Validation of the Motion Analysis Method of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines Using Observation Data Acquired by Full Scale Demonstration Project

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, the social demands for the introduction of renewable energy are increasing, demonstration projects of floating offshore wind turbine are being implemented and planned around the world. In Japan, a demonstration test named Fukushima FORWARD (Fukushima Floating Offshore Wind Farm Demonstration Project) has been conducted since 2011. Fukushima FORWARD is a project carried out by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the world’s first floating offshore windfarm with a total capacity of 14 MW, including three floating offshore wind facilities and one floating offshore substation. In Fukushima FORWARD, Japan Marine United Corporation is in charge of floater part EPCI (Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Installation) of one floating offshore wind facility and one floating offshore substation. The floating offshore wind turbine (Ship Name: Fukushima Hamakaze) designed and built by Japan Marine United Corporation is equipped with a downwind 5 MW wind turbine. The floating structure adopts the advanced spar shape in order to reduce wave frequency motions and is moored by six spread catenary mooring lines. In the design of floating offshore wind turbines, it is important to estimate motions with high accuracy. Especially floating offshore wind turbine equipped with horizontal axis wind turbine requires heavy RNA (Rotor Nacelle Assembly) to be installed on the tower, and the floater motion greatly influences the design of the tower base. The tower base is required to have sufficient reliability because it directly leads to collapse of the wind turbine if it is damaged. On the other hand, the tower base is generally constructed with a cylinder made of extremely thick steel plate which is difficult to bend and weld, and if it has excessive safety factor the cost has increased greatly. Also, estimating the motion is the basis for estimating the load on the floating structure. In this paper, statistical analysis of long-term data measured by Fukushima FORWARD floating offshore wind turbine focusing on the motion and its features are introduced. In addition, we compare the motion obtained by potential theory and coupled analysis with actually measured motion using the measured wave and wind data and evaluate the validity of the analysis method.