Experimental Research for Stabilizing Offshore Floating Wind Turbines

Abstract

Floating turbines are attracting increasing interest today. However, the power generation efficiency of a floating turbine is highly dependent on its motion stability in sea water. This issue is more marked, particularly when the floating turbines operate in relatively shallow water. In order to address this issue, a new concept motion stabilizer is studied in this paper. It is a completely passive device consisting of a number of heave plates. The plates are connected to the foundation of the floating wind turbine via structural arms. Since the heave plates are completely, rather than partially, exposed to water, all surfaces of them can be fully utilized to create the damping forces required to stabilize the floating wind turbine. Moreover, their stabilizing effect can be further amplified due to the application of the structural arms. This is because torques will be generated by the damping forces via the structural arms, and then applied to stabilizing the floating turbine. To verify the proposed concept motion stabilizer, its practical effectiveness on motion reduction is investigated in this paper. Both numerical and experimental testing results have shown that after using the proposed concept stabilizer, the motion stability of the floating turbine has been successfully improved over a wide range of wave periods even in relatively shallow water. Moreover, the comparison has shown that the stabilizer is more effective in stabilizing the floating wind turbine than single heave plate does. This suggests that the proposed concept stabilizer may provide a potentially viable solution for stabilizing floating wind turbines.

An Evaluation of the Wind Energy Resources along the Spanish Continental Nearshore

“…However, although the lack of operating facilities at the moment is not the main focus of the Spanish offshore wind industry, the government-supported by the European Union-continues to work in order to facilitate the implementation and development of this type of projects. The rapid development of the floating technologies is expected to take out the seafloor depth as well as the environmental exclusion zone related issues in what can be considered the near future [16,17]. In Colmenar-Santos et al [15], these and further characteristics related to the future of the offshore wind industry in Spain are discussed, concluding that once the techno-economic and administrative barriers are surpassed, Spain counts with good prospects for the further development of the offshore wind installations.…”

Performance Analysis on the Use of Oscillating Water Column in Barge-Based Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

“…In Reference [22], Z. Zhang et al proposed a generator model to provide a feedback control torque to suppress the lateral tower vibrations in offshore wind turbines. W. Yang et al [23] used motion stabilizers as heave plates connected to the foundation of the spar-type FOWT for the stabilization. Several articles investigated the application of inerters to a barge-type FOWT to mitigate loads of the FOWTs exposed by winds and waves [24].…”

Switching Control Strategy for Oscillating Water Columns Based on Response Amplitude Operators for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines Stabilization

“…In order to decrease the FOWTs' motions in different modes, authors have applied various methods to deal with the problem [13]. The application of heave plates attached to the spar-type FOWT with the aim of motion stabilization was introduced by W. Yang et al [14]. M. Kamarlouei et al in [15] conducted an experimental study to reduce the heave and pitch amplitude using the added catenary mooring cables as well as installation of the Wave Energy Converters (WEC) on a FOWT.…”