Design,modelling, and analysis of a large floating dock for spar floating wind turbine installation

Installation of floating wind turbines at the offshore site is a challenging task. A significant part of the time efficiency and costs are related to the installation methods which are sensitive to weather conditions. This study investigates a large floating dock concept, which can be used to shield a floating wind turbine during installation of tower, nacelle, and rotor onto a spar foundation. In this paper, the concept is described in detail, and a design optimisation is carried out using simple design constraints. Hydrodynamic analysis and dynamic response analysis of the coupled system of the optimum dock and spar are conducted. Two spars of different sizes are considered, and the motion responses of the spars with and without the dock in irregular waves are compared. Through analysis of the motion spectra and response statistics, dynamic characteristics of the coupled system is revealed. The present design of the dock reduces the platform-pitch responses of the spars and potentially facilitates blade mating, but may deteriorate the heave velocity of the spars in swell conditions. Finally, future design aspects of the floating dock are discussed.     

Dynamic responses analysis of a 5 MW spar-type floating wind turbine under accidental ship-impact scenario

Ship impact against offshore floating wind turbine (OFWT) has been identified as one of the major hazards with the development of OFWTs. The dynamic responses of OFWTs under ship impact should be taken into consideration during the design phase. This paper addresses a study on the dynamic responses of an OFWT in ship collision scenarios. Firstly, a mathematical model for external mechanism of ship-OFWT collision scenario is developed. Secondly, this model is combined with an in-house programme, DARwind, which can be used to predict nonlinear dynamic responses of whole OFWT system in time-domain. With the newly combined analysis tool, simulation cases for different scenarios are conducted to investigate the nonlinear dynamic responses of OFWT system, including the cases of still water condition, wave-only condition and wind-wave condition. It is shown that in still water condition, the ship impact will more obviously change the responses of motions and mooring system, compared with those in wave and wave-wind conditions. In the wave-only condition, these motions responses of platform are suppressed by wave effect, but the tower vibration and tower top deformation are sensitive to ship collision. For the wave-wind combined condition, the motions increment in surge and pitch due to ship collision becomes smaller than that of wave-only condition, but yaw motion has a considerable variation compared with those of the other two conditions. Additionally, the blade tip deformation increment due to ship collision are analyzed and it is found that the edgewise tip deformation got more obvious increment than that of flapwise. To further asses the safety of OFWT, the acceleration at nacelle are analyzed because some equipment might be sensitive to acceleration. The analysis results indicate that even though the OFWT structure doesn't get critical damage by ship impact, the equipment inside may still fail to work due to the high value of acceleration induced by ship impact. The research outcomes can benefit the safety design of OFWT in the engineering practice.     

Active heave compensation of floating wind turbine installation using a catamaran construction vessel

The application of floating wind turbines is limited by the high cost that increases with the water depth. Offshore installation and maintenance continue to consume a high percentage of the project budget. To improve the installation efficiency of the floating offshore wind turbine, a novel concept is proposed by the SFI MOVE project. Several wind turbine superstructure components are preassembled onshore and carried to the installation site by a catamaran construction vessel. Each assembly can then be installed using only one lift, and the concept is less sensitive to weather conditions. In this paper, a control algorithm of the proposed hydraulic active heave compensator system is developed using singular perturbation theory to cancel the relative motion between the spar top and gripped preassembly bottom. Closed-loop stability is proven, and the simulation results show that the installation efficiency is improved with an increase in the acceptable weather conditions.     

