Tower Base Bending Moment Research Articles

A comparison of extreme structural responses and fatigue damage of semi-submersible type floating horizontal and vertical axis wind turbines

Currently development of floating wind turbines for deep water is mainly based on horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs). However, floating vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are possible alternative due to their potential in the cost of energy reduction. This study deals with a comparison of stochastic dynamic responses of floating HAWTs and VAWTs with emphasis on the extreme structural responses and fatigue damages. A 5 MW three-bladed HAWT and three 5 MW VAWTs with blade number ranging from two to four were mounted on a semi-submersible platform. Their stochastic dynamic responses, short-term extreme structural responses and fatigue damages were estimated in both operational and parked conditions. The results show that the three- and four-bladed floating VAWTs and the three-bladed floating HAWTs considered have similar performances in the variation of generator power production, in the maximum tower base bending moment and in the fatigue damages at tower base and mooring lines. However, the maximum tensions in mooring line for the three- and four-bladed floating VAWTs are approximately four times higher than that of floating HAWTs, which implies a significant challenge for their mooring systems. The maximum tower base bending moment and fatigue damage in the two-bladed floating VAWT are extremely significant.

A fully coupled method for numerical modeling and dynamic analysis of floating vertical axis wind turbines

Offshore wind energy is one of the most promising renewable energy resources and an increasing interest arises to develop floating vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs), which have the potential to reduce the cost of energy. Assessment of the performance of floating VAWTs requires sophisticated fully coupled aero-hydro-servo-elastic simulation tools, which are currently limited. This paper aims to develop a fully integrated simulation tool for floating VAWTs. Based on the actuator cylinder (AC) flow model, aerodynamic modeling of floating VAWTs is established with consideration of the effects of turbulence, dynamic inflow and dynamic stall. The developed aerodynamic code is then coupled with the code SIMO-RIFLEX to achieve a fully coupled tool, i.e. SIMO-RIFLEX-AC, which can account for the aerodynamic, hydrodynamics, structural dynamics and controller dynamics with high fidelity. A series of code-to-code comparisons with the codes HAWC2 and SIMO-RIFLEX-DMS are carried out using a landbased VAWT and a semi-submersible VAWT, and reveal that the present code can predict the aerodynamic loads and dynamic responses accurately. Moreover, the code SIMO-RIFLEX-AC can predict more accurate responses than the code SIMO-RIFLEX-DMS, such as the platform motions, tower base bending moments and tension in mooring lines.

Stability and dynamic response analysis of a submerged tension leg platform for offshore wind turbines

This paper proposed a submerged tension leg platform (STLP) for an offshore wind turbine in moderate water depth (70–150m). During the transportation, the platform is semi-submersible and self-stabilized because it has a relatively large water plane area. Therefore, it can be wet-towed out together with the wind turbine from the quayside to the offshore installation site. During the operation phase, the platform is submerged with a relatively small water plane area, which improves its hydrodynamic performance. Hence, this STLP wind turbine requires low transportation and installation cost. It can also achieve a potentially good dynamic behavior during the operation phase. In this paper, the stability of the STLP wind turbine during the transportation phase is first assessed without considering the mooring lines. The results show that the STLP wind turbine has a good stability to ensure a safe wet towing. The dynamic responses of the STLP wind turbine during the operation phase are then studied with emphasis on the effect of second-order wave loads, wind-wave misalignment and water depth. Based on fully coupled time domain simulations, it is found that the effect of second-order wave loads on the dynamics of the STLP wind turbine is slightly larger in an extreme sea state than that in a moderate sea state. The standard deviations of the surge, sway, roll and pitch motions and the tower base bending moment are dependent on the wind-wave misalignment, while those of the heave and yaw motions, the blade root bending moment are not. In addition, a larger water depth leads to larger standard deviations of the platform motions and a smaller standard deviation of the tower base bending moment. The effect of water depth on the blade root and tower top bending moments is negligible.

