Dynamic Response of an Offshore Wind Turbine System Using Coupled and Limited Coupled Methods
Offshore turbines are gaining attention as means to capture the immense and relatively calm wind resources available over deep waters. A coupled dynamic analysis is required to evaluate the interactions between the wind turbine, floating hull and its mooring system. In this study, a coupled hydro-aero dynamic response analysis of a floating wind turbine system (NREL offshore-5MW baseline wind turbine) is carried out. A numerical code, known as COUPLE, has been extended to collaborate with FAST for the simulation of the dynamic interaction. Two methods were used in the analysis; one is coupled method and the other is limited coupled method. In the coupled method, the two codes are linked at each time step to solve the whole floating system. The limited coupled method assumes wind load is from a turbine installed on top of a fixed base, namely it doesn’t consider real-time configuration of floating carrier at each time step. Coupled technique is also mentioned to integrate the hydro-aero dynamic analysis in this paper. Six-degrees of freedom motion and mooring tensions are presented and compared. The numerical results derived in this study may provide crucial information for the design of a floating wind turbine in the future.