Study on a new method for installing a monopile and a fully integrated offshore wind turbine structure

This paper presents a preliminary technical feasibility study on a new methodology proposed for installing a monopile-based bottom supported offshore wind turbine structure. The concept is developed to address the problem of “waiting for a suitable weather window” which is commonly faced by the existing installation methods that uses a typical jack-up platform. In the methodology, a floating vessel along with a floatable subsea structure fitted with a hull on the top, hereafter named SSIP (subsea structure for installing a pile), is proposed first to install a monopile. Then the same structure is used to carry an FIUS (fully integrated upper structure) of an offshore wind turbine, which is characterized by a telescopic tower, and install it over the monopile by using an FOP (float-over-pulling) arrangement. Here, the installation methodologies are first briefly described along with the critical load cases associated with them. These load cases are then numerically studied for a significant wave height (H_S) of 2.5 m, and the results are summarized. For installing a fully integrated offshore wind turbine upper structure on a monopile foundation by the FOP method, two installation schemes are presented, and their dynamic characteristics are compared. It is shown that the proposed methodologies have potential to provide installation solutions which can be environmentally more robust compared to the existing method for installing an offshore wind turbine.     

Validation and application of nonlinear hydrodynamics from CFD in an engineering model of a semi-submersible floating wind turbine

Nonlinear hydrodynamics play a significant role in accurate prediction of the dynamic responses of floating wind turbines (FWTs), especially near the resonance frequencies. This study investigates the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to improve an engineering model (based on potential flow theory with Morison-type drag) by modifying the second-order difference-frequency quadratic transfer functions (QTFs) and frequency-dependent added mass and damping for a semi-submersible FWT. The results from the original and modified engineering models are compared to experimental data from decay tests and irregular wave tests. In general, the CFD results based on forced oscillation tests suggest increasing the frequency-depending added mass and damping at low frequencies compared to first order potential flow theory. The modified engineering model predicts natural periods close to the experimental results in decay tests (within 5%), and the underprediction of the damping is reduced compared to the original engineering model. The motions, mooring line tensions and tower-base loads in the low-frequency response to an irregular wave are underestimated using the original engineering model. The additional linear damping increases this underestimation, while the modified QTFs based on CFD simulations of a fixed floater in bichromatic waves result in larger difference-frequency wave loads. The combined modifications give improved agreement with experimental data in terms of damage equivalent loads for the mooring lines and tower base.     

浅吃水单柱式浮式风机动力学特性仿真研究

本文采用FAST软件对一种浅吃水单柱式浮式风机系统的动力学特性进行了研究.这一浮式风机适用于能源成本相对合理、水深为150 m的海域.本文首先讨论了这一浮式风机系统和OC3-Hywind系统在动力学特性方面的差异,然后研究了风尤其是湍流风对系统动力学特性的影响,最后对这一系统在多种载荷状况下的动力学行为进行了详尽的分析.研究结果表明:湍流风会在系统固有频率附近引起显著的激励;纵荡和纵摇运动取决于风轮推力,它们通过风轮推力和相对风速之间的联系建立起耦合关系;Spar平台的艏摇运动主要取决于平台横摇时由风轮推力引起的艏摇力矩.     

单柱式浮式风力机动力响应数值与试验分析

以200 m作业水深的5 MW OC3单柱式浮式风力机为研究对象,采用FAST程序对其在不同海况下的运动进行全耦合时历数值计算,并与采用1∶50缩尺比模型试验所得时历结果进行对比,通过时域以及频域方法对平台主要自由度运动以及系泊拉力进行分析。研究发现:垂向运动带来的自由面记忆效应较纵向和横向小;悬链线式模型所能提供的系泊拉力较张紧式系泊提供的拉力小;风浪联合作用下,风载荷主要激励低频固有频率运动,波浪载荷则主要激励波频运动;平台纵荡和纵摇运动受系泊系统的影响较大,而垂荡运动则不受系泊系统的影响。     

Fluid-structure interaction and stress analysis of a floating wind turbine

In this paper, we describe a method to investigate the fluid-structure interaction of a floating wind turbine and to analyze the global deformations and the corresponding stresses with a detailed finite element model. To solve the fluid-structure interaction problem, a partitioned approach is chosen. The in-house C++ library comana, which was developed to solve multi-physic problems by coupling existing solvers, is extended to couple the fluid solver panMARE and the structural solver ANSYS. The significance of the interaction of structural deformations and the fluid loads is pointed out for the rotor of the wind turbine. In order to enable the use of a detailed finite element model in the fluid-structure interaction simulation, a model reduction method is applied in ANSYS. As a result, an efficient stress analysis can be performed under consideration of the fluid-structure interaction.     

