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.     

Multidisciplinary design optimization of offshore wind turbines for minimum levelized cost of energy

This paper presents a method for multidisciplinary design optimization of offshore wind turbines at system level. The formulation and implementation that enable the integrated aerodynamic and structural design of the rotor and tower simultaneously are detailed. The objective function to be minimized is the levelized cost of energy. The model includes various design constraints: stresses, deflections, modal frequencies and fatigue limits along different stations of the blade and tower. The rotor design variables are: chord and twist distribution, blade length, rated rotational speed and structural thicknesses along the span. The tower design variables are: tower thickness and diameter distribution, as well as the tower height. For the other wind turbine components, a representative mass model is used to include their dynamic interactions in the system. To calculate the system costs, representative cost models of a wind turbine located in an offshore wind farm are used. To show the potential of the method and to verify its usefulness, the 5 MW NREL wind turbine is used as a case study. The result of the design optimization process shows 2.3% decrease in the levelized cost of energy for a representative Dutch site, while satisfying all the design constraints.     

Aeroelastic design of large wind turbine blades considering damage tolerance

Modern offshore turbine blades can be designed for high fatigue life and damage tolerance to avoid excessive maintenance and therefore significantly reduce the overall cost of offshore wind power. An aeroelastic design strategy for large wind turbine blades is presented and demonstrated for a 100 m blade. High fidelity analysis techniques like 3D finite element modeling are used alongside beam models of wind turbine blades to characterize the resulting designs in terms of their aeroelastic performance as well as their ability to resist damage growth. This study considers a common damage type for wind turbine blades, the bond line failure, and explores the damage tolerance of the designs to gain insight into how to improve bond line failure through aeroelastic design. Flat‐back airfoils are also explored to improve the damage tolerance performance of trailing‐edge bond line failures. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

海上风电嵌岩区风机基础比选原则及依据

  [目的]  随着海上风能的开发中心从江苏扩大至广东、福建等省份,海上风机基础的嵌岩问题已逐步成为海上风能开发中的核心问题,嵌岩区的风机基础造价严重制约着海上风电场的成本,因此海上风电嵌岩区的风机基础比选就显得尤为关键。  [方法]  讨论了几种风机基础的嵌岩施工工艺,探讨了嵌岩区海上风机基础的比选依据及原则,并对海上风电嵌岩问题的发展进行展望。  [结果]  研究表明:海上风电场嵌岩区域风机基础方案的比选原则应主要从结构安全性、施工可行性和经济性三个方面进行综合比选。在上述三个比选因素中,应首先满足结构安全性上的要求,在此基础上再满足施工可行性的要求,最后考虑经济性的影响。  [结论]  研究成果可为嵌岩区海上风电风机基础设计提供参考。     

Development of a modified stochastic subspace identification method for rapid structural assessment of in‐service utility‐scale wind turbine towers

The strong drive to harness wind energy has recently led to rapid growth of wind farm construction. Wind turbine towers with increased sizes and flexibility experience large vibrations. Structural health monitoring of wind turbines is proposed in the wind energy industry to ensure their proper performance and save maintenance costs. This study proposes a system identification method for vibration‐based structural assessment of wind turbine towers. This method developed based on the stochastic subspace identification method can identify modal parameters of structures in operating conditions with harmonic components in excitations. It benefits wind turbine tower structural health assessment because classical operational modal analysis methods can fail as periodic rotation excitation from a turbine introduces harmonic disturbance to tower structure response data. The effectiveness, accuracy and robustness of the proposed method were numerically investigated and verified through a lumped‐mass system model. The method was then applied to an in‐service utility‐scale wind turbine tower. The field testing campaign and modal parameter identification as well as structural assessment results were presented. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive tower damping control for offshore wind turbines

This paper deals with the problem of wind turbine tower damping control design and implementation in situations where the support structure parameters vary from their nominal design values. Such situations can, in practice, occur for onshore and especially offshore wind turbines and are attributed to aging, turbine installation, scour or marine sand dunes phenomena and biofouling. Practical experience of wind turbine manufacturing industry has shown that such effects are most easily quantified in terms of the first natural frequency of the turbine support structure. The paper brings forward a study regarding the amount to which nominal tower damping controller performance is affected by changes in the turbine natural frequency. Subsequently, an adaptive tower damping control loop is designed using linear parameter‐varying control synthesis; the proposed tower damping controller depends on this varying parameter which is assumed throughout the study to be readily available. An investigation of the fatigue load reduction performance in comparison with the original tower damping control approach is given for a generic three‐bladed horizontal‐axis wind turbine. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Structural health and prognostics management for the enhancement of offshore wind turbine operations and maintenance strategies