Effect of the number of blades on the dynamics of floating straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbines

Floating vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are promising solutions for exploiting the wind energy resource in deep waters due to their potential cost-of-energy reduction. The number of blades is one of the main concerns when designing a VAWT for offshore application. In this paper, the effect of blade number on the performance of VAWTs and dynamic behavior of floating VAWTs was comprehensively studied in a fully coupled aero-hydro-servo-elastic way. Three VAWTs with straight and parallel blades, with identical solidity and with a blade number varying from two to four, were designed using the actuator cylinder method and adapted to a semi-submersible platform. A generator torque controller was also designed based on a PI control algorithm. Time domain simulations demonstrated that the aerodynamic loads and structural responses are strongly dependent on the number of blades. In particular, by increasing the number of blades from two to three reduces the variation in the tower base bending moment more significantly than increasing it from three to four. However, the blade number does not significantly affect the generator power production due to the control strategy employed, and the platform motions and tension in mooring lines because of the compliant catenary mooring system.

Prediction of short-term distributions of load extremes of offshore wind turbines

This paper proposes a new methodology to select an optimal threshold level to be used in the peak over threshold (POT) method for the prediction of short-term distributions of load extremes of offshore wind turbines. Such an optimal threshold level is found based on the estimation of the variance-to-mean ratio for the occurrence of peak values, which characterizes the Poisson assumption. A generalized Pareto distribution is then fitted to the extracted peaks over the optimal threshold level and the distribution parameters are estimated by the method of the maximum spacing estimation. This methodology is applied to estimate the short-term distributions of load extremes of the blade bending moment and the tower base bending moment at the mudline of a monopile-supported 5MW offshore wind turbine as an example. The accuracy of the POT method using the optimal threshold level is shown to be better, in terms of the distribution fitting, than that of the POT methods using empirical threshold levels. The comparisons among the short-term extreme response values predicted by using the POT method with the optimal threshold levels and with the empirical threshold levels and by using direct simulation results further substantiate the validity of the proposed new methodology.

Contributions of the Stochastic Shape Wake Model to Predictions of Aerodynamic Loads and Power under Single Wake Conditions

The contribution of wake meandering and shape asymmetry to load and power estimates is quantified by comparing aeroelastic simulations initialized with different inflow conditions: an axisymmetric base wake, an unsteady stochastic shape wake, and a large-eddy simulation with rotating actuator-line turbine representation. Time series of blade-root and tower base bending moments are analyzed. We find that meandering has a large contribution to the fluctuation of the loads. Moreover, considering the wake edge intermittence via the stochastic shape model improves the simulation of load and power fluctuations and of the fatigue damage equivalent loads. These results indicate that the stochastic shape wake simulator is a valuable addition to simplified wake models when seeking to obtain higher-fidelity computationally inexpensive predictions of loads and power.

A comparative study on dynamic responses of spar‐type floating horizontal and vertical axis wind turbines

AbstractInterest in the exploitation of offshore wind resources using floating wind turbines has increased. Commercial development of floating horizontal axis wind turbines (FHAWTs) is emerging because of their commercial success in onshore and near‐shore areas. Floating vertical axis wind turbines (FVAWTs) are also promising because of their low installation and maintenance costs. Therefore, a comparative study on the dynamic responses of FHAWTs and FVAWTs is of great interest. In the present study, a FHAWT employing the 5MW wind turbine developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and a FVAWT employing a Darrieus rotor, both mounted on the OC3 spar buoy, were considered. An improved control strategy was introduced for FVAWTs to achieve an approximately constant mean generator power for the above rated wind speeds. Fully coupled time domain simulations were carried out using identical, directional aligned and correlated wind and wave conditions. Because of different aerodynamic load characteristics and control strategies, the FVAWT results in larger mean tower base bending moments and mooring line tensions above the rated wind speed. Because significant two‐per‐revolution aerodynamic loads act on the FVAWT, the generator power, tower base bending moments and delta line tensions show prominent two‐per‐revolution variation. Consequently, the FVAWT suffers from severe fatigue damage at the tower bottom. However, the dynamic performance of the FVAWT could be improved by increasing the number of blades, using helical blades or employing a more advanced control strategy, which requires additional research. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Experimental and numerical study of the response of the offshore combined wind/wave energy concept SFC in extreme environmental conditions

