Extreme Loading on FOWT under Complex Environmental Conditions
Lead Research Organisation:
Manchester Metropolitan University
Department Name: Sch of Computing, Maths and Digital Tech
Abstract
The offshore wind industry has experienced significant growth in recent years, and continues to expand both in the UK and worldwide. Most of the offshore wind turbines installed to date are located in relatively shallow water and are mounted on fixed bottom support structures. Given the limitation of suitable shallow water sites available with high wind resources and also to reduce the environmental and visual impact of turbines, it is necessary to extend wind turbines to deeper water through the development of floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) systems, which mount wind turbines on floating support platforms.
The project aims to fill an important gap in the design, manufacturing and testing of emerging FOWT techniques by specifically characterising extreme loading on FOWTs under complex and harsh marine environments. These are typically represented by storm conditions consisting of strong wind, extreme waves, significant current, rising sea level and complex interplay between these elements, through a coordinated campaign of both advanced CFD modelling and physical wave tank tests. This has direct relevance to the current and planned activities in the UK to develop this new technology in offshore wind.
In addition, the project aims to develop a suite of hierarchical numerical models that can be applied routinely for both fast and detailed analysis of the specific flow problem of environmental (wind, wave, current) loading and dynamic responses of FOWTs under realistic storm conditions. As an integral part of the project, a new experimental programme will be devised and conducted in the COAST laboratory at the University of Plymouth, providing improved understanding of the underlying physics and for validating the numerical models. Towards the end of the project, fully documented CFD software and experimental data sets will be released to relevant industrial users and into the Public Domain, so that they may be used to aid the design of future support structures of FOWTs and to secure their survivability with an extended envelope of safe operation for maximum power output.
The project aims to fill an important gap in the design, manufacturing and testing of emerging FOWT techniques by specifically characterising extreme loading on FOWTs under complex and harsh marine environments. These are typically represented by storm conditions consisting of strong wind, extreme waves, significant current, rising sea level and complex interplay between these elements, through a coordinated campaign of both advanced CFD modelling and physical wave tank tests. This has direct relevance to the current and planned activities in the UK to develop this new technology in offshore wind.
In addition, the project aims to develop a suite of hierarchical numerical models that can be applied routinely for both fast and detailed analysis of the specific flow problem of environmental (wind, wave, current) loading and dynamic responses of FOWTs under realistic storm conditions. As an integral part of the project, a new experimental programme will be devised and conducted in the COAST laboratory at the University of Plymouth, providing improved understanding of the underlying physics and for validating the numerical models. Towards the end of the project, fully documented CFD software and experimental data sets will be released to relevant industrial users and into the Public Domain, so that they may be used to aid the design of future support structures of FOWTs and to secure their survivability with an extended envelope of safe operation for maximum power output.
Planned Impact
The proposed project will directly tackle a fundamental challenge for emerging floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) systems under harsh marine environments and will gain better understanding of aerodynamics, hydrodynamics and wind-wave-current-structure interaction involved, through developing robust CFD codes and carrying out intensive numerical investigations, alongside cutting edge experiments for benchmarking validation and deeper understanding. Direct beneficiaries of the robust computer code and new experimental data sets for FOWTs in complex environmental conditions will be companies in the offshore and renewables industries. The new techniques developed and the new knowledge advanced in this project will benefit other academics who carry out research on fixed and floating offshore wind turbines and other offshore structures such as marine renewable energy converters.
To ensure the maximum impact of the project, a number of routes for its dissemination to potential end-users (the academic and industrial CFD research community; the renewable energy and offshore industry) have been identified, which include: (1) training in the developed numerical models through workshops and webinars; (2) scientific and technical conferences; (3) journal publications; (4) direct engagement with project partners; (5) participating in the CCP-WSI, PRIMaRE and Supergen ORE Hub research dissemination and networking activities; and (6) public engagement. A project web site and Wiki will be set up to facilitate the discussion of topics related to the research, and to publish reports, open source codes and information on workshop and training events.
