Experimental Study on New Multi-Column Tension-Leg-Type Floating Wind Turbine

Deep-water regions often have winds favorable for offshore wind turbines, and floating turbines currently show the greatest potential to exploit such winds. This work established proper scaling laws for model tests, which were then implemented in the construction of a model wind turbine with optimally designed blades. The aerodynamic, hydrodynamic, and elastic characteristics of the proposed new multi-column tension-leg-type floating wind turbine (WindStar TLP system) were explored in the wave tank testing of a 1:50 scale model at the State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Tests were conducted under conditions of still water, white noise waves, irregular waves, and combined wind, wave, and current loads. The results established the natural periods of the motion, damping, motion response amplitude operators, and tendon tensions of the WindStar TLP system under different environmental conditions, and thus could serve as a reference for further research.     

浮式风机气动—水动—气弹性耦合响应数值模拟

随着海上风电产业的快速发展,大型浮式风机逐渐从概念设计走向工程应用,但仍面临较大的挑战。一方面,在风、浪等环境载荷的作用下,浮式风机的气动载荷和水动力响应之间存在明显的相互干扰作用;另一方面,风力机大型化使得叶片细、长、薄的特点愈发突出,叶片柔性变形十分显著,这会影响到浮式风机的耦合性能。基于两相流CFD求解器naoe-FOAM-SJTU,结合弹性致动线模型和等效梁理论,建立了浮式风机气动—水动—气弹性耦合响应计算模型,并对规则波和剪切风作用下Spar型浮式风机的气动—水动—气弹性耦合响应进行了数值模拟分析。结果表明,风力机气动载荷使得叶片挥舞变形十分显著,而叶片的扭转变形会明显降低风力机的气动载荷。此外,风力机气动载荷会增大浮式平台的纵荡位移和纵摇角,同时,浮式平台运动响应会导致风力机气动载荷产生大幅度周期性变化。进一步地,叶片结构变形响应会使得浮式风机尾流场的速度损失和湍动能有所降低。     

Experiment Study of Dynamics Response for Wind Turbine System of Floating Foundation

The floating foundation is designed to support a 1.5 MW wind turbine in 30 m water depth. With consideration of the viscous damping of foundation and heave plates, the amplitude-frequency response characteristics of the foundation are studied. By taking into account the elastic effect of blades and tower, the classic quasi-steady blade-element/momentum (BEM) theory is used to calculate the aerodynamic elastic loads. A coupled dynamic model of the turbine-foundation- mooring lines is established to calculate the motion response of floating foundation under Kaimal wind spectrum and regular wave by using the FAST codes. The model experiment is carried out to test damping characteristics and natural motion behaviors of the wind turbine system. The dynamics response is tested by considering only waves and the joint action of wind and waves. It is shown that the wind turbine system can avoid resonances under the action of wind and waves. In addition, the heave motion of the floating foundation is induced by waves and the surge motion is induced by wind. The action of wind and waves is of significance for pitch.     

基于非定常面元法的海上浮式风机气动性能研究

对于海上浮式风机而言,由于受到剪切风、塔影效应、浮式基础运动等因素的共同影响,其气动载荷会更加复杂,因此如何准确快速地对海上风力机的气动性能进行预估显得尤为重要。基于速度势的非定常面元法理论,研究海上浮式风机气动载荷特性,编制了相关的计算程序。以NREL 5 MW风机为例,建立了叶片和尾流的三维数值模型,计算得到了不同风速下风机的输出功率以及叶片表面的压力分布,对比数据结果分析了该方法的可靠性。针对非定常流动,模拟了剪切风和塔影效应的作用,并重点分析了浮式基础运动对风机气动载荷的影响。研究表明,浮式基础的纵荡和纵摇会增加输出功率的波动幅值,艏摇运动会导致单个叶片上的气动载荷产生较大的波动,为浮式风机叶片控制提供了参考。     

新型浮式基础的海上风机系统动力响应研究

概念性地设计了一种新型半潜—Spar混合浮式基础,以5 MW水平轴风机为例,研究了该新型浮式基础支撑的浮式风力机系统的动力响应。基于三维势流理论和Morison公式,应用SESAM软件建立浮式基础模型,在频域内计算了该浮式基础的水动力参数和响应算子,分析了浮式基础的运动性能。考虑叶片气动载荷和浮式基础波浪载荷,应用FAST软件对风机—浮式基础系统进行时域计算,分析风力机系统的运动性能。结果显示,该浮式基础运动幅值较小,具有良好的运动性能。     

