This paper deals with the numerical design of a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) large-scale model (outdoor prototype) based on the DTU 10MW.The framework is the 1/15 large-scale FOWT model of the full-scale structure designed within the EU H2020 Blue Growth Farm project. The purpose of this project is the gathering data about the feasibility and the operation of a multi-purpose floating platform for aquaculture and clean energy production. Due to the novelty of this project, accurate field data are needed on a scale model of the whole concept. Actually, the Blue Growth Farm project will involve the deployment in an open sea site of a 1/15 scaled model of the aforementioned concept, so to have the possibility to investigate under real sea and wind conditions the behaviour and the performances of such a structure, and thus have a deep insight on issues and related improvements in the design of this system.The objective of this work is to develop a numerical simulation environment for the design of the outdoor scaled prototype. The numerical model object of this work is obtained coupling the preliminary designed Blue Growth Farm scale turbine model with a properly scaled model of a reference platform, the OC3-Hywind spar buoy. The main purpose is to evaluate the loads associated with the wind turbine when combined to a floating foundation and drive the final design of the physical model.This analysis is performed in FAST environment (an aero-hydro-servo-elastic tool for wind turbine simulation) following the development of a FAST model of the wind turbine outdoor prototype and a FAST model of the floater.The numerical simulation of the wind turbine involves firstly some tests considering the tower as completely rigid and fixed to the ground. This allows the investigation of the steady aerodynamics of the rotor and the performances of the controller in simplified wind conditions, such as laminar wind steps and turbulent wind cases.The second step is the conduction of tests on the whole coupled system, considering also the floating platform. Tests are made firstly in calm seas, then in regular waves of different frequencies and elevation, and finally in irregular waves. The purpose of this phase is to investigate the loads arising from the dynamic behaviour of the system and to evaluate the performances of the control system under the same conditions it will encounter in an offshore environment, and to highlight issues on the selection of the most appropriate architecture and parameters.Particular care is put in the investigation of the coupling between the dynamics of the control system and the one of the floating platform. In addition to this, also the consistency of loads on crucial turbine components is an interesting test bench for the evaluation of the dynamical effects of the rotor controller. The latter is also a primary guideline for the final design of the physical model.

Numerical Design of a Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Large Scale Model for Control Purposes

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/OMAE/IOWTC2021/volume/84768

ASME 2021 International Offshore Wind Technical Conference (IOWTC2021)

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.