Abstract
With the continuous utilization of offshore wind resources, the installation depth and capacity of offshore wind turbines are increasing. In order to meet construction requirements of renewable energy, offshore wind farms are bound to develop further and deeper into the sea. As a result, a novel kind of power generation equipment, Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWT), emerges as the times require. Consequently, this paper provides an objective comment on some key scientific difficulties. Firstly, The statistics and forecast of the market demand and installed capacity of offshore wind energy show a steady growth. After that, the advantages of constructing FOWT and most floating projects in various countries are summarized. And then, the reconstruction design of blades is reviewed under “Reynolds number” and “Froude number” similarity criterion, which is a prerequisite for achieving specific aerodynamic performance. So far, this paper focuses on aerodynamic researches, including aerodynamic forces and flow fields. On this basis, pitch angle control strategies are proposed to reduce aerodynamic forces on the premise of ensuring power generations. Finally, some other joint science problems to be solved are listed. Whether theoretical analysis, numerical simulations, ocean engineering basin tests, wind tunnel experiments or prototype sea measurements, FOWT is expected to break through various obstacles and finally achieve efficient and stable commercial operations.
Highlights
Wind energy has been collected and utilized for a long time because it can be regenerated and does not cause any environmental pollution
Due to the increasing scale ratio and the upper limit of model rotor speed, there is a serious problem: the Reynolds number is not similar. This means that the flow characteristics around the model and prototype will no longer be the same, so the problems are: can the performance obtained by scale model test represent the prototype? Is the scale model test meaningful? What is more significant is that wind turbines continue to be larger, and the difference of Reynolds number reaches two order, that is hundreds of times, which leads to the “scale effect” problem of model scaling
From Eqs. (3) and (4), velocity and length are in the form of product in the expression of Re, but in the expression of Fr, they are in the form of quotient, so Reynolds number and Froude number cannot be satisfied at the same time
Summary
Wind energy has been collected and utilized for a long time because it can be regenerated and does not cause any environmental pollution. It is generally considered that an installation with a water depth greater than 50 m or an offshore distance greater than 50 km is a deep-sea wind farm. On this basis, the installation cost of offshore wind turbines with pile foundations, jacket foundations or gravity foundations is too high to assemble, and hydrodynamic loads caused by wave and currents are significantly increased. The installation cost of offshore wind turbines with pile foundations, jacket foundations or gravity foundations is too high to assemble, and hydrodynamic loads caused by wave and currents are significantly increased This form will no longer be applicable, but a floating offshore wind turbine installed on a. People in this field can have a more comprehensive understanding and certain guiding significance by referring this article
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