浮式海上风力机运动性能和锚泊系统(英文)

The development of offshore wind farms was originally carried out in shallow water areas with fixed(seabed mounted) structures.However,countries with limited shallow water areas require innovative floating platforms to deploy wind turbines offshore in order to harness wind energy to generate electricity in deep seas.The performances of motion and mooring system dynamics are vital to designing a cost effective and durable floating platform.This paper describes a numerical model to simulate dynamic behavior of a new semi-submersible type floating offshore wind turbine(FOWT) system.The wind turbine was modeled as a wind block with a certain thrust coefficient,and the hydrodynamics and mooring system dynamics of the platform were calculated by SESAM software.The effect of change in environmental conditions on the dynamic response of the system under wave and wind loading was examined.The results indicate that the semi-submersible concept has excellent performance and SESAM could be an effective tool for floating wind turbine design and analysis.     

Model test investigation of a spar floating wind turbine

Several floating wind turbine designs whose hull designs reflect those used in offshore petroleum industry have emerged as leading candidates for the future development of offshore wind farms. This article presents the research findings from a model basin test program that investigated the dynamic response of a 1:50 scale model OC3 spar floating wind turbine concept designed for a water depth of 200 m. In this study the rotor was allowed to rotate freely with the wind speed and this approach eliminated some of the undesirable effects of controlling wind turbine rotational speed that were observed in earlier studies. The quality of the wind field developed by an array of fans was investigated as to its uniformity and turbulence intensity. Additional calibration tests were performed to characterize various components that included establishing the baseline wind turbine tower frequencies, stiffness of the delta type mooring system and free decay response behaviour. The assembled system was then studied under a sequence of wind and irregular wave scenarios to reveal the nature of the coupled response behaviour. The wind loads were found to have an obvious influence on the surge, heave and pitch behaviour of the spar wind turbine system. It was observed from the experimental measurements that bending moment at the top of the support tower is dominated by the 1P oscillation component and somewhat influenced by the incoming wave. Further it was determined that the axial rotor thrust and tower-top shear force have similar dynamic characteristics both dominated by tower’s first mode of vibration under wind-only condition while dominated by the incident wave field when experiencing wind-wave loading. The tensions measured in the mooring lines resulting from either wave or wind-wave excitations were influenced by the surge/pitch and heave couplings and the wind loads were found to have a clear influence on the dynamic responses of the mooring system.     

Experimental study of the state-of-the-art offshore system integrating a floating offshore wind turbine with a steel fish farming cage

An innovative offshore system integrating a floating offshore wind turbine with a steel fish farming cage (FOWT-SFFC) has recently been developed by the two leading authors for offshore wind and aquaculture industry. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic responses of FOWT-SFFC subjected to simultaneous wind and wave actions in the harsh South China Sea environment by a series of model tests. The tests are conducted at the Tsinghua Ocean Engineering Basin with Froude scale of 1:30. In this paper, the similarity law and setup of model tests are given first. Then a series of calibration tests and identification tests are carried out to validate the capacity of wind generator and wave maker, and to identify the vibration frequencies of tower, the stiffness of mooring system, natural periods and system damping, motion response amplitude operators (RAOs) of FOWT-SFFC, and thrust-speed performance of the turbine in wave basin. After that, seakeeping tests are implemented for random waves, followed by a sequence of load cases including normal operating and extreme conditions. Constant wind speeds and random wind speeds are respectively considered in load combinations. The experimental results affirm the excellent seakeeping and dynamic performance of FOWT-SFFC. Existence of metal fish nets increases the damping of foundation's 6 degree-of-freedoms motions. Generally, the influence of nets on the dynamic responses is insignificant in wind sea states.     

