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.     

Stochastic dynamic response analysis of a tension leg spar‐type offshore wind turbine

This paper presents a stochastic dynamic response analysis of a tension leg spar‐type wind turbine subjected to wind and wave actions. The dynamic motions, structural responses, power production and tension leg responses are analyzed. The model is implemented using the HAWC2 code. Several issues such as negative damping, rotor configuration (upwind or downwind rotor) and tower shadow effects are discussed to study the power performance and structural integrity of the system. The operational and survival load cases considering the stochastic wave and wind loading are analyzed to investigate the functionality of the tension leg spar‐type wind turbine. Amelioration of the negative damping applied for this concept reduces the structural dynamic responses, which are important for fatigue life. It is found that the responses induced by wave and wind actions at the wave frequencies are not affected much by the aerodynamic excitation or damping forces. Because of the nonlinear effects of the tension leg, all of the motion responses are strongly coupled. The global responses of upwind and downwind versions of the turbine are found to be close because the tower shadow has a limited effect on the global responses. However, the structural dynamic responses of the blades are more affected by the tower shadow. In this study, the extrapolation methods are applied to efficiently estimate the maximum responses. The maximum response is found to occur in the survival cases as a result of the wave actions and the increased aerodynamic drag forces on the tower. The results show that the maximum responses corresponding to the up‐crossing rate of 0.0001 (corresponding to the maximum response within a 3 hour period) can be expressed by the mean plus 3 to 5 standard deviations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Response analysis and comparison of a spar‐type floating offshore wind turbine and an onshore wind turbine under blade pitch controller faults

This paper analyses the effects of three pitch system faults on two classes of wind turbines, one is an onshore type and the other a floating offshore spar‐type wind turbine. A stuck blade pitch actuator, a fixed value fault and a bias fault in the blade pitch sensor are considered. The effects of these faults are investigated using short‐term extreme response analysis with the HAWC2 simulation tool. The main objectives of the paper are to investigate how the different faults affect the performance of wind turbines and which differences exist in the structural responses between onshore and floating offshore wind turbines. Several load cases are covered in a statistical analysis to show the effects of faults at different wind speeds and fault amplitudes. The severity of individual faults is categorized by the extreme values the faults have on structural loads. A pitch sensor stuck is determined as being the most severe case. Comparison between the effects on floating offshore and onshore wind turbines show that in the onshore case the tower, the yaw bearing and the shaft are subjected to the highest risk, whereas in the offshore case, the shaft is in this position. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimation of offshore extreme wind from wind‐wave coupled modeling

A coupledwind‐wave modeling system is used to simulate 23 years of storms and estimate offshore extreme wind statistics. In this system, the atmospheric Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and Spectral Wave model for Near shore (SWAN) are coupled, through a wave boundary layer model (WBLM) that is implemented in SWAN. The WBLM calculates momentum and turbulence kinetic energy budgets, using them to transfer wave‐induced stress to the atmospheric modeling. While such coupling has a trivial impact on the wind modeling for 10‐m wind speeds less than 20 ms^?1, the effect becomes appreciable for stronger winds—both compared with uncoupled WRF modeling and with standard parameterization schemes for roughness length. The coupled modeling output is shown to be satisfactory compared with measurements, in terms of the distribution of surface‐drag coefficient with wind speed. The coupling is also shown to be important for estimation of extreme winds offshore, where the WBLM‐coupled results match observations better than results from noncoupled modeling, as supported by measurements from a number of stations.     

The simulation error caused by input loading variability in offshore wind turbine structural analysis

Stochastic representations of turbulent wind and irregular waves are used in time domain simulations of offshore wind turbines. The variability due to finite sampling of this input loading is an important source of simulation error. For the OC4 reference jacket structure with a 5 MW wind turbine, an error of 12–34% for ultimate loads and 6–12% for fatigue loads can occur with a probability of 1%, for simulations with a total simulation length of 60 min and various load cases. In terms of fatigue life, in the worst case, the lifetime of a joint was thereby overestimated by 29%. The size of this error can be critical, i.e., ultimate or fatigue limits can be exceeded, with probability depending on the choice of number of random seeds and simulation length. The analysis is based on a large simulation study with about 30,000 time domain simulations. Probability density functions of response variables are estimated and analyzed in terms of confidence intervals; i.e., how probable it is to obtain results significantly different from the expected value when using a finite number of simulations. This simulation error can be reduced to the same extent, either using several short simulations with different stochastic representations of the wind field or one long simulation with corresponding total length of the wind field. When using several short‐term simulations, it is important that ultimate and fatigue loads are calculated based on the complete, properly combined set of results, in order to prevent a systematic bias in the estimated loads. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multi‐hazard reliability assessment of offshore wind turbines

