Simulating The Hydrodynamics Of Offshore Floating Wind Turbine Platforms In A Finite Volume Framework

Simulating The Hydrodynamics Of Offshore Floating Wind Turbine Platforms In A Finite Volume Framework
Author: Maija Benitz
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

There is great potential for the growth of wind energy in offshore locations where the structures are exposed to a variety of loading from waves, current and wind. A variety of computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools, based largely on engineering models employing potential-flow theory and/or Morison's equation, are currently being used to evaluate hydrodynamic loading on floating offshore wind turbine platforms. While these models are computationally inexpensive, they include many assumptions and approximations. Alternatively, high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics models contain almost no assumptions, but at the cost of high computational expense. In this work, CFD simulations provide detailed insight into the complex fluid flow that has not been captured experimentally, nor can be attained with reduced-order models. This work includes a thorough validation of the various CFD toolboxes necessary for simulating offshore floating wind turbine platforms in the ocean environment, from numerical wave propagation to fluid-structure interactions. The fundamental physics of flow around complex structures is examined through various studies to better understand the effects of a fluid interface, truncated ends, structure size, multi-member arrangements and environmental conditions. These factors are explored in terms of drag, lift and frequency of the loads. Additionally, motion of structures in free decay tests and waves are investigated. The work provides insight into the complex fluid flow around floating offshore structures of small draft in a variety of environmental conditions. CFD simulations are used to assess assumptions and approximations of reduced-order engineering models, and explain why, and in which conditions, these models perform inaccurately. Finally, the work provides suggestions for improvements to engineering tools often used for hydrodynamics modeling of floating offshore wind turbines.

Comparison of methods for the computation of wave forcing

Comparison of methods for the computation of wave forcing
Author: Olga Glöckner
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 20
Release: 2018-05-18
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 366870614X

Presentation slides from the year 2014 in the subject Engineering - Civil Engineering, grade: 1,0, University of Hannover, language: English, abstract: Unlike fossil fuels (e.g. oil, coal and natural gas), wind energy is a renewable energy resource. Since winds at sea are stronger and more consistent than onshore winds, the demand for offshore wind turbines has increased over the last years. As energy can be produced more efficient in deeper water, several floating offshore wind turbine constructions, such as the OC3 Hywind spar-buoy, have been proposed. The design of floating wind turbines depends on the simulation of the system behavior caused by exciting forces. This thesis deals with the comparison between different methods for calculating wave forces and resulting platform motions of a floating offshore wind turbine. On the one hand, wave exciting loads computed with Morison’s equation are compared to the hydrodynamic forces simulated by the open source code FAST on the basis of the diffraction theory. On the other hand, response motions of the floating structure are simulated by the commercial offshore software SESAM in the frequency domain and compared with the motions calculated by FAST in the time domain.

Dynamics Modeling, Simulation and Analysis of a Floating Offshore Wind Turbine

Dynamics Modeling, Simulation and Analysis of a Floating Offshore Wind Turbine
Author: Mohammed Khair Al-Solihat
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2018
Genre:
ISBN:

" Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs) are a promising technology to harness the abundant offshore wind energy resources in open ocean areas. A FOWT consists of a floating platform, the moorings, and the wind turbine structure (tower + Rotor-Nacelle Assembly (RNA)). The main focus of this thesis is to develop multibody dynamic models that integrate the structural dynamics, and hydrostatic, hydrodynamic, aerodynamic and mooring system loads. Special efforts are also devoted to characterize the mooring and hydrostatic loads as main sources of systems stiffness that shapes the dynamic behavior of the system. Two approaches for modeling the platform/tower dynamics are developed, a rigid multibody model and a coupled rigid-flexible multibody model. Both models treat the platform, nacelle and rotor as six-degrees-of-freedom (6-DOF) rigid bodies. However, modeling the wind turbine tower dynamics differs between these approaches. The rigid model considers the tower as a 6-DOF rigid body while the flexible model represents the tower as a three-dimensional (3D) tapered damped Euler-Bernoulli beam undergoing coupled general rigid body and elastic motions. In both approaches, the wind turbine drivetrain dynamics is also considered to capture the rotor spin response. The equations of motions of both models are derived symbolically using Lagrange's equations. The hydrostatic restoring loads are evaluated through development of a novel nonlinear hydrostatic approach. This approach allows evaluating the exact hydrostatic force and moment and position of the center of buoyancy as function of the platform displacement and finite rotation. New exact expressions for the water plane area restoring moments are developed. The hydrostatic stiffness matrix at an arbitrary position and orientation of the platform is subsequently derived. A quasi-static approach is then developed to determine the cable tensions of the single-segment and multi-segment mooring system configurations proposed to moor the platform to the seabed. The approach uses different governing equations, depending on whether the mooring lines partially rest on the seabed; are suspended; or fully taut. The exact mooring stiffness is subsequently derived and the influence of several mooring system parameters on the mooring system stiffness is investigated. As an alternative to the quasi-static cable model, a lumped mass cable model incorporating the cable-seabed contact effect is developed to integrate the cable dynamics into the FOWT system dynamics. The equations of motion of the mooring line nodes are assembled for the two mooring system configurations under consideration. A new methodology is also presented to calculate the equilibrium profile of the mooring line lying on a seabed as desirable initial conditions for solving the discretized cable equations of motion. Finally, the theoretical models are implemented through a large simulation tool to analyze the dynamic behavior of the spar FOWT system under study. A series of simulations under defined external loads (load cases) are performed to validate the dynamic models. The simulation results are compared with similar results obtained from well-known offshore wind design codes. The simulation results are found to be in very good agreement with the reported results. Numerical experiments are also performed to investigate the influence of the tower flexibility, mooring system configuration, tower twist and cable dynamics on the system dynamic behavior. The results show that the system responses obtained from the rigid body model under-predict the platform yaw response and exhibit less damping than those obtained from the flexible model. It is also found that the mooring system configuration choice does not influence the platform roll and pitch responses or tower elastic deflections." --

A comparison of methods for computation of wave forcing

A comparison of methods for computation of wave forcing
Author: Olga Glöckner
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 137
Release: 2018-05-17
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3668705224

Diploma Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Engineering - Civil Engineering, grade: 1,0, University of Hannover (A&M University Texas, Ludwig-Franzius-Institut für Wasserbau, Ästuar- und Küsteningenieurwesen), language: English, abstract: Unlike fossil fuels (for example oil, coal and natural gas), wind energy is a renewable energy resource. Since winds at sea are stronger and more consistent than onshore winds, the demand for offshore wind turbines has increased over the last years. As energy can be produced more efficient in deeper water, several floating offshore wind turbine constructions, such as the OC3 Hywind spar-buoy, have been proposed. The design of floating wind turbines depends on the simulation of the system behavior caused by exciting forces. This thesis deals with the comparison between different methods for calculating wave forces and resulting platform motions of a floating offshore wind turbine. On the one hand, wave exciting loads computed with Morison’s equation are compared to the hydrodynamic forces simulated by the open source code FAST on the basis of the diffraction theory. On the other hand, response motions of the floating structure are simulated by the commercial offshore software SESAM in the frequency domain and compared with the motions calculated by FAST in the time domain.

Frequency Domain Modeling and Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

Frequency Domain Modeling and Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines
Author: Meysam Karimi
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2018
Genre:
ISBN:

