Design and Research on the Foundation Damping Structure of Semi-Submersible Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

Abstract

[Introduction] In order to find an economic and effective solution to the improvement of the hydrodynamic performance of floating offshore wind turbines, this paper studies the design scheme of heave plates to improve the hydrodynamic damping performance and anti-rolling effect of the floating body, and finally improve the stability of the output power of floating offshore wind turbines. [Method] Taking a 10 MW semi-submersible floating wind turbine as an example, this paper discussed the effect of different design parameters of the heave plate structure on improving the hydrodynamic damping using the method of computational fluid dynamics, and found an optimal design scheme. [Result] After optimized design, the heave damping of the heave plate structure is increased by 14.9%, and the roll damping is increased by 19.1%, and while the heave damping of the “quincunx-shaped” edge heave plate is increased by 36.98% compared with the original model. [Conclusion] This paper reveals the formation mechanism of the generation of vortex vents and the improvement of the hydrodynamic damping of the heave plate, and puts forward the “quincunx-shaped” heave plate structure in an innovative manner that can effectively improve the damping performance of the heave motion of the floating body. The above conclusions provide important references for the research and design of the foundation structure of the floating offshore wind turbines of this kind in the future.

Keywords

• floating offshore wind turbines
• heave plates
• hydrodynamic viscous damping
• computational fluid dynamics