An investigation on the impacts of passive and semiactive structural control on a fixed bottom and a floating offshore wind turbine

The application of structural control to offshore wind turbines (OWTs) using tuned mass dampers (TMDs) has shown to be effective in reducing the system loads. The parameters of a magnetorheological (MR) damper modeled by the Bouc‐Wen model are modified to utilize it as a damping device of the TMD. Rather than showcasing the intricate design policy, this research focuses on the availability of the MR damper model on TMDs and its significance on structural control. The impact of passive and semiactive (S‐A) TMDs applied to both fixed bottom and floating OWTs is evaluated under the fatigue limit state (FLS) and the ultimate limit state (ULS). Different S‐A control logics based on the ground hook (GH) control policy are implemented, and the frequency response of each algorithm is investigated. It is shown that the performance of each algorithm varies according to the load conditions such as a normal operation and an extreme case. Fully coupled time domain simulations are conducted through a newly developed simulation tool, integrated into FASTv8. Compared with the passive TMD, it is shown that the S‐A TMD results in higher load reductions with smaller strokes under both the FLS and the ULS conditions. The S‐A TMD using displacement‐based GH control is capable of reducing the fore‐aft and side‐to‐side damage equivalent loads for the monopile by approximately 12% and 64%, respectively. The ultimate loadings at the tower base for the floating substructure are reduced by 9% with the S‐A TMD followed by inverse velocity‐based GH control (IVB‐GH).     

基于扰动观测的漂浮式海上风力机主动滑模结构控制研究

针对漂浮式海上风力机主动结构控制问题,提出一种基于扰动观测的主动滑模控制方法,并应用风力机仿真工具FAST验证所提方法的有效性。在扰动二阶导数有界的前提下,理论证明观测器的稳定性和估计误差的有界性,从而有效估计匹配扰动和非匹配扰动。理论证明一类积分型滑模面的有限时间收敛性和闭环系统稳定性。基于FAST的仿真表明：所提出的主动调谐质量阻尼器（TMD）控制方法与最优被动TMD相比,主动TMD系统的漂浮平台俯仰角度和塔顶位移的均方根值可分别降低11.88%和13.56%,有效提升了风力机承受风浪载荷的能力。     

Platform stabilization and load reduction of floating offshore wind turbines with tension‐leg platform using dynamic vibration absorbers

Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT) are subject to significant increases in structural loads due to the platform motion under turbulent wind and wave. The under‐actuation challenge in FOWT control demands for development of extra actuators for platform stabilization. For FOWT with tension‐leg platform (TLP), this paper presents a comprehensive study on design and control simulation for realizing active mooring line control via the deployment of vertically operated dynamic vibration absorbers (DVAs) at the spokes of TLP structure. The DVA is designed based on the suppression of the primary modes of platform pitch and roll motion. In addition to the enhancement of FAST‐based simulation module, an 11 degrees‐of‐freedom (DOFs) control‐oriented model is derived for the TLP‐FOWT‐DVA system. Based on the control‐oriented model, a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) controller is designed. Simulations are performed for 9 m/s and 18 m/s turbulent winds with different wind and wave directions. The wind turbine performance, platform motions, and structural fatigue loads are evaluated. The results show that the platform motion and tower loads in the lateral direction are significantly reduced, while the tower load in the fore‐aft direction can be moderately reduced. Also, significant reduction in the mooring line tension loads is observed. For achieving the performance in platform motion stabilization and load reduction, the average power consumption of the DVA actuators is less than 0.27% of the wind turbine power generated during the simulated periods. The figures of merits promise significant potential for the feasibility of DVA based control for TLP‐FOWT.     

Wake meandering effects on floating wind turbines

As more floating farms are being developed, the wake interaction between multiple floating wind turbines (FWTs) is becoming increasingly relevant. FWTs have long natural periods in certain degrees of freedom, and the large‐scale movement of the wake, known as wake meandering, occurs at very low frequencies. In this study, we use FAST.Farm to simulate a two‐turbine case with three different FWT concepts: a semisubmersible (semi), a spar, and a tension leg platform (TLP), separated by eight rotor diameters in the wind direction. Since wake meandering varies depending on the environmental conditions, three different wind speeds (for all three concepts) as well as two different turbulence levels (for the semi) are considered. For the below‐rated wind speed, when wake meandering was most extreme, yaw motion standard deviations for the downstream semi were approximately 40% greater in high turbulence and over 100% greater in low turbulence when compared with the upstream semi. The low yaw natural frequency (0.01 Hz) of the semi was excited by meandering, while quasi‐static responses resulted in approximately 20% increases in yaw motion standard deviations for the spar and TLP. Differences in fatigue loading between the upstream and downstream turbines for the mooring line tension and tower base fore‐aft bending moment mostly depended on the velocity deficit and were not directly affected by meandering. However, wake meandering did affect fatigue loading related to the tower top yaw moment and the blade root out‐of‐plane moment.     