This paper deals with an experimental study of the survivability of the offshore combined concept Semisubmersible wind energy and Flap-type wave energy Converter (SFC) and with comparisons of the experimental data with numerical predictions. The SFC is a combined energy concept consisting of a braceless semisubmersible type floating wind turbine and three fully submerged rotating flap-type Wave Energy Converters (WECs). In order to study the survivability of the concept the focus is on extreme environmental conditions. In these conditions the SFC will not produce wind or wave power; the wind turbine is parked with the blades feathered into the wind and the WECs are released to freely rotate about their axis of rotation. Firstly the development and set-up of the physical model are presented. Static, quasi-static, decay, regular waves and irregular waves with wind loading tests are conducted on an 1:50 scale physical model. Aligned and oblique wave with wind loading conditions are considered. Measured variables that are presented include motions of the semisubmersible platform in six rigid body degrees of freedom, rotation of the flap-type WECs, tension of mooring lines, internal loads of the arms that connect the flap with the pontoon of the platform and tower base bending moment. The experimental data are compared with numerical predictions obtained by a fully coupled numerical model. The comparison is made at model scale. A good agreement between experimental data and numerical predictions is observed confirming the accuracy of the numerical models and tools that are used. The discrepancy between numerical and experimental results is smaller for regular than irregular waves. Compared to oblique conditions a better agreement between experimental and numerical results is obtained for the case of aligned wave and wind loadings. The results obtained demonstrate the good performance of the SFC concept in extreme environmental conditions. No strong nonlinear hydrodynamic phenomena are observed in the tests.

Comparison of Spar and Semisubmersible Floater Concepts of Offshore Wind Turbines Using Long-Term Analysis

The long-term probability distributions of a spar-type and a semisubmersible-type offshore floating wind turbine response are calculated for surge, heave, and pitch motions along with the side-to-side, fore–aft, and yaw tower base bending moments. The transfer functions for surge, heave, and pitch motions for both spar-type and semisubmersible-type floaters are obtained using the fast code and the results are also compared with the results obtained in an experimental study. The long-term predictions of the most probable maximum values of motion amplitudes are used for design purposes, so as to guarantee the safety of the floating wind turbines against overturning in high waves and wind speed. The long-term distribution is carried out using North Atlantic wave data and the short-term floating wind turbine responses are represented using Rayleigh distributions. The transfer functions are used in the procedure to calculate the variances of the short-term responses. The results obtained for both spar-type and semisubmersible-type offshore floating wind turbine are compared, and the study will be helpful in the assessments of the long-term availability and economic performance of the spar-type and semisubmersible-type offshore floating wind turbine.

Efficient critical design load case identification for floating offshore wind turbines with a reduced nonlinear model

Design verification of wind turbines is performed by simulation of design load cases (DLC) defined in the IEC 61400-1 and -3 standards or equivalent guidelines. Due to the resulting large number of necessary load simulations, here a method is presented to reduce the computational effort for DLC simulations significantly by introducing a reduced nonlinear model and simplified hydro- and aerodynamics. The advantage of the formulation is that the nonlinear ODE system only contains basic mathematic operations and no iterations or internal loops which makes it very computationally efficient. Global turbine extreme and fatigue loads such as rotor thrust, tower base bending moment and mooring line tension, as well as platform motions are outputs of the model. They can be used to identify critical and less critical load situations to be then analysed with a higher fidelity tool and so speed up the design process. Results from these reduced model DLC simulations are presented and compared to higher fidelity models. Results in frequency and time domain as well as extreme and fatigue load predictions demonstrate that good agreement between the reduced and advanced model is achieved, allowing to efficiently exclude less critical DLC simulations, and to identify the most critical subset of cases for a given design. Additionally, the model is applicable for brute force optimization of floater control system parameters.

Frequency Versus Time Domain Fatigue Analysis of a Semisubmersible Wind Turbine Tower

The current paper deals with a study of a semisubmersible wind turbine (WT), where short-term tower base bending moments and tower fatigue damage were estimated by a frequency domain (FD) method. Both a rigid structure assumption and a generalized degree-of-freedom (DOF) model for including the first flexible mode of the turbine tower were investigated. First, response to wind and wave loads was considered separately, then superposition was used to find the response to combined wind and wave loading. The bending moments and fatigue damage obtained by these methods were compared to results from a fully coupled, nonlinear time domain (TD) analysis. In this study a three column, catenary moored semisubmersible with the NREL 5 MW turbine mounted on one of the columns was modeled. The model was inspired by the WindFloat concept. The TD simulation tool used was Simo-Riflex-AeroDyn from Marintek and CeSOS. The FD method gave a good representation of the tower base bending moment histories for wave-only analyses, for the moderate sea states considered in these analyses. With the assumption that the structure is completely rigid, bending moments were underestimated, but including excitation of the elastic tower and blades, improved the results. The wind-induced low-frequency bending moments were not captured very well, which presumably comes from a combination of nonlinear effects being lost in the linearization of the thrust force and that the aerodynamic damping model was derived for a fixed turbine. Nevertheless, standard deviations of the bending moments were still reasonable. The FD model captured the combined wind and wave analyses quite well when a generalized coordinates model for wind excitation of the first bending mode of the turbine was included. The FD fatigue damage predictions were underestimated by 0–60%, corresponding to discrepancies in standard deviations of stress in the order of 0–20%.