超大型和大型半潜浮式海上风力机动力响应对比

以超大型风力机(DTU 10 MW)为研究对象,对现有的大型(NREL 5 MW)无撑杆半潜浮式风力机支撑平台进行放大设计,用于支撑超大型风力机,基于气动-水动-伺服-弹性全耦合计算模型,根据设定的典型工况,使用FAST软件对超大型和大型无撑杆的半潜浮式风力机系统进行时域耦合分析,并依据计算结果对超大型和大型浮式风力机系统的运动响应和结构动力反应等特性进行对比分析。研究发现:半潜浮式风力机大型化后,气动荷载效应对风力机系统的激励作用更为突出,使得浮式平台运动由风荷载激励的低频共振反应比例增大,波频运动比例减小,这也导致由浮式平台低频运动激励的锚链张力反应增大。此外,高倍的飞轮转动频率对大型半潜浮式风力机叶片、塔架结构的激励作用较超大型半潜浮式风力机更为显著。     

Effect of wave nonlinearity on fatigue damage and extreme responses of a semi-submersible floating wind turbine

Floating wind turbine has been the highlight in offshore wind industry lately. There has been great effort on developing highly sophisticated numerical model to better understand its hydrodynamic behaviour. A engineering-practical method to study the nonlinear wave effects on floating wind turbine has been recently developed. Based on the method established, the focus of this paper is to quantify the wave nonlinearity effect due to nonlinear wave kinematics by comparing the structural responses of floating wind turbine when exposed to irregular linear Airy wave and fully nonlinear wave. Critical responses and fatigue damage are studied in operational conditions and short-term extreme values are predicted in extreme conditions respectively. In the operational condition, wind effects are dominating the mean value and standard deviation of most responses except floater heave motion. The fatigue damage at the tower base is dominated by wind effects. The fatigue damage for the mooring line is more influenced by wind effects for conditions with small wave and wave effects for conditions with large wave. The wave nonlinearity effect becomes significant for surge and mooring line tension for large waves while floater heave, pitch motion, tower base bending moment and pontoon axial force are less sensitive to the nonlinear wave effect. In the extreme condition, linear wave theory underestimates wave elevation, floater surge motion and mooring line tension compared with fully nonlinear wave theory while quite close results are predicted for other responses.     

偏航工况下海上浮式风力机基础运动响应及锚泊载荷影响分析

海上浮式风力机受风、浪、流等外部载荷影响,运营期间经常处于偏航工况,给风力机基础运动响应和锚泊载荷带来重要影响.基于经典叶素动量理论及势流理论,建立海上浮式风力机水—气动力耦合分析模型,对在非定常风、不规则波浪联合作用下,风力机偏航时基础运动响应及锚泊载荷等进行分析.研究发现,额定风速工况下,风力机偏航对平台纵荡和纵摇运动影响较大,偏航30°时纵荡和纵摇平均值比偏航0°时分别下降20.68％和37.36％,垂荡运动响应受风力机偏航影响较小;锚泊载荷变化趋势与平台运动及锚链布置有关,平台纵荡对锚泊载荷影响较大,偏航30°时锚链#1有效张力平均值比偏航0°时下降12.98％.     

畸形波作用下半潜浮式风机系泊失效停机响应分析

半潜浮式风机逐渐在深海风电开发中受到关注,建立风机、平台与系泊结构耦合数值计算模型,通过FAST与AQWA链接进行风机塔基荷载及平台运动响应相互耦合传递,基于随机波与极限波组合模型生成畸形波时程序列,进行半潜浮式风机系泊失效全过程时域模拟计算分析,得出系泊锚链张力、风机、塔筒和平台运动时程响应,探究系泊失效、风机停机和叶片变桨速率对浮式风机平台系泊结构动力响应的影响。结果表明：畸形波作用下浮式平台和系泊结构动力响应显著,系泊失效导致塔基剪力增加,平台纵荡和纵摇运动响应显著增大;风机停机会引起系泊锚链张力显著减小,转子推力、塔基剪力和叶尖挥舞位移响应逐渐衰减,平台纵荡、纵摇和横摇运动响应显著减小;随着叶片变桨速率增加,风机转子推力和塔基剪力波动幅值增大。     

Incorporating irregular nonlinear waves in coupled simulation and reliability studies of offshore wind turbines

