Articles | Volume 10, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-1707-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-1707-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
How does turbulence affect wake development in floating wind turbines? Some insights from comparative large-eddy simulations and wind tunnel experiments
Leonardo Pagamonci
Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF), Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, 50139, Italy
Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF), Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, 50139, Italy
Gabriel Cojocaru
Convergent Science GmbH, Hauptstrasse 10, 4040 Linz, Austria
Marco Belloli
Department of Mechanics, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, 20156, Italy
Alessandro Bianchini
Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF), Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, 50139, Italy
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Jörg Alber, Marinos Manolesos, Guido Weinzierl-Dlugosch, Johannes Fischer, Alexander Schönmeier, Christian Navid Nayeri, Christian Oliver Paschereit, Joachim Twele, Jens Fortmann, Pier Francesco Melani, and Alessandro Bianchini
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Alessandro Fontanella, Ilmas Bayati, Robert Mikkelsen, Marco Belloli, and Alberto Zasso
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The scale model wind tunnel experiment presented in this paper investigated the aerodynamic response of a floating turbine subjected to imposed surge motion. The problem is studied under different aspects, from airfoil aerodynamics to wake, in a coherent manner. Results show quasi-static behavior for reduced frequencies lower than 0.5 and possible unsteadiness for higher surge motion frequencies. Data are made available to the public for future verification and calibration of numerical models.
Alessandro Fontanella, Mees Al, Jan-Willem van Wingerden, and Marco Belloli
Wind Energ. Sci., 6, 885–901, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-885-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-885-2021, 2021
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Floating wind is a key technology to harvest the abundant wind energy resource of deep waters. This research introduces a new way of controlling the wind turbine to better deal with the action of waves. The turbine is made aware of the incoming waves, and the information is exploited to enhance power production.
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Short summary
The study presents a critical analysis using wind tunnel experiments and large-eddy simulations aimed at quantifying to what extent turbulence affects the wake structures of a floating turbine undergoing large motions. Analyses show that, whenever realistic turbulence comes into play, only small gains in terms of wake recovery are noticed in comparison to bottom-fixed turbines, suggesting the absence of hypothesized superposition effects between inflow and platform motion.
The study presents a critical analysis using wind tunnel experiments and large-eddy simulations...
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