The paper will present the preliminary design of the so called GICON® - Tension Leg Platform (TLP) as an innovative foundation concept for floating offshore wind turbines.
Preliminary results from model basin tests are also shared. This includes the currently ongoing research of comparing calculated and experimental data obtained through extensive wind and wave tank experiments with a scale model of an offshore wind turbine at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN) in June 2013. These tests have provided insights regarding the dynamic characteristics of the GICON®-TLP by analyzing the system’s response to different load cases.
The experiments included wind and wave loads, which represent three different sea states, each with three different directions of inflow. The chosen load cases correspond to the proposed location in the German Baltic Sea where the full scale prototype will be erected.
This paper will give a short overview of the path of development of the so called GICON® - Tension Leg Platform (TLP) for offshore wind turbines. The main part of the paper will provide a summary as well as insights from three different model basin tests. Furthermore, the comparison of a truss like structure (first concept) with a shell type structure (third concept) deduced from the measured results and also by comparison of the natural frequencies will be presented. Both structures were tested in wave tanks in a scale of 1:25. The results also include a focus on the overall dynamic behavior of the structure. In addition to the two 1:25 models, a 1:37 model was also tested at MARIN, utilizing the MARIN stock wind turbine. This model is also included in the comparison. Therefore the different scales are considered but the comparison is presented exclusively for wave loads as only the 1:37 model was tested under wind and wave conditions.
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