Offshore wind turbines are an attractive source for clean and renewable energy for reasons including their proximity to population centers and higher capacity factors. One obstacle to the more widespread installation of offshore wind turbines in the USA, however, is that recent projections of offshore operations and maintenance costs vary from two to five times the land‐based costs. One way in which these costs could be reduced is through use of a structural health and prognostics management (SHPM) system as part of a condition‐based maintenance paradigm with smart loads management. This paper contributes to the development of such strategies by developing an initial roadmap for SHPM, with application to the blades. One of the key elements of the approach is a multiscale simulation approach developed to identify how the underlying physics of the system are affected by the presence of damage and how these changes manifest themselves in the operational response of a full turbine. A case study of a trailing edge disbond is analysed to demonstrate the multiscale sensitivity of damage approach and to show the potential life extension and increased energy capture that can be achieved using simple changes in the overall turbine control and loads management strategy. The integration of health monitoring information, economic considerations such as repair costs versus state of health, and a smart loads management methodology provides an initial roadmap for reducing operations and maintenance costs for offshore wind farms while increasing turbine availability and overall profit. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

海上风机过渡段塔筒精确安装与精准调平工艺探讨

在海上风电场风机基础施工过程中,过渡段塔筒安装及调平是重点和难点。在海上复杂、恶劣的施工条件下,要实现过渡段塔筒的精确安装与精准调平具有相当大的难度,目前国内海上风机过渡段塔筒的安装技术还未成熟。文章以上海东海风电场5 MW大容量样机为例,通过研究过渡段塔筒加工制作过程、安装工序、调平工艺以及施工过程中预防变形所采取的措施等,结合工程实际,解决了在海上进行风机过渡段塔筒精确安装与精准调平的问题。     

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.     

Passive structural control of offshore wind turbines

The application of control techniques to offshore wind turbines has the potential to significantly improve the structural response of these systems. A new simulation tool is developed that can be utilized to model passive, semi‐active and active structural control systems in wind turbines. Two independent, single degree of freedom (DOF) tuned mass‐ damper (TMD) devices are incorporated into a modified version of the aero‐elastic code FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures and Turbulence). The TMDs are located in the nacelle of the turbine model, with one TMD translating in the fore‐aft direction, and the other in the side‐side direction. The equations of motion of the TMDs are incorporated into the source code of FAST, yielding a more realistic system for modeling structural control in wind turbines than has previously been modeled. The stiffness, damping and commanded force of each TMD are controllable through the FAST‐Simulink interface, and so idealizations of semi‐active and active control approaches can be implemented. A parametric study is performed to determine the optimal parameters of a passive single DOF, fore‐aft, TMD system in both a barge‐type and monopile support structure. The wind turbine models equipped with TMDs are then simulated and the performance of these new systems is evaluated. The results indicate that passive control approaches can be used to improve the structural response of offshore wind turbines. The results also demonstrate the potential for active control approaches. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

浅析海上风电施工安全管控

  [目的]  为了对快速发展的海上风电项目进行有效地安全管理,从施工的各个环节对海上风电全过程的安全风险和管理要点进行了梳理,提出了应对措施。  [方法]  通过我国首个以总承包模式建设的某海上风电项目实施过程中安全管理为依托,针对性地分析海上风电前期勘察、风机和升压站吊装、海缆敷设、调试等过程中的风险点,有效借鉴船舶和海洋工程中的相关国家标准和行业规范,以EPC总承包方的视角做出了全面的分析和总结,并对南海范围的海况特点、防台措施进行了重点关注。  [结果]  总结的安全管理思路为海上风电这一危险性较大的工程项目安全管理提供了实际范例和经验,也为海上风电项目安全管理的国家和行业标准的顶层设计提供了支撑。  [结论]  研究成果将会有力地促进南海范围内的风电资源开发。     

