Abstract
High-quality computer simulations are required when designing floating wind turbines because of the complex dynamic responses that are inherent with a high number of degrees of freedom and variable metocean conditions. In 2007, the FAST wind turbine simulation tool, developed and maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), was expanded to include capabilities that are suitable for modeling floating offshore wind turbines. In an effort to validate FAST and other offshore wind energy modeling tools, DOE funded the DeepCwind project that tested three prototype floating wind turbines at 1/50th scale in a wave basin, including a semisubmersible, a tension-leg platform, and a spar buoy. This paper describes the use of the results of the spar wave basin tests to calibrate and validate the FAST offshore floating simulation tool, and presents some initial results of simulated dynamic responses of the spar to several combinations of wind and sea states. Wave basin tests with the spar attached to a scale model of the NREL 5-megawatt reference wind turbine were performed at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands under the DeepCwind project. This project included free-decay tests, tests with steady or turbulent wind and still water (both periodic and irregular waves with no wind), and combined wind/wave tests. The resulting data from the 1/50th model was scaled using Froude scaling to full size and used to calibrate and validate a full-size simulated model in FAST. Results of the model calibration and validation include successes, subtleties, and limitations of both wave basin testing and FAST modeling capabilities.
Highlights
Simulation tools that are suitable for modeling offshore floating wind turbines are required for the design of utility-scale offshore systems because of both the increased loading expected in offshore systems from inertial effects and the economic impracticality of full-scale testing in the marine environment
This paper focuses on an effort to use the DeepCwind 1/50th-scale test data to calibrate and validate a FAST turbine model of a spar buoy floating wind turbine
FAST simulations of a 5-MW spar-type offshore floating wind turbine operating in various metocean conditions were compared to results of tank tests of a 1/50th Froude-scaled model of the same system for the purposes of calibration and validation of the FAST model
Summary
Simulation tools that are suitable for modeling offshore floating wind turbines are required for the design of utility-scale offshore systems because of both the increased loading expected in offshore systems from inertial effects and the economic impracticality of full-scale testing in the marine environment. One such tool, the FAST coupled aero-hydro-servo-elastic dynamic simulator, was developed for use with offshore floating wind turbines from the original FAST land-based simulation tool [1].
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