Static and dynamic loading behavior of a hybrid foundation for offshore wind turbines

Considering the deficiencies of the traditional monopile foundation for offshore wind turbines (OWTs) in severe marine environments, an innovative hybrid foundation is developed in the present study. The hybrid foundation consists of a traditional monopile and a wide–shallow bucket. A series of numerical analyses are conducted to investigate its behavior under the static and dynamic loading, considering various loading eccentricities. A traditional monopile with the same steel volume is used as a benchmark. Although the monopile outperforms the hybrid foundation in terms of the ultimate moment capacity under each loading eccentricity, the latter can achieve superior or the same performance with nearly half of the pile length in the design loading range. Moreover, the horizontal load and moment are mainly resisted by the bucket and the single pile in the hybrid foundation respectively. The failure mechanism of both the hybrid foundation and the monopile is excessive rotation. In the rotation angle of 0.05 rad, the rotation center is located at the depth of approximately 0.6–0.75 times and 0.65–0.75 times the pile length for the hybrid foundation and the monopile respectively. The increasing loading eccentricities can lead to increasing moment bearing capacity, increasing initial stiffness and upward movement of the rotation center of the two foundations, while decreasing load sharing ratio of the single pile in the hybrid foundation. Three scenarios are considered in investigating the dynamic loading behavior of the hybrid foundation. Dynamic response results reveal that addition of the bucket to the foundation can restrain the rotation and lateral displacement effectively. The superiority of the hybrid foundation is more obvious under the combined wave and current loading.     

Monitoring blade loads for a floating wind turbine in wave basin model tests using Fiber Bragg Grating sensors: A feasibility study

The blade loading contains sufficient information about the unsteady aerodynamics of Floating Wind Turbines (FWTs), and it serves as the basis for advanced controller developments. Wave basin model test is among the most reliable and economical methods for FWT investigations. However, few FWTs were reported being able to monitor the blade loads during wave basin tests. The main obstacles include strict space/mass limitations in model manufacturing and problems associated with signal transmission between rotating blades and stationary signal processing unit. In this paper, the feasibility of detecting blade loads for model FWT in wave basin tests is investigated. An on-line monitoring system is developed based on Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors and a Fiber Optical Rotary Joint (FORJ). Extensive validation tests are conducted under different environmental and operational conditions. Results show that the proposed FBG-FORJ sensing system presents impressive feasibility and reliability. As the authors know, it is among the first attempts to monitor the blade loads in real-time for model FWTs in wave basin tests. The present study will serve to enrich the knowledge about unsteady aerodynamics of FWTs and lay the foundation for experimental studies on advanced FWT controllers.     

Methodology for global structural load effect analysis of the semi-submersible hull of floating wind turbines under still water,wind, and wave loads

In designing the support structures of floating wind turbines (FWTs), a key challenge is to determine the load effects (at the cross-sectional load and stress level). This is because FWTs are subjected to complex global, local, static, and dynamic loads in stochastic environmental conditions. Up to now, most of the studies of FWTs have focused on the dynamic motion characteristics of FWTs, while minimal research has touched upon the internal load effects of the support structure. However, a good understanding of the structural load effects is essential since it is the basis for achieving a good design. Motivated by the situation, this study deals with the global load effect analysis for FWT support structures. A semi-submersible hull of a 10-MW FWT is used in the case study. A novel analysis method is employed to obtain the time-domain internal load effects of the floater, which account for the static and dynamic global loads under the still water, wind, and wave loads and associated motions. The investigation of the internal stresses resulting from various global loads under operational and parked conditions and the dynamic behavior of the structural load effects in various environmental conditions are made. The dominating load components for structural responses of the semi-submersible floater and the significant dynamic characteristics under different wind and wave conditions are identified. The dynamic load effects of the floating support structure are investigated by considering the influence of the second-order wave loads, viscous drag loads induced global motions, and wind and wave misalignments. The main results are discussed, and the main findings are summarized. The insights gained provide a basis for improving the design and analysis of FWT support structures.     