Aeroelastic analysis of a floating offshore wind turbine in platform‐induced surge motion using a fully coupled CFD‐MBD method

Modern offshore wind turbines are susceptible to blade deformation because of their increased size and the recent trend of installing these turbines on floating platforms in deep sea. In this paper, an aeroelastic analysis tool for floating offshore wind turbines is presented by coupling a high‐fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver with a general purpose multibody dynamics code, which is capable of modelling flexible bodies based on the nonlinear beam theory. With the tool developed, we demonstrated its applications to the NREL 5 MW offshore wind turbine with aeroelastic blades. The impacts of blade flexibility and platform‐induced surge motion on wind turbine aerodynamics and structural responses are studied and illustrated by the CFD results of the flow field, force, and wake structure. Results are compared with data obtained from the engineering tool FAST v8.     

The dynamics of an offshore wind turbine in parked conditions: a comparison between simulations and measurements

Offshore wind turbines are complex structures, and their dynamics can vary significantly because of changes in operating conditions, e.g., rotor‐speed, pitch angle or changes in the ambient conditions, e.g., wind speed, wave height or wave period. Especially in parked conditions, with reduced aerodynamic damping forces, the response due to wave actions with wave frequencies close to the first structural resonance frequencies can be high. Therefore, this paper will present numerical simulations using the HAWC2 code to study an offshore wind turbine in parked conditions. The model has been created according to best practice and current standards based on the design of an existing Vestas V90 offshore wind turbine on a monopile foundation in the Belgian North Sea. The damping value of the model's first fore‐aft mode has been tuned on the basis of measurements obtained from a long‐term ambient monitoring campaign on the same wind turbine. Using the updated model of the offshore wind turbine, the paper will present some of the effects of the different design parameters and the different ambient conditions on the dynamics of an offshore wind turbine. The results from the simulations will be compared with the processed data obtained from the real measurements. The accuracy of the model will be discussed in terms of resonance frequencies, mode shapes, damping value and acceleration levels, and the limitations of the simulations in modeling of an offshore wind turbine will be addressed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

单桩海上风力机风致振动变阻尼控制研究

风致振动是大型风力机发生破坏性事故的主要原因.为探究半主动控制在近海单桩风力机风致振动控制中的应用效果,基于ABAQUS有限元软件二次开发了风力机半主动控制模块,以单桩式NREL5 MW海上风力机为研究对象,通过磁流变阻尼器对Bang-Bang控制、改进Bang-Bang控制及Lyapunov控制3种半主动控制算法在单...     

海上浮式风力机变桨距控制研究

借鉴陆上风力机基于状态空间法的干扰自适应控制,在状态空间中考虑海上浮式风力机支撑平台运动自由度,采用状态观测器评估系统各状态量,研究不同干扰自适应变桨距控制对海上浮式风力机控制性能的影响,并与FAST基础控制对比分析。结果表明:海上浮式风力机变桨距控制设计应基于状态空间法的干扰自适应控制,同时在状态空间中应考虑平台纵荡、纵摇及艏摇自由度。     

基于ABAQUS的海上风力机动力分析软件平台开发

基于通用有限元程序ABAQUS和风力机开源设计软件FAST,开发海上风力机动力响应分析软件平台ABA-OWT.选用NREL 5 MW海上单桩式风力机标准模型,首先,在ABAQUS中实现风力机结构的自动化建模,并根据风力机的结构特性初步验证模型的正确性;然后,在时域内通过子程序建立风力机结构与FAST子模块(气动、水动和...     

