Assessing the Importance of Nonlinearities in the Development of a Substructure Model for the Wind Turbine CAE Tool FAST

Design and analysis of wind turbines are performed using aero-servo-elastic tools that account for the nonlinear coupling between aerodynamics, controls, and structural response. The NREL-developed computer-aided engineering (CAE) tool FAST also resolves the hydrodynamics of fixed-bottom structures and floating platforms for offshore wind applications. This paper outlines the implementation of a structural-dynamics module (SubDyn) for offshore wind turbines with space-frame substructures into the current FAST framework, and focuses on the initial assessment of the importance of structural nonlinearities. Nonlinear effects include: large displacements, axial shortening due to bending, cross-sectional transverse shear effects, etc.

[1]  Andrew Cordle,et al.  Design Drivers for Offshore Wind Turbine Jacket Support Structures , 2011 .

[2]  Donna Heimiller,et al.  Assessment of Offshore Wind Energy Potential in the United States (Poster) , 2011 .

[3]  Wright-Patterson Afb,et al.  A General-Purpose Implementation of the Mixed Formulation of the Geometrical Exact Beam Theory , 2010 .

[4]  Jason Jonkman,et al.  FAST User's Guide , 2005 .

[5]  M. Bampton,et al.  Coupling of substructures for dynamic analyses. , 1968 .

[6]  Dewey H. Hodges,et al.  Nonlinear Composite Beam Theory , 2006 .

[7]  Jason Jonkman,et al.  Incorporation of Multi-Member Substructure Capabilities in FAST for Analysis of Offshore Wind Turbines , 2012 .

[8]  J. Jonkman,et al.  Definition of a 5-MW Reference Wind Turbine for Offshore System Development , 2009 .

[9]  S. Butterfield,et al.  Energy from Offshore Wind , 2006 .

[10]  Haiyan Long,et al.  Lattice Towers for Bottom-Fixed Offshore Wind Turbines in the Ultimate Limit State: Variation of Some Geometric Parameters , 2012 .

[11]  Jason Jonkman,et al.  New Modularization Framework for the FAST Wind Turbine CAE Tool: Preprint , 2013 .

[12]  J. Jonkman,et al.  Offshore Code Comparison Collaboration (OC3) for IEA Wind Task 23 Offshore Wind Technology and Deployment , 2010 .

[13]  Zhen Gao,et al.  Offshore code comparison collaboration continuation (OC4), phase I - Results of coupled simulations of an offshore wind turbine with jacket support structure , 2012 .

[14]  Rick Damiani,et al.  A Jacket Sizing Tool for Offshore Wind Turbines Within the Systems Engineering Initiative , 2013 .

[15]  Jason Jonkman,et al.  A New Structural-Dynamics Module for Offshore Multimember Substructures Within the Wind Turbine Computer-Aided Engineering Tool FAST , 2013 .