Investigation of Offshore Wind Turbine Structure Deflection Using Experimental Work, Numerical, and Theoretical Approach

Abstract

Electrical energy from offshore wind turbines is an important source of clean, renewable energy production. One of the reasons for the low efficiency of wind turbines is the change in the flow angle of attack, denoted by the symbol (α), as a result of the deflection of the structure. The study aims to know the values of the maximum deflection of the proposed structure under the environmental conditions of the Arabian Gulf water area. Our research adopted a novel approach to extracting results; the characteristics of sea waves were extracted from the experimental work after fixing five sea waves, knowing the displacement of the top of the structure, and using the numerical approach in the ANSYS-Fluent program to know the average wind and wave forces. Two simulations were performed. The first included the five cases of sea wave characteristics without rotating wind turbine blades. The second was for the fifth case only with the wind turbine blades rotating at a speed of (20.5 rpm), assuming that the structure was exposed to a constant wind speed (12 m/s) for the two simulations. The study also included obtaining the maximum deflection value of the structure. Then, the equations of the theoretical approach were developed based on the Euler-Bernoulli bending moment equation, and the forces extracted from the simulations were entered into the theoretical equations to extract the maximum deflection values of the structure. Reading the experimental work resulted in the highest displacement of the top of the structure in the fifth case (0.178 m). The result of the second simulation had the highest value of the structure deflection (0.201 m). In comparison, its value came in the theoretical approach (0.160 m), which adopted the forces of the second simulation.