Wind shear estimation model using load measurement of wind turbine tower and surrogate model

A wind shear estimation method based on fore‐aft moment is proposed to estimate wind shear strength without a Doppler lidar. We construct wind shear estimation models (WSEMs) using surrogate models whose input is the time‐averaged fore‐aft moment and various supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system data. Learning data for the WSEMs are generated by numerical simulation or field measurement of a real turbine using SCADA, strain gauges, and Doppler lidar. By using simulation data, we construct 20 WSEMs with various input combinations and surrogate methods to select a model with the highest accuracy. The best WSEM is constructed with the universal Kriging surrogate model and uses the fore‐aft moment and wind speed as its input. Subsequently, the best WSEM is applied to a real turbine to validate its accuracy in real wind conditions, and we confirm that the WSEM has reasonable accuracy. However, the estimation error in the real wind condition is about twice as high as that in the simulation due to the real wind shear not completely corresponding to the assumed wind profile and a large yaw error. Further improvement in wind shear estimation accuracy will be achieved by adding yaw error and turbulence intensity to the input variables and applying the WSEM to wind farms on simple terrain or offshore wind farms where wind profile error decreases.     

Effect of platform disturbance on the performance of offshore wind turbine under pitch control

The aerodynamic performance of offshore floating wind turbines (OFWTs) is more complicated than onshore wind turbines due to 6‐degree of freedom (DOF) motion of the floating platform. In the current study, the aerodynamic analysis of a horizontal‐axis floating offshore wind turbine is performed with the aim of studying the effects of floating platform movement on the aerodynamic characteristics of the turbine in the presence of a pitch angle control system. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 5‐MW offshore wind turbine is selected as the baseline wind turbine. For this sake, the unsteady blade element momentum method with dynamic stall and dynamic inflow models have been employed to obtain the unsteady aerodynamic loads. The baseline pitch angle control system is assumed to be coupled with the aerodynamic model to maintain the rated condition of the wind turbine and also to approach a closer model of wind turbine. In case of pitching motion input, the reduction of mean power coefficient for tip speed ratios (TSRs) less that 7 is expected by an amount of 16% to 20% at pitch amplitude of 2° and frequency of 0.1 Hz. For high TSRs, the trend is reverse with respect to fixed‐platform case. The mean thrust coefficient is reduced for almost all range of TSRs with maximum loss of 37%. Moreover, the mean control pitch angle that is an index of control system effort is increased. The results also represent the importance of considering the pitch control system for aerodynamic analysis of disturbed OFWT.     

A study of modal damping for offshore wind turbines considering soil properties and foundation types

The modal damping ratio for each mode is crucial to characterize the dynamic behavior of offshore wind turbines and widely used by simulation software in wind turbine engineering, such as Bladed and FAST. In this study, modal damping ratios of offshore wind turbines are systematically studied for different soil properties and foundation types. Firstly, the modal damping ratios and modal frequencies for the first and second modes of a gravity foundation–supported offshore wind turbine are studied. An offshore wind turbine supported by a monopile foundation is then investigated to clarify the characteristics of modal damping ratios and modal frequencies for the monopile foundation. The soil parameters are identified by means of genetic algorithm (GA). Predicted modal damping ratios and modal frequencies as well as modal shapes show good agreement with the field measurements for both foundations. Finally, a sensitivity analysis study is carried out to investigate the effects of soil properties and foundation types on modal damping ratios. For the gravity foundation–supported offshore wind turbine, soil properties affect the modal damping ratio of the second mode largely, but affect that of the first mode little, while for the monopile‐supported offshore wind turbine, soil properties affect the modal damping ratios of the first and second modes significantly. Predicted natural periods and modal damping ratios of the first mode for both foundations by a pair of simple models agree well with those by numerical models.     

Aerodynamic simulations of offshore floating wind turbine in platform‐induced pitching motion

Forfloating offshore wind turbines, rotors are under coupled motions of rotating and platform‐induced motions because of hydrodynamics impacts. Notably, the coupled motion of platform pitching and rotor rotating induces unsteadiness and nonlinear aerodynamics in turbine operations; thus having a strong effect on the rotor performances including thrust and power generation. The present work aims at developing a computational fluid dynamics model for simulations of rotor under floating platform induced motions. The rotor motion is realized using arbitrary mesh interface, and wind flows are modelled by incompressible Navier‐Stokes flow solver appended by the k  ? ω shear stress transport turbulence model to resolve turbulence quantities. In order to investigate the fully coupled motion of floating wind turbine, the six degree of freedom solid body motion solver is extended to couple with multiple motions, especially for the motion of rotor coupled with the prescribed surge‐heave‐pitch motion of floating platform. The detailed methodology of multiple motion coupling is also described and discussed in this work. Both steady and unsteady simulations of offshore floating wind turbine are considered in the present work. The steady aerodynamic simulation of offshore floating wind turbine is implemented by the multiple reference frames approach and for the transient simulation, the rotor motion is realized using arbitrary mesh interface. A rigorous benchmark of the present numerical model is performed by comparing to the reported literatures. The detailed elemental thrust and power comparisons of wind turbine are carried out by comparing with the results from FAST developed by National Renewable Energy Laboratory and various existing numerical data with good agreement. The proposed approach is then applied for simulations of National Renewable Energy Laboratory 5MW turbine in coupled platform motion at various wind speeds under a typical load case scenario. Transient effect of flows over turbines rotor is captured with good prediction of turbine performance as compared with existing data from FAST. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Incorporating a stochastic data‐driven inflow model for uncertainty quantification of wind turbine performance