To ensure the maximum impact of the project, a number of routes for its dissemination to potential end-users (the academic and industrial CFD research community; the renewable energy and offshore industry) have been identified, which include: (1) training in the developed numerical models through workshops and webinars; (2) scientific and technical conferences; (3) journal publications; (4) direct engagement with project partners; (5) participating in the CCP-WSI, PRIMaRE and Supergen ORE Hub research dissemination and networking activities; and (6) public engagement. A project web site and Wiki will be set up to facilitate the discussion of topics related to the research, and to publish reports, open source codes and information on workshop and training events.
Organisations
- Manchester Metropolitan University (Lead Research Organisation)
- DNV GL (Collaboration)
- SINTEF (Collaboration)
- Lloyd's Register Foundation (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Arup Group (Collaboration)
- DNV GL (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Floating Power Plant (Project Partner)
- Principle Power. INC. (Project Partner)
- Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (Project Partner)
- Sintef Energi As (Project Partner)
- TetraFloat Limited (Project Partner)
- Arup Group (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
Publications
Zaibin Lin
(2021)
Numerical simulation of liquid sloshing using a fully nonlinear potential flow model in the non-inertial coordinate system
in 19th International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference [ISOPE] (Osaka, Japan, 6/21-26/2009) Proceedings
Zaibin Lin
(2021)
A coupled overset CFD and mooring line model for floating wind turbine hydrodynamics
in 19th International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference [ISOPE] (Osaka, Japan, 6/21-26/2009) Proceedings
Lin Z
(2021)
A Finite Volume Based Fully Nonlinear Potential Flow Model for Water Wave Problems
in Applied Ocean Research
Rai R
(2023)
A stable free-surface boundary solution method for fully nonlinear potential flow models
in Applied Ocean Research
Lin Z
(2022)
Numerical Simulation of Liquid Sloshing Using a Fully Nonlinear Potential Flow Model in the Noninertial Coordinate System
in International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineering
Lin Z
(2021)
Simulation of Steep Focused Wave Impact on a Fixed Cylinder Using Fully Nonlinear Potential Flow and Navier-Stokes Solvers
in International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineering
Chen H
(2024)
Analysis of Convergence Behavior for the Overset Mesh Based Numerical Wave Tank in openfoam
in Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering
Zhou Y
(2023)
Sloshing dynamics of a tuned liquid multi-column damper for semi-submersible floating offshore wind turbines
in Ocean Engineering
Lin Z
(2021)
Simulating focused wave impacts on point absorber wave energy converters
in Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Engineering and Computational Mechanics
Description | A high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics code has been developed from the project, which can be used to predict the combined wave and wind loads on a floating offshore wind turbine and its dynamic response. |
Exploitation Route | The code could be used to evaluate extreme loading on FOWTs as well as their survivability and aid their optimal design. |
Sectors | Energy |
Description | The methodology developed in the project has been applied in an knowledge transfer project with Clean Air Limited to model the flow around fume cupboard. |
First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
Sector | Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
Impact Types | Economic |
Description | Arup Group Ltd |
Organisation | Arup Group |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | N/A |
Collaborator Contribution | Industrial project partner to EPSRC grants. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | DNV GL |
Organisation | DNV GL |
Country | Norway |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | N/A |
Collaborator Contribution | Project partner. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Lloyd's Register |
Organisation | Lloyd's Register |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | N/A |
Collaborator Contribution | Project partner. |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | SINTEF |
Organisation | SINTEF |
Country | Norway |
Sector | Multiple |
PI Contribution | N/A |
Collaborator Contribution | Project partner |
Impact | N/A |
Start Year | 2019 |
Title | OpenFOAM based CFD model for floating offshore wind turbines |
Description | OpenFOAM overset mesh multiphase flow solver has been further developed and adapted for modelling wave and wind loading on floating offshore wind turbines. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | The model can be used to predict loading on a FOWT with high accuracy. |
Description | FOWT code comparative study |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A code comparative study for modelling hydrodynamics of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT) has been organised at the ISOPE 2023 conference. The workshop received over 20 submissions from 17 research institutes from the UK, Europe and China. A number of engineering design coded and high-fidelity CFD codes have been used in the study and currently a scientific paper evaluating the submitted data against experimental data produced from the project is being prepared. The outcome would provide guidance on selecting an appropriate numerical code for modelling hydrodynamic loads on FOWTs. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |