Abstract
Currently, floating wind turbines (FWTs) may be the more economical and suitable systems with which to exploit offshore wind energy in deep waters. Among the various types of floating foundations for offshore wind farms, a tension leg platform (TLP) foundation can provide a relatively stable platform for currently available offshore wind turbines without requiring major modifications. In this study, a new multi-column TLP foundation (WindStar TLP) was developed for the NREL 5-MW offshore wind turbine according to site-specific environmental conditions, which are the same as the OC3-Hywind (NREL) conditions. The general arrangement, main structure and mooring system were also designed and investigated through hydrodynamic and natural frequency analyses. The complete system avoids resonance through the rotor excitations. An aero-hydro-servo-elastic coupled analysis was carried out in the time domain with the numerical tool FAST. Statistics of the key parameters were obtained and analysed and comparisons to MIT/NREL TLP are made. As a result, the design requirements were shown to be satisfied, and the proposed WindStar TLP was shown to have favourable motion characteristics under extreme wind and wave conditions with a lighter and smaller structure. The new concept holds great potential for further development.
Highlights
In recent years, wind power has been the fastest-growing type of renewable energy worldwide, with increasing efforts being concentrated on installing offshore wind turbines with a fixed bottom foundation
The natural frequencies of the entire system are crucial to the performance of the system because they determine the dynamic behaviour of the floating offshore wind turbine, for turbines with tension leg platform (TLP)-type foundations
In this study the WindStar TLP was proposed for the NREL offshore 5-MW baseline wind turbine
Summary
Wind power has been the fastest-growing type of renewable energy worldwide, with increasing efforts being concentrated on installing offshore wind turbines with a fixed bottom foundation. There are a number of offshore wind turbine floating foundation concepts in various stages of development. These concepts fall into four main categories: spars, tension leg platforms (TLPs), semi-submersible platforms, and barges. A TLP foundation is vertically constrained by tendons and has small dynamic responses to environmental loads. This unique feature provides a relatively stable platform for currently available offshore wind turbines, without requiring major modifications. Because the exploration of deep water wind energy is a relatively new field, the design of a TLP foundation that is suitable for an offshore wind turbine presents several challenges. The preliminary WindStar TLP design proposed here will contribute to the understanding of the important aspects of an initial design process, and the concept holds potential for further development
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