Incorporating uncertainty in wind turbine analysis and design is very necessary based on the fact that inherent variability exists in wind turbine systems. Examples of these uncertainties include fluctuations in material properties across turbine blades, variable structure parameters and stochasticity in the inflow—which is considered to be a critical factor affecting the reliability of wind turbines. However, it has been difficult to construct a low‐dimensional yet accurate representation of the stochastic inflow, which precludes rigorous uncertainty propagation and quantification. Recently, we have developed a comprehensive data‐driven approach [called temporal–spatial decomposition (TSD)] for constructing a stochastic, low‐dimensional model that accurately represents stochastic inflow data. We leverage this approach to construct distributional forecasts of key wind turbine performance indicators. To this end, we integrated the stochastic wind model created by the TSD framework with the wind turbine solver FAST. Uncertainty propagation is performed using an adaptive sparse grid collocation approach. We investigate how the order of approximation of the stochastic model affects the quality of the predicted distribution. We observe that the probability distributions of key indicators are not necessarily Gaussian, which has implications for reliability analysis and for failure prediction. Furthermore, the distributions are sensitive to only the first few eigenmodes of the inflow wind model, which indicates that comprehensive uncertainty quantification can potentially be accomplished with moderate computational effort. The approach suggested in this paper enables seamless integration of uncertainty quantification into current deterministic codes for wind turbine simulation and has implications for the design of the next generation of wind turbines including offshore turbines. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Design and model confirmation of the intermediate scale VolturnUS floating wind turbine subjected to its extreme design conditions offshore Maine

Floating offshore wind turbines are gaining considerable interest in the renewable energy sector. Design standards for floating offshore wind turbines such as the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) Guide for Building and Classing Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Installations are relatively new and few if any floating wind turbines have yet experienced the prescribed design extreme environmental conditions. Only a few pilot floating turbines have been deployed in Europe and Japan. These turbines have been designed for long return period storm events and are not likely to see their extreme design conditions during early deployment periods because of the low probability of occurrence. This paper presents data collected for an intermediate scale floating semi‐submersible turbine intentionally placed offshore Maine in a carefully selected site that subjects the prototype to scale extreme conditions on a frequent basis. This prototype, called VolturnUS 1:8, was the first grid‐connected offshore wind turbine in the Americas, and is a 1:8 scale model of a 6 MW prototype. The test site produces with a high probability 1:8 scale wave environments, and a commercial turbine has been selected so that the wind environment/rotor combination produces 1:8‐scale aerodynamic loads appropriate for the site wave environment. In the winter of 2013–2014, this prototype has seen the equivalent of 50 year to 500 year return period storms exercising it to the limits prescribed by design standards, offering a unique look at the behavior of a floating turbine subjected to extreme design conditions. Performance data are provided and compared to full‐scale predicted values from numerical models. There are two objectives in presenting this data and associated analysis: (i) validate numerical aeroelastic hydrodynamic coupled models and (ii) investigate the performance of a near full‐scale floating wind turbine in a real offshore environment that closely matches the prescribed design conditions from the ABS Guide. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelica-AeroDyn: Development,benchmark, and application of a comprehensive object-oriented tool for dynamic analysis of non-conventional horizontal-axis floating wind turbines

The exploitation of offshore wind energy by means of floating wind turbines is gaining traction as a suitable option to produce sustainable energy. Multi-rotor floating wind turbines have been proposed as an appealing option to reduce the costs associated with manufacturing, logistics, offshore installations, and operation and maintenance of large wind turbine components. The development of such systems is forestalled by the lack of a dedicated tool for dynamics and load analysis. Standard codes, such as FAST by NREL, offer the desired fidelity level but are not able to accommodate multi-rotor configurations. A few experimental codes have been also proposed, which may accommodate multi-rotor systems, but low flexibility makes them impractical to study a vast range of innovative multi-rotor FWTs concepts. To close the gap, this work presents the development and comprehensive benchmark of a fully coupled aero-hydro-servo-elastic tool able to easily accommodate arbitrary platform and tower geometries and the number of wind turbines employed. Development is carried out in Modelica, which allows for the employment of the same code functionality in a virtually unlimited number of physical configurations. Full blade-element momentum capabilities are achieved by integrating into Modelica the well-established NREL aerodynamic module AeroDyn v15 within FAST v8. Structural dynamics of tower and blades are implemented through a lumped-element approach. Hydrodynamic loads are computed by employing the DNV software SESAM WADAM. Thorough benchmark is performed against FAST, and positive results are obtained. The dynamic performance of a two-rotor floating wind turbine is finally assessed considering different turbulence spectrums.     

