Experimental Study on the Hydrodynamic Analysis of a Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Under Focused Wave Conditions

Hanbo Zhai, Chaojun Yan, Wei Shi, Lixian Zhang, Xinmeng Zeng, Xu Han () and Constantine Michailides
Additional contact information
Hanbo Zhai: Institute of Science and Technology Research, China Three Gorges Corporation, Beijing 210098, China
Chaojun Yan: Deepwater Engineering Research Center, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Wei Shi: Deepwater Engineering Research Center, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Lixian Zhang: School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400045, China
Xinmeng Zeng: College of Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China
Xu Han: Deepwater Engineering Research Center, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Constantine Michailides: Civil Engineering Department, International Hellenic University, 57400 Thessaloniki, Greece

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 15, 1-20

Abstract: The strong nonlinearity of shallow-water waves significantly affects the dynamic response of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs), introducing additional complexity in motion behavior. This study presents a series of 1:80-scale experiments conducted on a 5 MW FOWT at a 50 m water depth, under regular, irregular, and focused wave conditions. The tests were conducted under regular, irregular, and focused wave conditions. The results show that, under both regular and irregular wave conditions, the platform’s motion and mooring tension increased as the wave period became longer, indicating a greater energy transfer and stronger coupling effects at lower wave frequencies. Specifically, in irregular seas, mooring tension increased by 16% between moderate and high sea states, with pronounced surge–pitch coupling near the natural frequency. Under focused wave conditions, the platform experienced significant surge displacement due to the impact of large wave crests, followed by free-decay behavior. Meanwhile, the pitch amplitude increased by up to 27%, and mooring line tension rose by 16% as the wave steepness intensified. These findings provide valuable insights for the design and optimization of FOWTs in complex marine environments, particularly under extreme wave conditions. Additionally, they contribute to the refinement of relevant numerical simulation methods.

Keywords: floating offshore wind turbine; model tests; focused waves; coupled analysis (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: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/15/4140/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/15/4140/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:15:p:4140-:d:1717543

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().