Proposal of a Novel Semi-Submersible Floating Wind Turbine Platform Composed of Inclined Columns and Multi-Segmented Mooring Lines

Zhenqing Liu,Yuangang Tu,Qingsong Zhou,Xugang Hua,Wei Wang

doi:10.3390/en12091809

Abstract

The semi-submersible floating offshore wind turbine has been studied in detail due to its good stability. However, the occurrence of typhoons are very frequent in China’s offshore area, putting forward a higher requirement for the stability of the floating wind turbine system. By changing the connection mode of the mooring line as well as the structural form of the platform based on the original OC4 model, two groups of models were examined by an in-house developed code named as the Analysis Tool of Floating Wind Turbine (AFWT). The influence of the arrangement of the mooring lines and the inclination angle of the upper columns on the motion response were clarified. It was found that the surge motion of the platform would be obviously decreased by decreasing the length of the upper segments of the mooring lines, while the heave motion of the platform would be significantly decreased as increasing the inclined angle of the columns. Therefore, a new model integrating the optimized multi-segmented mooring lines and the optimized inclined columns was proposed. The examinations showed that compared with the response motions of the original OC4 semi-submersible model, the proposed model could reduce both the surge and heave motions of the platform effectively.

Highlights

Wind energy continues to receive more and more attention due to its renewable and non-polluting advantages
The motion responses of the models under different load conditions are calculated by Analysis Tool of Floating Wind Turbine (AFWT)
Inplatform this study, by changing the connection modetwo of the mooring line as well the structural form of the based on the original

Summary

Introduction

Wind energy continues to receive more and more attention due to its renewable and non-polluting advantages. From the beginning of the 21st-Century, wind power has been continuously developed around the world, making crucial contributions to dealing with global warming [1,2,3]. On-shore wind power accounts for a large amount of land resources, and in some countries, such as China, the on-shore wind energy is always far away from the cities with high demand for electricity. Considering the advantages that the offshore wind energy is close to the developed cities and the offshore wind speed is relatively high in Chinese seas, developing offshore wind energy has become an inevitable trend. With the increase of water depth in the construction area of offshore wind farms, in order to ensure the operation of the wind turbine and reduce the construction cost, the foundation of the offshore wind turbine develops from the traditional fixed type to the floating type

Results

Discussion

Conclusion