Dynamic Response Analysis of Wind Turbine with Tuned Mass Damper under Typhoon Conditions

The wind power is increasingly developed, and the tropical weather condition is a challenge for flexible wind turbine structure. It is essential to get the structure response of wind turbine under typhoon conditions, and then solutions to reduce the load should be found. This article firstly discusses characteristics of typhoon suitable for wind turbine loads calculation, and then a simplified model with two degrees of freedom is got in two directions separately, according to the experiences of high-rise structure to mitigate vibration and theory of vibration absorber, passive TMD systems are put to the wind turbine structures in longitudinal and lateral direction. After that a medium complicated aero-elastic software FAST-SC is used to simulate transient and also fatigue conditions, the tower top displacement and tower base bending moment are evaluated, TMD systems can help reduce the transient load and fatigue loads of flexible wind turbine structures.

Wind gust detection and load mitigation using artificial neural networks assisted control

ABSTRACTThe design of a wind turbine implies the simulation of definite conditions as specified in the standards. Among those operational conditions, rare events such as extreme gusts or external faults are included, which may cause high structural loads. Such extreme design load cases usually drive the design of some of the main components of the wind turbine: tower, blades and mainframe. Two different strategies are hence presented to mitigate the loads, deriving from extreme load cases, on the basis of the detection of wind gusts by means of ad hoc synthesized artificial neural networks. This tool is embedded into the main control algorithm and allows it to detect the gust in advance, to anticipate the control reaction, and by doing so reducing extreme loads. One of the strategies performs a controlled stop when wind gust is detected. The other rides through wind gusts without stopping, i.e., without affecting the wind turbine normal operation. Aeroelastic simulations of the Alstom Wind's wind turbines using these techniques have shown significant reductions in the extreme loads for all standard IEC 61400‐1, edition 2 DLC 1.6 cases. In particular, the overall ultimate loads are largely reduced for blade root and tower base bending moments, with a direct impact on the structural design of those components. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Structural control of floating wind turbines

The application of control techniques to offshore wind turbines has the potential to significantly improve the structural response, and thus reliability, of these systems. Passive and active control is investigated for a floating barge-type wind turbine. Optimal passive parameters are determined using a parametric investigation for a tuned mass damper system. A limited degree of freedom model is identified with synthetic data and used to design a family of controllers using H ∞ multivariable loop shaping. The controllers in this family are then implemented in full degree of freedom time domain simulations. The performance of the passive and active control is quantified using the reduction in fatigue loads of the tower base bending moment. The performance is calculated as a function of active power consumption and the stroke of the actuator. The results are compared to the baseline and optimal passive system, and the additional achievable load reduction using active control is quantified. It is shown that the optimized passive system results in tower fore-aft fatigue load reductions of approximately 10% compared to a baseline turbine. For the active control, load reductions of 30% or more are achievable, at the expense of active power and large strokes. Active control is shown to be an effective means of reducing structural loads, and the costs in power and stroke to achieve these reductions are demonstrated.

Gust Response Factor Methodology for Wind Turbine Tower Assemblies

This paper proposes a methodology based on the gust response factor (GRF) for evaluating the along-wind response of wind turbine towers. The approach presented differs from conventional GRF methods as the GRF contains contributions from two resonant modes, mainly due to blade/tower interaction effects. The wind turbine tower model considered contains two interconnected flexible subsystems, representing the tower and the rotor system. Each component is initially modeled as a separate degree-of-freedom (DOF), and these are coupled together to form a two DOF reduced order model of the coupled tower/rotor system. Thus, the resonant component of the response contains energy output from the two modes of the coupled system. The GRF is obtained for both tower tip displacement and base bending moment through numerical integration, with a closed form expression included for the former. A series of numerical examples are included to investigate the magnitude of GRFs obtained for the two DOF assembly which allows for blade/tower interaction, and these are compared with GRF values obtained from an equivalent singe DOF model which ignores blade/tower interaction by lumping the mass of the blades in with that of the nacelle.