Offshore floating wind turbine technology is growing rapidly and has the potential to become one of the main sources of affordable renewable energy. However, this technology is still immature owing in part to complications from the integrated design of wind turbines and floating platforms, aero-hydro-servo-elastic responses, grid integrations, and offshore wind resource assessments. This research focuses on developing methodologies to investigate the technical and economic feasibility of a wide range of floating offshore wind turbine support structures. To achieve this goal, interdisciplinary interactions among hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, structure and control subject to constraints on stresses/loads, displacements/rotations, and costs need to be considered. Therefore, a multidisciplinary design optimization approach for minimum levelized cost of energy executed using parameterization schemes for floating support structures as well as a frequency domain dynamic model for the entire coupled system. This approach was based on a tractable framework and models (i.e. not too computationally expensive) to explore the design space, but retaining required fidelity/accuracy. In this dissertation, a new frequency domain approach for a coupled wind turbine, floating platform, and mooring system was developed using a unique combination of the validated numerical tools FAST and WAMIT. Irregular wave and turbulent wind loads were incorporated using wave and wind power spectral densities, JONSWAP and Kaimal. The system submodels are coupled to yield a simple frequency domain model of the system with a flexible moored support structure. Although the model framework has the capability of incorporating tower and blade structural DOF, these components were considered as rigid bodies for further simplicity here. A collective blade pitch controller was also defined for the frequency domain dynamic model to increase the platform restoring moments. To validate the proposed framework, predicted wind turbine, floating platform and mooring system responses to the turbulent wind and irregular wave loads were compared with the FAST time domain model. By incorporating the design parameterization scheme and the frequency domain modeling the overall system responses of tension leg platforms, spar buoy platforms, and semisubmersibles to combined turbulent wind and irregular wave loads were determined. To calculate the system costs, a set of cost scaling tools for an offshore wind turbine was used to estimate the levelized cost of energy. Evaluation and comparison of different classes of floating platforms was performed using a Kriging-Bat optimization method to find the minimum levelized cost of energy of a 5 MW NREL offshore wind turbine across standard operational environmental conditions. To show the potential of the method, three baseline platforms including the OC3-Hywind spar buoy, the MIT/NREL TLP, and the OC4-DeepCwind semisubmersible were compared with the results of design optimization. Results for the tension leg and spar buoy case studies showed 5.2% and 3.1% decrease in the levelized cost of energy of the optimal design candidates in comparison to the MIT/NREL TLP and the OC3-Hywind respectively. Optimization results for the semisubmersible case study indicated that the levelized cost of energy decreased by 1.5% for the optimal design in comparison to the OC4-DeepCwind.

Computational Free-surface Fluid-structure Interaction with Applications on Offshore Wind and Tidal Energy

Computational Free-surface Fluid-structure Interaction with Applications on Offshore Wind and Tidal Energy
Author: Jinhui Yan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

Offshore wind and tides are massive sources of sustainable energy. Simulation-based design has the potential for groundbreaking achievements of offshore energy harvesting structures, such as offshore floating wind turbines and tidal stream turbines. There are many engineering challenges associated with the mechanics of these energy harvesting devices, both on the structural mechanics and fluid mechanics sides, which make the analysis and modeling of these machines quite difficult, especially in harsh ocean environment. This dissertation will focus on the efforts to address some of these challenges through advanced free-surface fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations. In this dissertation, a novel computational free-surface FSI framework using level-set method, finite element and isogeometric analysis is developed. Considering geometry modeling, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, free-surface and structural mechanics simultaneously, this formulation enables the simulations of the interaction between free-surface flows and large scale offshore structures with great efficiency, accuracy and robustness. This framework has been applied on a wide range of challenging problems in civil, marine/ocean and mechanical engineering, such as ocean waves, offshore floating wind turbines, tidal energy and bio-inspired aquatic sports equipment.

Mooring Line Modelling and Design Optimization of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

Mooring Line Modelling and Design Optimization of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines
Author: Matthew Thomas Jair Hall
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

Floating offshore wind turbines have the potential to become a significant source of affordable renewable energy. However, their strong interactions with both wind- and wave-induced forces raise a number of technical challenges in both modelling and design. This thesis takes aim at some of those challenges. One of the most uncertain modelling areas is the mooring line dynamics, for which quasi-static models that neglect hydrodynamic forces and mooring line inertia are commonly used. The consequences of using these quasi-static mooring line models as opposed to physically-realistic dynamic mooring line models was studied through a suite of comparison tests performed on three floating turbine designs using test cases incorporating both steady and stochastic wind and wave conditions. To perform this comparison, a dynamic finite-element mooring line model was coupled to the floating wind turbine simulator FAST. The results of the comparison study indicate the need for higher-fidelity dynamic mooring models for all but the most stable support structure configurations. Industry consensus on an optimal floating wind turbine configuration is inhibited by the complex support structure design problem; it is difficult to parameterize the full range of design options and intuitive tools for navigating the design space are lacking. The notion of an alternative, "hydrodynamics-based'' optimization approach, which would abstract details of the platform geometry and deal instead with hydrodynamic performance coefficients, was proposed as a way to obtain a more extensive and intuitive exploration of the design space. A basis function approach, which represents the design space by linearly combining the hydrodynamic performance coefficients of a diverse set of basis platform geometries, was developed as the most straightforward means to that end. Candidate designs were evaluated in the frequency domain using linearized coefficients for the wind turbine, platform, and mooring system dynamics, with the platform hydrodynamic coefficients calculated according to linear hydrodynamic theory. Results obtained for two mooring systems demonstrate that the approach captures the basic nature of the design space, but further investigation revealed limitations on the physical interpretability of linearly-combined basis platform coefficients. A different approach was then taken for exploring the design space: a genetic algorithm-based optimization framework. Using a nine-variable support structure parameterization, this framework is able to span a greater extent of the design space than previous approaches in the literature. With a frequency-domain dynamics model that includes linearized viscous drag forces on the structure and linearized mooring forces, it provides a good treatment of the important physical considerations while still being computationally efficient. The genetic algorithm optimization approach provides a unique ability to visualize the design space. Application of the framework to a hypothetical scenario demonstrates the framework's effectiveness and identifies multiple local optima in the design space -- some of conventional configurations and others more unusual ... .