A probabilistic framework is developed to assess the structural performance of offshore wind turbines under multiple hazards. A multi‐hazard fragility surface of a given wind turbine support structure and the seismic and wind hazards at a specific site location are incorporated into the probabilistic framework to assess the structural damage due to multiple hazards. A database of virtual experiments is generated using detailed three‐dimensional finite element analyses of a set of typical wind turbine systems subject to extreme wind speeds and earthquake ground motions. The generated data are used to develop probabilistic models to predict the shear and moment demands on support structures. A Bayesian approach is used to assess the model parameters incorporating the information from virtual experiment data. The developed demand models are then used to estimate the fragility of the support structure of a given wind turbine. As an example of the proposed framework, the annual probabilities of the occurrence of different structural damage levels are calculated for two identical wind turbines, one located in the Gulf of Mexico of the Texas Coast (prone to hurricanes) and one off the California Coast (a high seismic region). Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparative analysis of methods for modelling the short‐term probability distribution of extreme wind turbine loads

We have tested the performance of statistical extrapolation methods in predicting the extreme response of a multi‐megawatt wind turbine generator. We have applied the peaks‐over‐threshold, block maxima and average conditional exceedance rates (ACER) methods for peaks extraction, combined with four extrapolation techniques: the Weibull, Gumbel and Pareto distributions and a double‐exponential asymptotic extreme value function based on the ACER method. For the successful implementation of a fully automated extrapolation process, we have developed a procedure for automatic identification of tail threshold levels, based on the assumption that the response tail is asymptotically Gumbel distributed. Example analyses were carried out, aimed at comparing the different methods, analysing the statistical uncertainties and identifying the factors, which are critical to the accuracy and reliability of the extrapolation. The present paper describes the modelling procedures and makes a comparison of extrapolation methods based on the results from the example calculations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Load case reduction for offshore wind turbine support structure fatigue assessment by importance sampling with two‐stage filtering

A complete fatigue assessment for operational conditions for offshore wind turbines involves simulating thousands of environmental states. For applications such as optimization, where this assessment needs to be repeated many times, that presents a significant computational problem. Here, we propose a novel way of reducing the number of simulated environmental states (load cases) while maintaining an acceptable accuracy. From one full fatigue analysis of a base design, the OC3 monopile (with the NREL 5MW turbine), the distribution of fatigue damage per load case can be used to estimate the lifetime fatigue damage of a range of modified designs. Using importance sampling and a specially adapted two‐stage filtering procedure, we obtain pseudo‐optimal sets of load cases from which the fatigue damage is estimated. This is applied to seven different designs that have been modified to emulate iterations of an optimization loop. For several of these designs, sampling less than 1% of all load cases can give damage estimates with median errors of less than 2%. Even for the most severe cases, using 3% of the environmental states yields a maximum error of 10%. While further refinement is possible, the method is considered viable for applications within design optimization and preliminary design.     

Identification of support structure damping of a full scale offshore wind turbine in normal operation

The support structure damping of a 3.6 MW pitch controlled variable speed offshore wind turbine on a monopile foundation is estimated both in standstill conditions and in normal operation. The net substructure damping is identified from the parameters of an exponential curve fitted to the relative maxima of an impulse response caused by a boat impact. The result is used in the verification of the non aerodynamic damping in normal operation for low wind speeds. The auto-correlation function technique for damping estimation of a structure under ambient excitation was validated against the identified damping from the decaying time series. The Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition (EFDD) method was applied to the wind turbine response under ambient excitation, for estimation of the damping in normal operation. The aero-servo-hydro-elastic tool HAWC2 is validated with offshore foundation load measurements. The model was tuned to the damping values obtained from the boat impact to match the measured loads. Wind turbulence intensity and wave characteristics used in the simulations are based on site measurements. A flexible soil model is included in the analysis. The importance of the correctly simulated damping in the model is stressed for accurate load prediction. Differences in the identified damping between the model and the wind turbine are detailed and explained. Discrepancies between simulated and measured loads are discussed.     