Teeter design for lowest extreme loads during end impacts

Two bladed wind turbines are discussed as a possible turbine alternative for offshore use as they show a potential to save cost of energy. But compared to three‐bladed turbines, their dynamic behavior is much more challenging. A possible solution to handle these larger dynamic loads is the use of a teeter hinge, which can significantly reduce fatigue loads. In contrast to that, extreme loads, coming from teeter end impacts, are often described as a problem for teetered turbines. There are different design parameters of the teeter system of a turbine, which have an influence on extreme loads during teeter end impacts. Despite numerous studies on teeter movement and load reduction potentials of operational loads, scientific literature does not give information about suitable load‐reducing combinations of teeter design parameters and their influence on extreme loads. This paper, which is a summary of a PhD thesis, 1 analyses which combination of teeter parameters has the largest load‐reducing influence on extreme loads. Aeroelastic load simulations of the teetered turbine CART2 from the NREL test site and one of today's commercial two‐bladed turbines, the SCD3MW from aerodyn (both pitch controlled upwind turbines), will be used.     

海上风电场智慧运维管理系统

[目的]针对海上风电场运维安全管理,提出了海上风电场智慧运维管理系统.[方法]通过海上风电智慧调度系统、海上风电雷达多源跟踪及边界警示系统、海上风电场风机平台作业监管系统,搭建出海上风电场智慧运维管理系统.[结果]通过陆上集控中心的海上风电智慧调度系统,实现人员的安全管理以及船舶调度.通过海上风电雷达多源跟踪及边界警示...     

A multivariate approach to estimate design loads for offshore wind turbines

The design of offshore wind farms is a complex process that requires a detailed study of the oceanographic, meteorological and geotechnical conditions at the site. The structure and all structural members shall be designed in a way that they can be resistant against different kinks of loads: permanent, variable, environmental, accidental and deformations. This paper is focused on those called environmental loads. The main environmental conditions that may contribute to structural damage, operational disturbances or other failures are wind, waves, currents and sea ice. Thus, the combination of the different parameters may produce many different critical situations for the integrity of the structure, requiring the calculation of long time series corresponding to long‐term historical data situations. The most accurate techniques available at the moment to estimate loads acting upon a structure are numerical and physical models; however, they are very time consuming, and the calculation of long time series of data is unfeasible. Therefore, a new hybrid methodology to select waves–wind–current representative conditions that allow the interpolation of long time series of forces on a wind turbine is proposed. The methodology consists of a selection of a subset of representative cases of wave–wind–current climate at the structure's location by using a maximum dissimilarity algorithm, then estimating loads acting upon the structure for the sea–wind states selected and the reconstruction of loads corresponding to historical data using an interpolation technique based on radial basis function. To validate the proposed methodology and because of there is no availability of long time records of loads on wind turbines, the well‐known IEC 61400–3 has been applied to estimate the loads for the complete reanalysis time series of waves, winds and currents. The validation of the results confirms the ability of the methodology developed to reconstruct time series of forces on the structure on the basis of the previously selected cases. This methodology permits application of numerical and physical models to offshore wind farm design, considerably reducing the number of tests or simulations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrated offshore wind farm design: Optimizing micro‐siting and cable layout simultaneously

Electrical layout and turbine placement are key design decisions in offshore wind farm projects. Increased turbine spacing minimizes the energy losses caused by wake interactions between turbines but requires costlier cables with higher rates of failure. Simultaneous micro‐siting and electrical layout optimization are required to realize all possible savings. The problem is complex, because electrical layout optimization is a combinatorial problem and the computational fluid‐dynamics calculations to approximate wake effects are impossible to integrate into classical optimization. This means that state‐of‐the‐art methods do not generally consider simultaneous optimization and resort to approximations instead. We extend an existing model that successfully optimizes cable design to simultaneously consider micro‐siting. We use Jensen's equations to approximate the wake effect in an efficient manner, calibrating it with years of mast data. The wake effects are precalculated and introduced into the optimization problem. We solve simultaneously for turbine spacing and cable layout, exploiting the tradeoffs between these wind farm features. We use the Barrow Offshore Wind Farm as a case study to demonstrate realizable savings up to 6 MEUR over the lifetime of the plant, although it is possible that unforeseen design constraints have implications for whether the savings seen in our model are fully realizable in the real world. In addition, the model provides insights on the effects of turbine spacing that can be used to simplify the design process or to support negotiations for surface concession at the earlier stages of a project.     