Wind energy. Methods for computation of wave forcing and the resulting motion of a slender offshore floating structure

Wind energy. Methods for computation of wave forcing and the resulting motion of a slender offshore floating structure
Author: Olga Glöckner
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
Total Pages: 151
Release: 2018-07-19
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3668754780

Academic Paper from the year 2014 in the subject Engineering - Civil Engineering, grade: 1,0, University of Hannover (A&M University Texas, Ludwig-Franzius-Institut für Wasserbau, Ästuar- und Küsteningenieurwesen), language: English, abstract: This thesis investigates how wave loads act on an OC3 Hywind spar-buoy. The author analyzes the resulting motions of the support platform. This work also contains a detailed presentation of the topic with useful additional information and graphics. Unlike fossil fuels (like oil, coal and natural gas), wind energy is a renewable energy resource. Since winds at sea are stronger and more consistent than onshore winds, the demand for offshore wind turbines has increased over the last years. As energy can be produced more efficient in deeper water, several floating offshore wind turbine constructions, such as the OC3 Hywind spar-buoy, have been proposed. The design of floating wind turbines depends on the simulation of the system behavior caused by exciting forces. A general overview of regular and irregular waves as well as hydrostatic and hydrodynamic loads acting on floating structures is given in chapter 2. Furthermore, essential formulations for calculating motions of FOWTs are given at the end of this chapter. Since all simulations carried out in this thesis are based on the OC3 Hywind concept, detailed information about this floating wind turbine model are given in chapter 3. Three different methods are used for the estimation of wave induced loads and motions. Section 4 describes a modified Morison formulation in the time domain which is applied by the commercially available software MATLAB. On the basis of the diffraction theory the commercial offshore software package SESAM simulates wave excitation forces and responding motions which are presented and discussed in chapter 5. The third method is the open source code FAST that computes wave induced loads and motions based on the first-order potential theory and Kane’s equation of motion. Basic formulations used in FAST and essential hydrodynamic results are shown in chapter 6. The comparisons between the simulations of the three programs are represented and the individual results are analyzed in chapter 7.

An Integrated Nonlinear Wind-Waves Model for Offshore Wind Turbines

An Integrated Nonlinear Wind-Waves Model for Offshore Wind Turbines
Author: Enzo Marino
Publisher: Firenze University Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2010
Genre: Coastal engineering
ISBN: 8866550515

This thesis presents a numerical model capable of simulating offshore wind turbines exposed to extreme loading conditions. External condition-based extreme responses are reproduced by coupling a fully nonlinear wave kinematic solver with a hydro-aero-elastic simulator. First, a two-dimensional fully nonlinear wave simulator is developed. The transient nonlinear free surface problem is formulated assuming the potential theory and a high-order boundary element method is implemented to discretize Laplace's equation. For temporal evolution a second-order Taylor series expansion is used. The code, after validation with experimental data, is successfully adopted to simulate overturning plunging breakers which give rise to dangerous impact loads when they break against wind turbine substructures. Emphasis is then placed on the random nature of the waves. Indeed, through a domain decomposition technique a global simulation framework embedding the numerical wave simulator into a more general stochastic environment is developed. The proposed model is meant as a contribution to meet the more and more pressing demand for research in the offshore wind energy sector as it permits taking into account dangerous effects on the structural response so as to increase the global structural safety level.