Design of an offshore wind turbine requires estimation of loads on its rotor, tower and supporting structure. These loads are obtained by time-domain simulations of the coupled aero-servo-hydro-elastic model of the wind turbine. Accuracy of predicted loads depends on assumptions made in the simulation models employed, both for the turbine and for the input wind and wave conditions. Currently, waves are simulated using a linear irregular wave theory that is not appropriate for nonlinear waves, which are even more pronounced in shallow water depths where wind farms are typically sited. The present study investigates the use of irregular nonlinear (second-order) waves for estimating loads on the support structure (monopile) of an offshore wind turbine. We present the theory for the irregular nonlinear model and incorporate it in the commonly used wind turbine simulation software, FAST, which had been developed by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), but which had the modeling capability only for irregular linear waves. We use an efficient algorithm for computation of nonlinear wave elevation and kinematics, so that a large number of time-domain simulations, which are required for prediction of long-term loads using statistical extrapolation, can easily be performed. To illustrate the influence of the alternative wave models, we compute loads at the base of the monopile of the NREL 5MW baseline wind turbine model using linear and nonlinear irregular wave models. We show that for a given environmental condition (i.e., the mean wind speed and the significant wave height), extreme loads are larger when computed using the nonlinear wave model. We finally compute long-term loads, which are required for a design load case according to the International Electrotechnical Commission guidelines, using the inverse first-order reliability method. We discuss a convergence criteria that may be used to predict accurate 20-year loads and discuss wind versus wave dominance in the load prediction. We show that 20-year long-term loads can be significantly higher when the nonlinear wave model is used.     

The effects of yawing motion with different frequencies on the hydrodynamic performance of floating vertical-axis tidal current turbines

Under real sea conditions, the hydrodynamic performance of floating vertical-axis tidal current turbines is affected by waves and currents. The wave circular frequency is a significant factor in determining the frequencies of the wave-induced motion responses of turbines. In this study, the ANSYS-CFX software (manufacturer: ANSYS Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States) is used to analyse the hydrodynamic performance of a vertical-axis turbine for different yawing frequencies and to study how the yawing frequencies affect the main hydrodynamic coefficients of the turbine, including the power coefficient, thrust coefficient, lateral force coefficient, and yawing moment coefficient. The time-varying curves obtained from the CFX software are fitted using the least-squares method; the damping and added mass coefficients are then calculated to analyse the influence of different yawing frequencies. The simulation results demonstrate that when analysing non-yawing turbines rotating under constant inflow, the main hydrodynamic coefficient time-varying curves of yawing turbines exhibit an additional fluctuation. Furthermore, the amplitude is positively correlated with the yawing frequency, and the oscillation amplitudes also increase with increasing yawing frequency; however, the average values of the hydrodynamic coefficients (except the power coefficient) are only weakly influenced by yawing motion. The power coefficient under yawing motion is lower than that under non-yawing motion, which means that yawing motion will cause the annual energy production of a turbine to decrease. The fitting results show that the damping term and the added mass term exert effects of the same level on the loads and moments of vertical-axis turbines under yawing motion. The results of this study can facilitate the study of the motion response of floating vertical-axis tidal current turbine systems in waves.     

风机基础TLP平台在波浪中运动性能的CFD数值分析

随着海上风能的开发向深水发展，支撑风机的载体平台越来越受到关注。在经济性与安全性、稳定性的多重要求下，张力腿平台（TLP）在海洋风能资源的开发中体现出了重要地位。采用基于开源平台OpenFOAM开发的计算流体动力学（CFD）水动力学求解器naoe-FOAM-SJTU对一座处于中等水深下的风机基础水下TLP（STLP）的运动响应进行了数值模拟与研究。文中使用弹簧锚链模型模拟STLP的垂向系泊锁链系统，模拟该平台在不同波浪环境下的运动响应情况。首先将STLP单自由度自由衰减CFD模拟结果与已有全耦合时域分析结果进行对比，验证了naoe-FOAM-SJTU求解器及使用弹簧模型模拟STLP系泊系统的准确性与可靠性。随后在考虑非线性波浪载荷的情况下研究极端海况下与一般作业海况下STLP的运动响应情况，计算工况中的风机基础所受弯矩及锚链受力情况，并详细展示流场、速度场信息，分析高阶波浪成分、不同海况等条件对于STLP运动性能的影响。研究结果表明，TLP在中等水深中具有良好的运动性能，naoe-FOAM-SJTU求解器可以有效模拟水中生产平台在波浪环境下的水动力问题，并可以对整个流场进行可视化展示与分析。     