Post‐installation adaptation of offshore wind turbine controls

The cost of offshore wind energy can be reduced by incorporating control strategies to reduce the support structures' load effects into the structural design process. While effective in reducing the cost of support structures, load‐reducing controls produce potentially costly side effects in other wind turbine components and subsystems. This paper proposes a methodology to mitigate these side effects at the wind farm level. The interaction between the foundation and the surrounding soil is a major source of uncertainty in estimating the safety margins of support structures. The safety margins are generally closely correlated with the modal properties (natural frequencies, damping ratios). This admits the possibility of using modal identification techniques to reassess the structural safety after installing and commissioning the wind farm. Since design standards require conservative design margins, the post‐installation safety assessment is likely to reveal better than expected structural safety performance. Thus, if load‐reducing controls have been adopted in the structural design process, it is likely permissible to reduce the use of these during actual operation. Here, the probabilistic outcome of such a two‐stage controls adaptation is analyzed. The analysis considers the structural design of a 10 MW monopile offshore wind turbine under uncertainty in the site‐specific soil conditions. Two control strategies are considered in separate analyses: (a) tower feedback control to increase the support structure's fatigue life and (b) peak shaving to increase the support structure's serviceability capacity. The results show that a post‐installation adaptation can reduce the farm‐level side‐effects of load‐reducing controls by up to an order of magnitude.     

Resonant overvoltage assessment in offshore wind farms via a parametric black‐box wind turbine transformer model

The protection of offshore wind farms (OWFs) against overvoltages, especially resonant overvoltage, is of paramount importance because of poor accessibility and high repair costs. In this paper, we study how switching overvoltages at the wind turbine transformer (WTT) medium voltage (MV) side can lead to high overvoltages on the low voltage (LV) side. The effect of overvoltage protective devices is analyzed. A detailed model of an OWF row is developed in electromagnetic transients program–alternative transients program (EMTP‐ATP), including interconnecting cables, WTT, surge arresters and resistive–capacitive filters. A parameterized black‐box WTT model is obtained from measurements and is used for investigating the transfer of resonant overvoltages from the MV to the LV side. The model is capable of shifting systematically the frequencies and adjusting the transformer input impedance. Simulation results show that wind turbine energization in an OWF can lead to overvoltages on the LV terminals. The rate of rise of overvoltages (du/dt) is in the range of 300–500 pu/µs. It is found that resistive–capacitive filters should be installed on both MV and LV terminals of WTTs to decrease both resonant overvoltages and du/dt, which is unachievable by surge arrester alone. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The creation of a comprehensive metocean data set for offshore wind turbine simulations

A database of meteorological and ocean conditions is presented for use in offshore wind energy research and design. The original data are from 23 ocean sites around the USA and were obtained from the National Data Buoy Center run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The data are presented in a processed form that includes the variables of interest for offshore wind energy design: wind speed, significant wave height, wave peak‐spectral period, wind direction and wave direction. For each site, a binning process is conducted to create conditional probability functions for each of these variables. The sites are then grouped according to geographic location and combined to create three representative sites, including a West Coast site, an East Coast site and a Gulf of Mexico site. Both the processed data and the probability distribution parameters for the individual and representative sites are being hosted on a publicly available domain by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, with the intent of providing a standard basis of comparison for meteorological and ocean conditions for offshore wind energy research worldwide. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of aerodynamic modeling on seakeeping performance of a floating horizontal axis wind turbine

