A computational simulation of the motion of floating wind turbine platforms

The dynamic motion of floating wind turbines is studied using numerical simulations. The full Navier-Stokes equations are solved on a regular structured grid, using a level set method for the free surface and an immersed boundary method to model the turbine platform. The response of a tension leg platform to moderate amplitude waves is examined and the effect of a key design parameter is quantified in this initial study. It is shown that the pitch and surge motion amplitudes are larger than heave motions, and that increased ballast weight helps to stabilize the platform motions and reduce tether tensions.

[1]  Paul D. Sclavounos,et al.  Floating Offshore Wind Turbines , 2008 .

[2]  W. E. Heronemus.  Power from the offshore winds , 1972 .

[3]  Hin Chiu.  Offshore Production Systems For Ultra-Deep Water In the Gulf of Mexico Part II: Vessel Systems , 1992 .

[4]  Madjid Karimirad.  Dynamic Response of Floating Wind Turbine: Journal of ScientiaIranica, Sharif University of Technology, April 2010, Transaction B: Mechanical Engineering, Vol. 17. , 2010 .

[5]  Su-xia Zhang,et al.  Development of study on the dynamic characteristics of deep water mooring system , 2007 .

[6]  Izumi Ushiyama,et al.  A Feasibility Study for Floating Offshore Windfarms in Japanese Waters , 2004 .

[7]  Jason Jonkman,et al.  Aeroelastic Instabilities of Large Offshore and Onshore Wind Turbines , 2007 .

[8]  Jason Jonkman,et al.  Engineering Challenges for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines , 2007 .

[9]  C. Soares,et al.  Numerical and experimental study of large amplitude motions of two-dimensional bodies in waves , 1997 .

[10]  Sandy Butterfield,et al.  Feasibility of Floating Platform Systems for Wind Turbines: Preprint , 2004 .

[11]  Jason Jonkman,et al.  Development of Fully Coupled Aeroelastic and Hydrodynamic Models for Offshore Wind Turbines , 2006 .

[12]  Mark Sussman,et al.  An Efficient, Interface-Preserving Level Set Redistancing Algorithm and Its Application to Interfacial Incompressible Fluid Flow , 1999, SIAM J. Sci. Comput..

[13]  S. Osher,et al.  A Non-oscillatory Eulerian Approach to Interfaces in Multimaterial Flows (the Ghost Fluid Method) , 1999 .

[14]  J. M. Jonkman,et al.  Loads Analysis of a Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Using Fully Coupled Simulation: Preprint , 2007 .

[15]  Wei Bai,et al.  Fully nonlinear simulation of wave interaction with fixed and floating flared structures , 2009 .

[16]  Minoo H. Patel,et al.  On the Modelling of a Floating Offshore Wind Turbine , 2003 .

[17]  Deborah Greaves,et al.  Viscous effect on the transient free surface flow in a two dimensional tank , 2001 .

[18]  Hideyuki Suzuki,et al.  Load on Turbine Blade Induced by Motion of Floating Platform and Design Requirement for the Platform , 2007 .

[19]  J. Sethian,et al.  Fronts propagating with curvature-dependent speed: algorithms based on Hamilton-Jacobi formulations , 1988 .

[20]  N. Patankar,et al.  A fast computation technique for the direct numerical simulation of rigid particulate flows , 2005 .

[21]  Jason Jonkman,et al.  Dynamics of offshore floating wind turbines—model development and verification , 2009 .

[22]  T. Yabe,et al.  The constrained interpolation profile method for multiphase analysis , 2001 .

[23]  Dominique Roddier,et al.  Dynamic Modeling of Deepwater Offshore Wind Turbine Structures in Gulf of Mexico Storm Conditions , 2006 .