Summary of Conclusions and Recommendations Drawn From the DeepCwind Scaled Floating Offshore Wind System Test Campaign

Abstract

The DeepCwind consortium is a group of universities, national labs, and companies funded under a research initiative by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to support the research and development of floating offshore wind power. The two main objectives of the project are to better understand the complex dynamic behavior of floating offshore wind systems and to create experimental data for use in validating the tools used in modeling these systems. In support of these objectives, the DeepCwind consortium conducted a model test campaign in 2011 of three generic floating wind systems: a tension-leg platform (TLP), a spar-buoy (spar), and a semi-submersible (semi). Each of the three platforms was designed to support a 1/50th-scale model of a 5-MW wind turbine and was tested under a variety of wind/wave conditions. The focus of this paper is to summarize the work done by consortium members in analyzing the data obtained from the test campaign and its use for validating the offshore wind modeling tool, FAST.

Experimental Study on Influence of Pitch Motion on the Wake of a Floating Wind Turbine Model

“…Therefore, it is recognized that some aspects of the wake may differ from that of full-scale as sway and heave are not considered. Furthermore, in studies capturing the structural response of floating bodies to wave excitations as in offshore structures, the Froude number is taken into consideration [34]. In this study, given that the movement of the mast is restricted to pitch, Froude number is not considered.…”

Validation of INNWIND.EU Scaled Model Tests of a Semisubmersible Floating Wind Turbine

“…The concept has been used in previous research and it has been tested at MARIN in Wageningen (Netherlands) by the DeepCwind consortium in 2011, see Jain et al (2012), Coulling et al (2013) and Robertson et al (2013). The same model has been tested again at MARIN in 2013 with detailed analyses of the secondorder wave excitation forces and the aerodynamics at low Reynolds numbers, see Kimball et al (2014), Ridder et al (2014), Make et al (2015), Gueydon et al (2014), Gueydon (2015), Gueydon et al (2015), and Gueydon (2016).…”

“…Even though several verification test for the simulation tools have been done e.g. Robertson et al (2013), Huijs et al (2014), the simulation of the coupled floating wind turbine is still a part of current research projects. The research which is reported in Deliverable D4.2.4 of the INNWIND.EU project (Lemmer et al, 2014) focuses on the verification and validation of design methods for floating structures.…”

Dynamic response signatures of a scaled model platform for floating wind turbines in an ocean wave basin

“…The scale of the model is 1 : 50. The model is scaled following Froude scaling laws, which are commonly used for scaling for offshore structures [48,49]. The floating hexagonal platform of the TLP is connected with six mooring tethers (ties), one at each corner of the platform, to the large circular anchoring gravity base which sits on the bottom of the wave basin during testing.…”