Articles | Volume 11, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-11-557-2026
© Author(s) 2026. 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-11-557-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Actuator line URANS-to-LES comparison of single and tandem floating offshore wind turbines
Agnese Firpo
Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Via Lambruschini 4, Milan, 20156, Italy
Andrea Giuseppe Sanvito
Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Via Lambruschini 4, Milan, 20156, Italy
Giacomo Persico
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Via Lambruschini 4, Milan, 20156, Italy
Vincenzo Dossena
Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Via Lambruschini 4, Milan, 20156, Italy
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Wind Energ. Sci., 11, 795–824, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-11-795-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-11-795-2026, 2026
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A multi-fidelity approach is leveraged to investigate the capabilities of engineering models to capture the wake dynamics of a wind turbine model under imposed motion. In contrast to previous studies, many more different operating conditions have been investigated, including surge, pitch, yaw, and wind–wave misalignment cases; moreover, numerical methods are here consistently applied to the same test cases, which are part of the first experimental round of the NETTUNO project.
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A multi-fidelity approach is leveraged to investigate the capabilities of engineering models to capture the wake dynamics of a wind turbine model under imposed motion. In contrast to previous studies, many more different operating conditions have been investigated, including surge, pitch, yaw, and wind–wave misalignment cases; moreover, numerical methods are here consistently applied to the same test cases, which are part of the first experimental round of the NETTUNO project.
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This paper investigates the impact of large movements allowed by floating wind turbine foundations on their aerodynamics and wake behavior. Wind tunnel tests with a model turbine reveal that platform motions affect wake patterns and turbulence levels. Insights from these experiments are crucial for optimizing large-scale floating wind farms. The dataset obtained from the experiment is published and can aid in developing simulation tools for floating wind turbines.
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Simulations of different fidelities made by the participants of the OC6 project Phase III are compared to wind tunnel wake measurements on a floating wind turbine. Results in the near wake confirm that simulations and experiments tend to diverge from the expected linearized quasi-steady behavior when the reduced frequency exceeds 0.5. In the far wake, the impact of platform motion is overestimated by simulations and even seems to be oriented to the generation of a wake less prone to dissipation.
Roger Bergua, Amy Robertson, Jason Jonkman, Emmanuel Branlard, Alessandro Fontanella, Marco Belloli, Paolo Schito, Alberto Zasso, Giacomo Persico, Andrea Sanvito, Ervin Amet, Cédric Brun, Guillén Campaña-Alonso, Raquel Martín-San-Román, Ruolin Cai, Jifeng Cai, Quan Qian, Wen Maoshi, Alec Beardsell, Georg Pirrung, Néstor Ramos-García, Wei Shi, Jie Fu, Rémi Corniglion, Anaïs Lovera, Josean Galván, Tor Anders Nygaard, Carlos Renan dos Santos, Philippe Gilbert, Pierre-Antoine Joulin, Frédéric Blondel, Eelco Frickel, Peng Chen, Zhiqiang Hu, Ronan Boisard, Kutay Yilmazlar, Alessandro Croce, Violette Harnois, Lijun Zhang, Ye Li, Ander Aristondo, Iñigo Mendikoa Alonso, Simone Mancini, Koen Boorsma, Feike Savenije, David Marten, Rodrigo Soto-Valle, Christian W. Schulz, Stefan Netzband, Alessandro Bianchini, Francesco Papi, Stefano Cioni, Pau Trubat, Daniel Alarcon, Climent Molins, Marion Cormier, Konstantin Brüker, Thorsten Lutz, Qing Xiao, Zhongsheng Deng, Florence Haudin, and Akhilesh Goveas
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This work examines if the motion experienced by an offshore floating wind turbine can significantly affect the rotor performance. It was observed that the system motion results in variations in the load, but these variations are not critical, and the current simulation tools capture the physics properly. Interestingly, variations in the rotor speed or the blade pitch angle can have a larger impact than the system motion itself.
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Short summary
This paper investigates wake dynamics of floating wind turbines and their effects on downstream turbine loads. Numerical simulations using different flow models, supported by experimental validation, show that large-eddy simulations with realistic turbulent inflow are required to capture platform-induced wake oscillations, wake meandering, and wake recovery. These effects are essential for accurate dynamic load estimation and reliable structural assessment of turbines within wind farms.
This paper investigates wake dynamics of floating wind turbines and their effects on downstream...
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