Study on Rigid-Flexible Coupling Effects of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

In order to account for rigid-flexible coupling effects of floating offshore wind turbines, a nonlinear rigid-flexible coupled dynamic model is proposed in this paper. The proposed nonlinear coupled model takes the higher-order axial displacements into account, which are usually neglected in the conventional linear dynamic model. Subsequently,investigations on the dynamic differences between the proposed nonlinear dynamic model and the linear one are conducted. The results demonstrate that the stiffness of the turbine blades in the proposed nonlinear dynamic model increases with larger overall motions but that in the linear dynamic model declines with larger overall motions.Deformation of the blades in the nonlinear dynamic model is more reasonable than that in the linear model as well.Additionally, more distinct coupling effects are observed in the proposed nonlinear model than those in the linear model. Finally, it shows that the aerodynamic loads, the structural loads and global dynamic responses of floating offshore wind turbines using the nonlinear dynamic model are slightly smaller than those using the linear dynamic model. In summary, compared with the conventional linear dynamic model, the proposed nonlinear coupling dynamic model is a higher-order dynamic model in consideration of the rigid-flexible coupling effects of floating offshore wind turbines, and accord more perfectly with the engineering facts.     

Hydrodynamic Analysis and Power Conversion for Point Absorber WEC with Two Degrees of Freedom Using CFD

Point absorber wave energy device with multiple degrees of freedom (DOF) is assumed to have a better absorption ability of mechanical energy from ocean waves. In this paper, a coaxial symmetric articulated point absorber wave energy converter with two degrees of freedom is presented. The mechanical equations of the oscillation buoy with power take-off mechanism (PTO) in regular waves are established. The three-dimensional numerical wave tank is built in consideration of the buoy motion based upon the CFD method. The appropriate simulation elements are selected for the buoy and wave parameters. The feasibility of the CFD method is verified through the contrast between the numerical simulation results of typical wave conditions and test results. In such case, the buoy with single DOF of heave, pitch and their coupling motion considering free (no PTO damping) and damped oscillations in regular waves are simulated by using the verified CFD method respectively. The hydrodynamic and wave energy conversion characteristics with typical wave conditions are analyzed. The numerical results show that the heave and pitch can affect each other in the buoy coupling motion, hydrodynamic loads, wave energy absorption and flow field. The total capture width ratio with two coupled DOF motion is higher than that with a single DOF motion. The wave energy conversion of a certain DOF motion may be higher than that of the single certain DOF motion even though the wave is at the resonance period. When the wave periods are high enough, the interaction between the coupled DOF motions can be neglected.     

Wave run-up on slender circular cylindrical foundations for offshore wind turbines in nonlinear random waves

A practical method for estimating the wave run-up height on a slender circular cylindrical foundation for wind turbines in nonlinear random waves is provided. The approach is based on the velocity stagnation head theory and Stokes second order wave theory by assuming the basic harmonic wave motion to be a stationary Gaussian narrow-band random process. Comparisons are made with measurements by De Vos et al. (2007), and some of the highest wave run-up events that were predicted agree with those measured.     

半潜式浮式风机支撑平台首摇运动特性分析

借助FAST软件对OC4半潜式浮式风机平台进行数值计算,分析了影响海上浮式风机平台首摇运动的一系列重要因素及其变化规律(如风向变化、浪向变化、陀螺力矩等)。研究了平台首摇运动所诱导的风机系统动力响应,发现浮式风机首摇运动不仅会加剧平台耦合运动响应,而且还会影响风机的气动性能和加剧锚泊张力波动。提出并探讨了几种减小海上浮式风机支撑平台首摇运动的方法。     

