Leg mooring while it overestimates the surge response for Catenary mooring system. Floater response characteristics under different wave directions for the two types of mooring system are similar in all six modes but heave, pitch and roll amplitudes is negligible in tension leg due to high restraint. The reduced amplitude shall lead to reduction in wind turbine loads.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.95-111
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• 2011

Increasing numbers of floating offshore wind turbines are planned and designed these days due to their high potential in massive generation of clean energy from water depth deeper than 50 m. In the present study, a numerical prediction tool has been developed for the fully-coupled dynamic analysis of FOWTs in time domain including aero-blade-tower dynamics and control, mooring dynamics, and platform motions. In particular, the focus of the present study is paid to the dynamic coupling between the rotor and floater and the coupled case is compared against the uncoupled case so that their dynamic coupling effects can be identified. For this purpose, a mono-column mini TLP with 1.5MW turbine for 80m water depth is selected as an example. The time histories and spectra of the FOWT motions and accelerations as well as tether top-tensions are presented for the given collinear wind-wave condition. When compared with the uncoupled analysis, both standard deviations and maximum values of the floater-responses/tower-accelerations and tether tensions are appreciably increased as a result of the rotor-floater dynamic coupling, which may influence the overall design including fatigue-life estimation especially when larger blades are to be used.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.19 no.5 s.66
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• pp.16-25
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• 2005

The effect of vertical riser support system on the dynamic behaviour of a classical spar platform is investigated. Spar platform generally uses buoyancy-can riser support system, but as water depth gets deeper the alternative riser support system is required due to safety and cost issues. The alternative riser support system is to hang risers off the spar platform using pneumatic cylinders rather than the buoyancy-can. The existing numerical model for hull/mooring/riser coupled dynamics analysis treats riser as an elastic rod truncated at the keel (truncated riser model), thus, in this model, the effect of riser support system can not be modeled correctly. Due to this reason, the truncated riser model tends to overestimate the spar pitch and heave motion. To evaluate more realistic global spar motion, mechanical coupling among risers, guide frames and support cylinders inside of spar moon-pool should be modeled. In the newly developed model, the risers are extended through the moon-pool by using nonlinear finite element methods with realistic boundary condition at multiple guide frames. In the simulation, the vertical tension from pneumatic cylinders is modeled by using ideal-gas equation and the vertical tension from buoyancy-cans is modeled as constant top tension. The different dynamic characteristics between buoyancy-can riser support system and pneumatic riser support system are extensively studied. The alternative riser support system tends to increase spar heave motion and needs damper system to reduce the spar heave motion.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.61 no.6
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• pp.785-794
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• 2017

This paper is concerned with the comparative numerical and experimental study on the natural behavior and the motion responses of a 1/75 moored scale model of a 2.5 MW spar-type floating offshore wind turbine subject to 1-D regular wave. Heave, pitch and surge motions and the mooring tensions are investigated and compared by numerical and experimental methods. The upper part of wind turbine which is composed of three rotor blades, hub and nacelle is modeled as a lumped mass and three mooring lines are pre-tensioned by means of linear springs. The numerical simulations are carried out by a coupled FEM-cable dynamics code, while the experiments are performed in a wave tank equipped with the specially-designed vision and data acquisition system. Using the both methods, the natural behavior and the motion responses in RAOs are compared and parametrically investigated to the fairlead position, the spring constant and the location of mass center of platform. It is confirmed, from the comparison, that both methods show a good agreement for all the test cases. And, it is observed that the mooring tension is influenced by all three parameters but the platform motion is dominated by the location of mass center. In addition, from the sensitivity analysis of RAOs, the coupling characteristic of platform motions and the sensitivities to the mooring parameters are investigated.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.313-330
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• 2021

In this study, the dynamic interaction between an Arctic Spar and drifting level ice is examined in time domain using the newly developed ice-hull-mooring coupled dynamics program. The in-house program, CHARM3D, which is the hull-riser-mooring coupled dynamic simulator is extended by coupling with the open-source discrete element method (DEM) simulator, LIGGGHTS. In the LIGGGHTS module, the parallel-bonding method is implemented to model the level ice using an assembly of multiple bonded spherical particles. As a case study, a spread-moored Artic Spar platform, whose hull surface near waterline is the inverted conical shape, is chosen. To determine the breaking-related DEM parameter (the critical bonding strength), the four-point numerical bending test is used. A series of numerical simulations is systematically performed under the various ice conditions including ice drift velocity, flexural strength, and thickness. Then, the effects of these parameters on the ice force, platform motions, and mooring tensions are discussed. The simulations reveal various features of dynamic interactions between the drifting ice and moored platform for various ice conditions including the novel synchronous resonance at low ice speed. The newly developed simulator is promising and can repeatedly be used for the future design and analysis including ice-floater-mooring coupled dynamics.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.441-459
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• 2018

A coupled dynamic analysis of a semisubmersible-type FOWT has been carried out in time domain under the combined action of irregular wave and turbulent wind represented respectively by JONSWAP spectrum and Kaimal spectrum. To account for the turbine-floater motion coupling in a more realistic way, the wind turbulence has been incorporated into the calculation of aerodynamic loads. The platform model was referred from the DeepCwind project and the turbine considered here was the NREL 5MW Baseline. To account for the operationality of the turbine, two different environmental conditions (operational and survival) have been considered and the aerodynamic effect of turbine-rotation on actual responses of the FOWT has been studied. Higher mean offsets in surge and pitch responses were obtained under the operational condition as compared to the survival condition. The mooring line tensions were also observed to be sensitive to the rotation of turbine due to the turbulence of wind and overestimated responses were found when the constant wind was considered in the analysis. Additionally, a special analysis case of sudden shutdown of the turbine has also been considered to study the swift modification of responses and tension in the mooring cables.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.84-90
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• 2016

In this study, a six degree-of-freedom motion analysis of a wind-wave hybrid platform equipped with numerous wave energy converters (WECs) was carried out. To examine the effect of the WECs on the platform, an analysis of one-way coupling was carried out, which only considered the power take-off (PTO) damping of the static WECs on the platform. The equation of motion of a floating platform with mooring lines in the time domain was established, and the responses of the one-way coupled platform were then compared with the case of a platform without any coupling effects from the WECs. The hydrodynamic coefficients and wave exciting forces were obtained from the 3D diffraction/radiation pre-processor code WAMIT based on the boundary element method. Then, an analysis of the dynamic responses of the floating platform with or without the WEC effect in the time domain was carried out. All of the dynamics of a floating platform with multiple wind turbines were obtained by coupling FAST and CHARM3D in the time domain, which was further extended to include additional coupled dynamics for multiple turbines. The analysis showed that the PTO damping effect on platform motions was negligible, but coupled effects between multiple WECs and the platform may differentiate the heave, roll, and pitch platform motions from the one without any effects induced by WECs.

• 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.