Over the last decade, several coupled simulation tools have been developed in order to design and optimize floating wind turbines (FWTs). In most of these tools, the aerodynamic modeling is based on quasi‐steady aerodynamic models such as the blade element momentum (BEM). It may not be accurate enough for FWTs as the motion of the platform induces highly unsteady phenomena around the rotor. To address this issue, a new design tool has been developed coupling a seakeeping solver with an unsteady aerodynamic solver based on the free vortex wake (FVW) theory. This tool is here compared with the reference code FAST, which is based on the BEM theory in order to characterize the impact of the aerodynamic model on the seakeeping of a floating horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT). Aerodynamic solvers are compared for the case of the free floating NREL 5MW HAWT supported by the OC3Hywind SPAR. Differences obtained between the models have been analyzed through a study of the aerodynamic loads acting on the same turbine in imposed harmonic surge and pitch motions. This provides a better understanding of the intrinsic differences between the quasi‐steady and unsteady aerodynamic solvers. The study shows that differences can be observed between the three aerodynamic solvers, especially at high tip speed ratio (TSR) for which unsteady aerodynamic phenomena and complex wake dynamics occur. Observed discrepancies in the predictions of the FWT dynamic response can raise issues when designing such a system with a state‐of‐the‐art design tool.     

Load response of a two-rotor floating wind turbine undergoing blade-pitch system faults

Multi-rotor floating wind turbines are among the innovative technologies proposed in the last decade in the effort to reduce the cost of wind energy. These systems are able to offer advantages in terms of smaller blades deployed offshore, cheaper operations, fewer installations, and sharing of the floating platform. As the blade-pitch actuation system is prone to failures, the assessment of the associated load scenarios is commonly required. Load assessment of blade-pitch fault scenarios has only been performed for single-rotor solutions. In this work, we address the effect of blade-pitch system faults and emergency shutdown on the dynamics and loads of a two-rotor floating wind turbine. The concept considered employs two NREL 5-MW baseline wind turbines and the OO-Star semi-submersible platform. The blade-pitch faults investigated are blade blockage and runaway, that is, the seizure at a given pitch angle and the uncontrolled actuation of one of the blades, respectively. Blade-pitch faults lead to a significant increase in the structural loads of the system, especially for runaway fault conditions. Emergency shutdown significantly excites the platform pitch motion, the tower-bottom bending moment, and tower torsional loads, while suppressing the faulty blade flapwise bending moment after a short peak. Shutdown delay between rotors increases significantly the maxima of the torsional loads acting on the tower. Comparison of blade loads with data from single-rotor spar-type study show great similarity, highlighting that the faulty blade loads are not affected by (1) the type of platform used and (2) the multi-rotor deployment.     

Fatigue assessment of offshore wind turbines on monopile foundations using multi‐band modal expansion

Offshore wind turbines (OWTs) are subjected to both quasi‐static loads originating from variations in the thrust force and dynamic loads linked to turbulence, waves and turbine dynamics. Both types of loads contribute to fatigue life progression and thus define the turbine's age. As a structural health monitoring solution, one could thus directly measure the stress history at fatigue critical locations. However, for OWTs on monopile foundations some fatigue critical locations are located below the seabed. Installing strain sensors at these hotspots is therefore impossible for existing wind turbines. This measurement restriction is overcome by reconstructing the full‐field response of the structure based on the limited number of accelerometers and strain sensors (installed at a few easily accessible locations) and a calibrated finite element model of the system. The system model uses a multi‐band modal expansion approach constituted of the quasi‐static and dynamic contributions. These contributions are superimposed to reconstruct the stress history at all degrees of freedom of the finite element model, and the subsequent assess fatigue life consumption at all fatigue hot spots of the OWT. In this paper, the proposed virtual sensing technique is validated by predicting the stresses in the transition piece with 12 days of consecutive measurements from an operational OWT. The data set contains both variations in environmental and operating conditions as well as extreme events. Finally, a full‐field strain assessment in the tower and foundation system of the OWT is demonstrated. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impact of aerodynamic modelling on seakeeping performance of a floating vertical axis wind turbine

This study focuses on the impact of the aerodynamic model on the dynamic response of a floating vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT). It compares a state‐of‐the‐art quasi‐steady double multiple streamtube (DMS) solver, a prescribed vortex wake (PVW), and a free vortex wake (FVW) solver. The aerodynamic loads acting on a bottom‐fixed VAWT and computed with the three aerodynamic solvers are compared, then the dynamic responses of the floating turbine in irregular waves and turbulent wind with the different aerodynamic solvers are compared. Differences are observed, particularly in the mean motions of the platform. Eventually, the aerodynamic damping computed by the solvers are estimated with aerodynamic simulations on the turbine with imposed surge and pitch motions. The estimated damping can then be correlated with the dynamic response amplitude of the VAWT. Substantial discrepancies are observed between the three solvers at high tip speed ratio, when the rotor is highly loaded. It is shown that the quasi‐steady DMS solver seems to give greater amplitude of motions for the floating VAWT because of strong rotor/wake interaction that are not correctly accounted for.     