Review of recent offshore wind power developments in china

Rapid wind power development in China has attracted worldwide attention. The huge market potential and fast development of wind turbine manufacturing capacity are making China a world leader in wind power development. In 2010, with the newly installed wind power capacity and the cumulative installed capacity, China was ranked first in the world. In 2009, China also constructed and commissioned its first large offshore wind farm near Shanghai. Following earlier papers reviewing the state of China's onshore wind industry, this paper presents a broader perspective and up‐to‐date survey of China's offshore wind power development, making comparisons between the developments in the rest of the world and China, to draw out similarities and differences and lessons for the China offshore wind industry. The paper highlights six important aspects for China's offshore wind development: economics, location, Grid connection, technological development, environmental adaptation and national policies. The authors make recommendations for mitigating some outstanding issues in these six aspects for the future development of China's offshore wind resource. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

A new turbulence model for offshore wind turbine standards

Correct turbulence intensity modeling is crucial for fatigue load estimation for wind turbine structural design. It is well known that the International Electrotechnical Commission 61400‐3 Normal Turbulence Model recommended for offshore wind turbine design is not representative of offshore wind conditions. A new model is urgently needed as offshore wind energy is rapidly developing worldwide. After evaluating the suitability of the Normal Turbulence Model at three sites in Asia, Europe and the USA, it is found that wind–wave interaction and stability correction should be taken into account in modeling the offshore turbulence intensity and wind speed relationship. Therefore, a new turbulence intensity model, which models wind–wave interaction with the Charnock equation and adjusts for the influence of atmospheric stability through empirical turbulence scaling functions for the unstable atmospheric boundary layer, was developed. The new model is physically based and is tested against observations from the three sites. It shows better performance than the Normal Turbulence Model and hence is recommended to replace the Normal Turbulence Model. For model application, only two parameters are required, which are defined herein to represent offshore sites with high, medium and low turbulence intensities. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical study of a concept for major repair and replacement of offshore wind turbine blades

Repair and replacement of offshore wind turbine blades are necessary for current and future offshore wind turbines. To date, repair activities are often conducted using huge jack‐up crane vessels and by applying a reverse installation procedure. Because of the high costs associated with installation and removal of offshore wind turbine components and the low profit margin of the offshore wind industry, alternative methods for installation and removal are needed. This paper introduces a novel concept for replacement or installation of offshore wind turbine blades. The concept involves a medium‐sized jack‐up crane vessel and a tower climbing mechanism. This mechanism provides a stable platform for clamping, lowering, and lifting of a blade. A case study of a 5‐MW offshore wind turbine is shown, where common engineering practices were applied and numerical simulations of the marine operations were carried out using finite element and multibody simulation tools. Operational limits for wave and wind actions were established to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the proposed concept.     

海上风电机组塔架基础一体化设计

  [目的]  随着国家对于海上风电竞价上网指导意见的出台,降低开发成本的需求越来越迫切,急需通过技术创新降低成本。而海上塔架和基础的成本,显著影响着海上风电的平准化度电成本LCoE(Levelized Cost of Energy),直接决定着海上风电项目的竞争力。  [方法]  为了有效降低塔架基础的成本,文章提出了基于数字化云平台iDO(integrated Design Offshore)的一体化设计方法,对极端极限状态ULS工况下结构的静强度、疲劳极限状态FLS工况下结构的疲劳损伤进行了数值计算分析。为验证一体化设计方法在降低海上风电塔架基础成本的效果,文章针对两个实际工程项目,基于iDO云平台和传统分步迭代法SIA(Sequentially Iterated Approach)进行设计分析,对比ULS工况和FLS工况下的结构安全衡准指标。  [结果]  计算结果表明:ULS和FLS工况下,基于iDO云平台的一体化设计方法比SIA在结构强度、变形、疲劳损伤等指标有较大幅度下降,可显著优化塔架基础结构,降低结构重量,减小整个支撑结构成本,降低海上风电的LCoE。  [结论]  在实际海上风电工程项目应用中,基于iDO云平台的一体化设计方法可有效降低塔架基础结构成本,从而提高海上风电项目的竞争力,同时可对未来海上风电支撑结构优化设计提供借鉴。