Experimental study on dynamic response of a floating offshore wind turbine under various freak wave profiles

This study performed experimental investigation on the dynamic response of an in-place floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) under freak wave actions. Based on the method of wave profile modulation, various freak wave profiles embedded in unidirectional Gaussian seas were generated in wave basin and the action of these waves on the FOWT was measured and analyzed, which has not been done before. The motions of FOWT were analyzed in time domain as well as time-frequency domain. The effect of freak wave parameters on FOWT motions was addressed, i.e., freak wave height, freak wave period, large crest, and deep trough. The dynamic response of FOWT was observed as a spike at the occurrence of freak wave in a conventional random wave, where the impact of freak wave can last for 17 spectral peak periods of wave. Data analysis shows that the motions of FOWT increased linearly with the freak wave height. In addition, the occurrence of freak wave induced the coupled effect on surge and pith, which was strengthen with the increase of freak wave height and wave period. Compared to a large crest, a deep trough of freak wave led to stronger motions and was supposed to be a key concern on the safety of the FOWT. The novel findings in this study provided a reference for the design of survival load on a FOWT and benchmarks for validating numerical models.     

新型半潜式风力发电安装平台概念设计与整体强度分析

在确定总布置方案和主尺度的基础上,针对新型半潜式风车安装平台进行强度验证和结构优化。采用Sesam软件建立平台结构整体模型和水动力模型,基于设计波法对平台自存、操作、航行工况下的整体强度、节点、杆件和局部进行规范校核。充分考虑运输安装一体化的作业形式,给出风机整体运输和吊装方案,完成平台的基础设计工作。研究表明:新型半潜式平台的整体应力分布、杆件和节点利用率、关键区域局部强度基本满足规范要求;一体化运输安装方式充分考虑了经济性和安全性要求,提高了海上风电安装的作业效率。     

Dynamic analysis of a dual-spar floating offshore wind farm with shared moorings in extreme environmental conditions

The concept of a shared mooring system was proposed to reduce mooring and anchoring costs. Shared moorings also add complexity to the floating offshore wind farm system and pose design challenges. To understand the system dynamics, this paper presents a dynamic analysis for a dual-spar floating offshore wind farm with a shared mooring system in extreme environmental conditions. First, a numerical model of the floating offshore wind farm was established in a commercial simulation tool. Then, time-domain simulations were performed for the parked wind farm under extreme wind and wave conditions. A sensitivity study was carried out to investigate the influence of loading directions and shared line mooring properties. To highlight the influence of the shared line, the results were compared to those of a single spar floating wind turbine, and larger platform motions and higher tension loads in single lines are observed for the wind farm with shared moorings. The loading direction affects the platform motions and mooring response of the floating offshore wind farm. Comparing the investigated loading directions to the 0-deg loading direction, the variation of mean mooring tension at the fairlead is up to 84% for single lines and 16% for the shared line. The influence of the shared line properties in the platform motions and the structural responses is limited. These findings improve understanding of the dynamic characteristics of floating offshore wind farms with a shared mooring system.     

Design and model test of a soft-connected lattice-structured floating solar photovoltaic concept for harsh offshore conditions

Various types of floating solar photovoltaic (FPV) devices have been previously proposed, designed and constructed with applications primarily limited to onshore water bodies or near-shore regions with benign environmental conditions. This paper proposes a novel FPV concept which can survive harsh environmental conditions with extreme wave heights above 10 m. This concept uses standardised lightweight semi-submersible floats made of circular materials as individual modules. The floating modules are soft connected with ropes to form an FPV array. We first present the conceptual design of the floats and the connection systems, including hydrostatic, hydrodynamic, and structural assessments of the floats. To verify the motion response performance, we carried out 1:60 scaled model tests for a 2 by 3 array under regular and irregular wave conditions. From the time series and response spectra, the motion characteristics of the array and the mooring responses are analysed in detail. The proposed concept exhibits excellent performances in terms of modular motions with limited wave overtopping and no contact is observed between adjacent modules under the extreme wave conditions. The findings of this study can serve as a valuable reference to developing reliable and cost-effective FPV technologies for offshore conditions.