Abstract
As an attractive renewable energy source, offshore wind plants are becoming increasingly popular for energy production. However, the performance assessment of offshore wind turbine (OWT) structure is a challenging task due to the combined wind-wave loading and difficulties in reproducing such loading conditions in laboratory. Real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS), combining physical testing and numerical simulation in real-time, offers a new venue to study the structural behavior of OWTs. It overcomes the scaling incompatibilities in OWT scaled model testing by replacing the rotor components with an actuation system, driven by an aerodynamic simulation tool running in real-time. In this study, a RTHS framework for monopile OWTs is proposed. A set of sensitivity analyses is carried out to evaluate the feasibility of this RTHS framework and determine possible tolerances on its design. By simulating different scaling laws and possible error contributors (delays and noises) in the proposed framework, the sensitivity of the OWT responses to these parameters are quantified. An example using a National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) 5-MW reference OWT system at 1:25 scale is simulated in this study to demonstrate the proposed RTHS framework and sensitivity analyses. Three different scaling laws are considered. The sensitivity results show that the delays in the RTHS framework significantly impact the performance on the response evaluation, higher than the impact of noises. The proposed framework and sensitivity analyses presented in this study provides important information for future implementation and further development of the RTHS technology for similar marine structures.
Highlights
As an emerging field of wind power generation, offshore wind power is growing rapidly in recent years due to its vast potential in energy production capacity (Esteban et al, 2011; Musial et al, 2016; Keivanpour et al, 2017)
For the Froude scaling (Fr)-Ca and the FroudeCauchy scaling (Fr-Ca)-dg models, the root-meansquare error (RMSE) is lower when β is near 0◦ or 180◦ under the good condition
The Froude scaling Real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) is the preferred method for RTHS implementation
Summary
As an emerging field of wind power generation, offshore wind power is growing rapidly in recent years due to its vast potential in energy production capacity (Esteban et al, 2011; Musial et al, 2016; Keivanpour et al, 2017). In this RTHS platform, the numerical component contains the rotor blades and aerodynamic loads; the experimental component contains the tower structure (including the nacelle, hub, and foundation) along with the hydrodynamic loading effects provided by wave tank and necessary hardware (actuators and sensors). The two components are interfaced through the displacement DOFs (u7 and u8) at the top of the tower This RTHS framework directly resolves the Froude-Reynold scaling conflict by applying full-scale aerodynamic simulation in the numerical component, and it can preserve the complex hydrodynamic behaviors in the wave tank facility at a reduced scale, including soil-structure interaction and wave-current interaction. They show no particular dependence on Hs, and are not repeated here
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