Scenario analysis for techno‐economic model development of U.S. offshore wind support structures

Challenging bathymetry and soil conditions of future US offshore wind power plants might promote the use of multimember, fixed‐bottom structures (or ‘jackets’) in place of monopiles. Support structures affect costs associated with the balance of system and operation and maintenance. Understanding the link between these costs and the main environmental design drivers is crucial in the quest for a lower levelized cost of energy, and it is the main rationale for this work. Actual cost and engineering data are still scarce; hence, we evaluated a simplified engineering approach to tie key site and turbine parameters (e.g. water depth, wave height, tower‐head mass, hub height and generator rating) to the overall support weight. A jacket‐and‐tower sizing tool, part of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's system engineering software suite, was utilized to achieve mass‐optimized support structures for 81 different configurations. This tool set provides preliminary sizing of all jacket components. Results showed reasonable agreement with the available industry data, and that the jacket mass is mainly driven by water depth, but hub height and tower‐head mass become more influential at greater turbine ratings. A larger sensitivity of the structural mass to wave height and target eigenfrequency was observed for the deepest water conditions (>40 m). Thus, techno‐economic analyses using this model should be based on accurate estimates of actual metocean conditions and turbine parameters especially for deep waters. The relationships derived from this study will inform National Renewable Energy Laboratory's offshore balance of system cost model, and they will be used to evaluate the impact of changes in technology on offshore wind lower levelized cost of energy. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Wave‐current interaction effects on structural responses of floating offshore wind turbines

This paper proposes a model considering the wave‐current interactions in dynamic analyses of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) and investigates the interaction effects on the FOWT responses. Waves when traveling on current are affected by the current, leading to frequency shift and shape modification. To include such interactions in FOWT analysis, which has not been considered by the researchers till date, a nonlinear hydrodynamic model for multicable mooring systems is presented that is able to consider the cable geometric nonlinearity, seabed contact, and the current effect. The mooring model is then coupled with a spar‐type FOWT model that handles the structural dynamics of turbine blades and tower, aerodynamics of the wind‐blade interaction, and wave‐current effects on the spar. The analytical wave‐current interaction model based on Airy theory considering the current effect is used in the computation of flow velocity and acceleration. Numerical studies are then carried out based on the NREL offshore 5‐MW baseline wind turbine supported on top of the OC3‐Hywind spar buoy. Two cases, (1) when the currents are favorable and (2) when the currents are adverse, are examined. Differences of up to 15% have been observed by comparing the cable fairlead tension obtained excluding and including the wave‐current interactions. In particular, when irregular waves interact with adverse current, a simple superposition treatment of the wave and the current effects seems to underestimate the spar motion and the cable fairlead tension. This indicates that the wave‐current interaction is an important aspect and is needed to be considered in FOWT analysis.     

Power system frequency response from fixed speed and doubly fed induction generator‐based wind turbines

Throughout Europe there is an increasing trend of connecting high penetrations of wind turbines to the transmission networks. This has resulted in transmission system operators revising their grid code documents for the connection of large wind farms. These specifications require large MW capacity wind farms to have the ability to assist in some of the power system control services currently carried out by conventional synchronous generation. These services include voltage and frequency control. It is now recognized that much of this new wind generation plant will use either fixed speed induction generator (FSIG)‐ or doubly fed induction generator (DFIG)‐based wind turbines. The addition of a control loop to synthesize inertia in the DFIG wind turbine using the power electronic control system has been described. The possibility of deloading wind turbines for frequency response using blade pitch angle control is discussed. A pitch control scheme to provide frequency response from FSIG and DFIG wind turbines is also described. A case study of an FSIG wind turbine with frequency response capabilities is investigated. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.