垂荡板对浮式风机水动—气动耦合性能影响研究

随着风电产业向深远海发展,浮式风机已经成为海上风机未来的发展趋势.由于复杂的风浪联合环境载荷作用,浮式风机作业时通常会产生大幅度的运动响应,这一方面会使得浮式风机系统受到的水动力载荷更加复杂,另一方面会影响浮式风机的输出功率.因此,如何有效地抑制浮式风机系统的运动响应就成为了设计的关键.基于非稳态致动线模型和两相流求解器naoeFOAM-SJTU,进行了带垂荡板的浮式风机耦合性能研究.首先在OC3-Hywind Spar平台上附加垂荡板,并结合NREL-5 MW风力机建立带垂荡板的浮式风机模型.其次对比不同形状的垂荡板对Spar-5 MW型浮式风机气动—水动耦合结果,分析相同风浪联合作用条件下垂荡板形状对浮式风机耦合响应的影响.研究结果表明:垂荡板能够减小纵荡和垂荡等运动响应幅值,但是对纵摇运动响应影响较小;当垂荡板直径和吃水位置相同时,相同风浪条件下圆形垂荡板能使浮式风机的气动平均功率增大约0.844％,而正方形垂荡板却使平均功率减小1.492％,这说明圆形垂荡板对浮式风机系统的作用效果整体而言优于正方形.     

Dynamic modeling and vibration suppression for an offshore wind turbine with a tuned mass damper in floating platform

The worldwide demand for renewable energy is increasing rapidly. Wind energy appears as a good solution to copy with the energy shortage situation. In recent years, offshore wind energy has become an attractive option due to the increasing development of the multitudinous offshore wind turbines. Because of the unstable vibration for the barge-type offshore wind turbine in various maritime conditions, an ameliorative method incorporating a tuned mass damper (TMD) in offshore wind turbine platform is proposed to demonstrate the improvement of the structural dynamic performance in this investigation. The Lagrange's equations are applied to establish a limited degree-of-freedom (DOF) mathematical model for the barge-type offshore wind turbine. The objective function is defined as the suppression rate of the standard deviation for the tower top deflection due to the fact that the tower top deflection is essential to the tower bottom fatigue loads, then frequency tuning method and genetic algorithm (GA) are employed respectively to obtain the globally optimum TMD design parameters using this objective function. Numerical simulations based on FAST have been carried out in typical load cases in order to evaluate the effect of the passive control system. The need to prevent the platform mass increasing obviously has become apparent due to the installation of a heavy TMD in the barge-type platform. In this case, partial ballast is substituted for the equal mass of the tuned mass damper, and then the vibration mitigation is simulated in five typical load cases. The results show that the passive control can improve the dynamic responses of the barge-type wind turbine by placing a TMD in the floating platform. Through replacing partial ballast with a uniform mass of the tuned mass damper, a significant reduction of the dynamic response is also observed in simulation results for the barge-type floating structure.     

Regular waves onto a truncated circular column: A comparison of experiments and simulations

Accurate prediction of hydrodynamic forces on offshore structures is critical for safe and cost effective design of fixed and floating offshore structures exposed to a harsh environment. In the present paper, nonlinear interactions between regular waves and a single surface-piercing truncated circular column have been investigated using a frequency domain potential flow solver (DIFFRACT) and a full CFD solver in OpenFOAM for direct comparisons. Both the predicted free surface elevation around the column and the total force acting on the column have been analysed and compared with experimental data from MOERI. The degree of non-linearity and the contribution of each harmonic to the free surface run-up and wave forces have been examined, and evaluations of the accuracy and computational efficiency of the potential flow solver and the full CFD solver are provided and compared in the paper. Also of note are the local forms of the scattered waves around the column in numerical simulations, which are consistent with the Type-1 and Type-2 patterns identified in physical experiments at Imperial College.     

Impact Analysis of Air Gap Motion with Respect to Parameters of Mooring System for Floating Platform

In this paper, the impact analysis of air gap concerning the parameters of mooring system for the semi-submersible platform is conducted. It is challenging to simulate the wave, current and wind loads of a platform based on a model test simultaneously. Furthermore, the dynamic equivalence between the truncated and full-depth mooring system is still a tuff work. However, the wind and current loads can be tested accurately in wind tunnel model. Furthermore, the wave can be simulated accurately in wave tank test. The full-scale mooring system and the all environment loads can be simulated accurately by using the numerical model based on the model tests simultaneously. In this paper, the air gap response of a floating platform is calculated based on the results of tunnel test and wave tank. Meanwhile, full-scale mooring system, the wind, wave and current load can be considered simultaneously. In addition, a numerical model of the platform is tuned and validated by ANSYS AQWA according to the model test results. With the support of the tuned numerical model, seventeen simulation cases about the presented platform are considered to study the wave, wind, and current loads simultaneously. Then, the impact analysis studies of air gap motion regarding the length, elasticity, and type of the mooring line are performed in the time domain under the beam wave, head wave, and oblique wave conditions.