Design and Stability Analysis of an Offshore Floating Multi-Wind Turbine Platform

Abstract

The multi-wind turbine platform technology has the potential to harness the significant source of offshore wind energy in deep waters. However, the wake interference between the turbines on the multi-wind turbine platform can cause a reduction in power production; hence, it is important to study the wake effects in the initial phase of the design. This paper studies the effects of wake interference between the wind turbines on three different platform configurations to find a suitable configuration for the wind turbines on a multi-turbine platform. The analytical Larsen wake model and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are used for evaluating the wake effects. The platform configuration required for the wind turbines is determined based on the results of wake effects, and then a novel platform is designed. The free-floating stability behavior of the multi-wind turbine platform is analyzed using the hydrostatic analysis of the modeled platform. The wave-body interaction between the platform and the waves is predicted using the hydrodynamic analysis. A preliminary cost analysis of the multi-turbine platform concept is evaluated and compared with a single wind turbine floating concept. The results showed that the presented design is a promising concept that can enhance the offshore wind industry.

Keywords

• offshore floating platform
• wake loss models
• computational fluid dynamics
• stability analysis
• hydrodynamics