Modeling the TetraSpar Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Foundation as a Flexible Structure in OrcaFlex and OpenFAST

Jonas Bjerg Thomsen, Roger Bergua, Jason Jonkman, Amy Robertson, Nicole Mendoza, Cameron Brown, Christos Galinos and Henrik Stiesdal
Additional contact information
Jonas Bjerg Thomsen: Department of the Built Environment, Aalborg University, Thomas Manns Vej 23, 9220 Aalborg, Denmark
Roger Bergua: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Jason Jonkman: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Amy Robertson: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Nicole Mendoza: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Cameron Brown: Stiesdal Offshore Technologies A/S, Nørrevoldgade 45, 5000 Odense, Denmark
Christos Galinos: Stiesdal Offshore Technologies A/S, Nørrevoldgade 45, 5000 Odense, Denmark
Henrik Stiesdal: Stiesdal Offshore Technologies A/S, Nørrevoldgade 45, 5000 Odense, Denmark

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 23, 1-14

Abstract: Floating offshore wind turbine technology has seen an increasing and continuous development in recent years. When designing the floating platforms, both experimental and numerical tools are applied, with the latter often using time-domain solvers based on hydro-load estimation from a Morison approach or a boundary element method. Commercial software packages such as OrcaFlex, or open-source software such as OpenFAST, are often used where the floater is modeled as a rigid six degree-of-freedom body with loads applied at the center of gravity. However, for final structural design, it is necessary to have information on the distribution of loads over the entire body and to know local internal loads in each component. This paper uses the TetraSpar floating offshore wind turbine design as a case study to examine new modeling approaches in OrcaFlex and OpenFAST that provide this information. The study proves the possibility of applying the approach and the extraction of internal loads, while also presenting an initial code-to-code verification between OrcaFlex and OpenFAST. As can be expected, comparing the flexible model to a rigid-body model proves how motion and loads are affected by the flexibility of the structure. OrcaFlex and OpenFAST generally agree, but there are some differences in results due to different modeling approaches. Since no experimental data are available in the study, this paper only forms a baseline for future studies but still proves and describes the possibilities of the approach and codes.

Keywords: floating offshore wind turbines; FOWT; hydrodynamic; OrcaFlex; OpenFAST; numerical models; TetraSpar (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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