Simplified Modelling of Wind and Wave Effects on the Performance of Floating Off-shore Wind Turbines (FOWT)

Abstract

This project continues the development of the wind and wave effects onto the performance of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWT) initiated in past studies. The previous study characterized the influence of wind-wave misalignment onto the power response of a FOWT with special emphasis on the evolution of power generation with variable angle of wind and wave related to the blade-rotor plane. In this work, the variation of the power generation for constant pitch angle was established. In the present work, we develop a simplified model to determine the influence of the wind and wave effects on the performance of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWT) based on the established premises. Variation of wind turbine power generation due to changes in wind and wave direction has been modeled and simulated for the marine wind farm of Saint Brieuc (France) due to the variable wind and wave conditions that occur in that location, with a large misalignment between wind and wave direction for long periods of time. This characteristics makes the Saint Brieuc marine wind farm of special interest. This study describes the methodology to obtain the optimum conditions for a maximization of the power generation when wind and waves act either separated or combined. A simulation process is run to evaluate the evolution of the power generation at the FOWT when operating for relative wind angles from 0 to 360° and waves of periods from 0 to 10 sec and heave in the range of 0 to 14 m.