Abstract
Tension leg platform (TLP) is a cost-effective and high-performance support structure for floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) because of its small responses in heave, pitch, and roll with the constraint of the tendons. China, as the largest market of offshore wind energy, has shown a demand for developing reliable, viable floating platform support structures, especially aiming at the intermediate water depth. The present paper described a newly proposed 10-MW Braceless-TLP FOWT designed for a moderate water depth of 60 m. The numerical simulations of the FOWT are carried out using the coupled aero-hydro-servo-elastic-mooring calculation tool FAST. The measured wind and wave data of the target site close to the Fujian Province of China were used to evaluate the performance of the FOWT under the 100-, 50-, 5-, and 2-year-return stochastic weather conditions. The natural periods of the platform in surge, sway, heave, pitch, roll, and yaw were found to be within the range recommended by the design standard DNV-RP-0286 Coupled Analysis of Floating Wind Turbines. The largest surge of the water depth ratio among all the load cases was 15%, which was smaller than the admissible ratio of 23%. The tower top displacements remained between −1 m and 1 m, which were at a similar order to those of a 10-MW monopile-supported offshore wind turbine. The six tendons remained tensioned during the simulation, even under the operational and extreme (parked) environmental conditions. The Braceless-TLP FOWT showed an overall satisfying performance in terms of the structural stability and illustrates the feasibility of this type of FOWT at such a moderate water depth.
Highlights
Wind power, as a source of nonpolluting, inexhaustible renewable energy, is seen as an effective solution to meet the fast-growing energy demand and the target of decarbonization
A comparison between the dynamic responses of the Tension leg platform (TLP), spar, and barge floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) was conducted, and the results showed that the TLP FOWT has the lowest platform displacements in most DOFs
The present study aims to develop a tension leg platform to support the IEA 10-MW offshore wind turbine aiming at a water depth of 60 m
Summary
As a source of nonpolluting, inexhaustible renewable energy, is seen as an effective solution to meet the fast-growing energy demand and the target of decarbonization. Floating platforms are developed as an alternative to support offshore wind turbines and seen as a cost-effective and techniqueviable solution to break the limitation of the water depth [4]. Ren et al proposed a TLP concept for supporting a NREL 5-MW baseline wind turbine considering the water depth of 60 m that especially addressed the effect of tendon failure [14]. There is a lack of TLP-type FOWT concept designs with a comprehensive analysis for intermediate water depths to provide a highly stable, reliable, and cost-effective. Based on the change of the water depth, mooring system, and wind turbine prototype, the dimensions of the platform were modified through several iterations to satisfy the design standards given in DNVGL-RP-0286 and DNVGL-OS-E301 [21,22]. 4047 ton 9.29 m 1.65 × 109 kg m2 3.02 × 109 kg m2 7328 ton 33.98 m 116.027 kg/m 1.8 × 109 N
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