Dynamics of offshore floating wind turbines—analysis of three concepts

This work presents a comprehensive dynamic–response analysis of three offshore floating wind turbine concepts. Models were composed of one 5 MW turbine supported on land and three 5 MW turbines located offshore on a tension leg platform, a spar buoy and a barge. A loads and stability analysis adhering to the procedures of international design standards was performed for each model using the fully coupled time domain aero‐hydro‐servo‐elastic simulation tool FAST with AeroDyn and HydroDyn. The concepts are compared based on the calculated ultimate loads, fatigue loads and instabilities. The loads in the barge‐supported turbine are the highest found for the three floating concepts. The differences in the loads between the tension leg platform–supported turbine and spar buoy–supported turbine are not significant, except for the loads in the tower, which are greater in the spar system. Instabilities in all systems also must be resolved. The results of this analysis will help resolve the fundamental design trade‐offs between the floating‐system concepts. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Wave disturbance rejection for monopile offshore wind turbines

The dimensions of offshore wind turbine (OWT) support structures are governed by fatigue considerations. For 6‐ to 10‐MW OWTs, wave loads are often dominating in terms of fatigue utilization. The present work proposes a control scheme to reduce the wave‐induced fatigue loads in OWT support structures. The control scheme applies collective pitch control to increase both the damping and stiffness of the fore‐aft vibration modes. With conventional active tower damping, efficient wave disturbance rejection is restricted to a narrow frequency range around the first fore‐aft modal frequency. The proposed control scheme achieves efficient wave disturbance rejection across a broader frequency range. Here, tower feedback control is implemented via an auxiliary control loop. Based on a low‐fidelity model, the effect of the tower feedback loop on the stability margins of the basic controller is analysed. The results show that, within certain boundaries, the stability margins are improved by the stiffness term in the tower feedback loop. Consequently, the need to reduce the bandwidth of the basic controller to accommodate tower feedback control is relaxed. Based on time‐domain simulations carried out in an aero‐hydro‐servo‐elastic simulation tool, the lifetime effects of the proposed control scheme are analysed. Compared with conventional active tower damping, a more favourable trade‐off between adverse side effects and the support structure's fatigue damage is achieved with the proposed control scheme.     

Long‐term loads for a monopile‐supported offshore wind turbine

Accurate prediction of long‐term ‘characteristic’ loads associated with an ultimate limit state for design of a 5‐MW bottom‐supported offshore wind turbine is the focus of this study. Specifically, we focus on predicting the long‐term fore–aft tower bending moment at the mudline and the out‐of‐plane bending moment at the blade root of a monopile‐supported shallow‐water offshore wind turbine. We employ alternative probabilistic predictions of long‐term loads using inverse reliability procedures in establishing the characteristic loads for design. Because load variability depends on the environmental conditions (defining the wind speed and wave height), we show that long‐term predictions that explicitly account for such load variability are more accurate, especially for environmental states associated with above‐rated wind speeds and associated wave heights. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hybrid damper with stroke amplification for damping of offshore wind turbines

The magnitude of tower vibrations of offshore wind turbines is a key design driver for the feasibility of the monopile support structure. A novel control concept for the damping of these tower vibrations is proposed, where viscous‐type hybrid dampers are installed at the bottom of the wind turbine tower. The proposed hybrid damper consists of a passive viscous dashpot placed in series with a load cell and an active actuator. By integrated force feedback control of the actuator motion, the associated displacement amplitude over the viscous damper can be increased compared with the passive viscous case, hereby significantly increasing the feasibility of viscous dampers acting at the bottom of the wind turbine tower. To avoid drift in the actuator displacement, a filtered time integration of the measured force signal is introduced. Numerical examples demonstrate that the filtered time integration control leads to performance similar to that of passive viscous damping and substantial amplification of the damper deformation without actuator drift. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.