Articles | Volume 11, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-11-795-2026
© 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-11-795-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
How accurately do engineering methods capture floating wind turbine performance and wake? A critical perspective using multi-fidelity simulations
Stefano Cioni
Department of Industrial Engineering, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italy
Francesco Papi
Department of Industrial Engineering, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italy
Pier Francesco Melani
Department of Industrial Engineering, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italy
Alessandro Fontanella
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Agnese Firpo
Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Andrea Giuseppe Sanvito
Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Giacomo Persico
Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Vincenzo Dossena
Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Sara Muggiasca
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Marco Belloli
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Alessandro Bianchini
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Industrial Engineering, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Firenze, Italy
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Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 465–485, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-465-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-465-2023, 2023
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Paul Veers, Katherine Dykes, Sukanta Basu, Alessandro Bianchini, Andrew Clifton, Peter Green, Hannele Holttinen, Lena Kitzing, Branko Kosovic, Julie K. Lundquist, Johan Meyers, Mark O'Malley, William J. Shaw, and Bethany Straw
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Alessandro Bianchini, Galih Bangga, Ian Baring-Gould, Alessandro Croce, José Ignacio Cruz, Rick Damiani, Gareth Erfort, Carlos Simao Ferreira, David Infield, Christian Navid Nayeri, George Pechlivanoglou, Mark Runacres, Gerard Schepers, Brent Summerville, David Wood, and Alice Orrell
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 2003–2037, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2003-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2003-2022, 2022
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The paper is part of the Grand Challenges Papers for Wind Energy. It provides a status of small wind turbine technology in terms of technical maturity, diffusion, and cost. Then, five grand challenges that are thought to be key to fostering the development of the technology are proposed. To tackle these challenges, a series of unknowns and gaps are first identified and discussed. Improvement areas are highlighted, within which 10 key enabling actions are finally proposed to the wind community.
Alessandro Fontanella, Alan Facchinetti, Simone Di Carlo, and Marco Belloli
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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
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 943–965, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-943-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-943-2022, 2022
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Rodrigo Soto-Valle, Stefano Cioni, Sirko Bartholomay, Marinos Manolesos, Christian Navid Nayeri, Alessandro Bianchini, and Christian Oliver Paschereit
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 585–602, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-585-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-585-2022, 2022
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Alessandro Fontanella, Ilmas Bayati, Robert Mikkelsen, Marco Belloli, and Alberto Zasso
Wind Energ. Sci., 6, 1169–1190, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-1169-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-1169-2021, 2021
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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.
Cited articles
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Arabgolarcheh, A., Jannesarahmadi, S., and Benini, E.: Modeling of near wake characteristics in floating offshore wind turbines using an actuator line method, Renewable Energy, 185, 871–887, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2021.12.099, 2022.
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Bergua, R., Robertson, A., Jonkman, J., Branlard, E., Fontanella, A., Belloli, M., Schito, P., Zasso, A., Persico, G., Sanvito, A., Amet, E., Brun, C., Campaña-Alonso, G., Martín-San-Román, R., Cai, R., Cai, J., Qian, Q., Maoshi, W., Beardsell, A., Pirrung, G., Ramos-García, N., Shi, W., Fu, J., Corniglion, R., Lovera, A., Galván, J., Nygaard, T. A., dos Santos, C. R., Gilbert, P., Joulin, P.-A., Blondel, F., Frickel, E., Chen, P., Hu, Z., Boisard, R., Yilmazlar, K., Croce, A., Harnois, V., Zhang, L., Li, Y., Aristondo, A., Mendikoa Alonso, I., Mancini, S., Boorsma, K., Savenije, F., Marten, D., Soto-Valle, R., Schulz, C. W., Netzband, S., Bianchini, A., Papi, F., Cioni, S., Trubat, P., Alarcon, D., Molins, C., Cormier, M., Brüker, K., Lutz, T., Xiao, Q., Deng, Z., Haudin, F., and Goveas, A.: OC6 project Phase III: validation of the aerodynamic loading on a wind turbine rotor undergoing large motion caused by a floating support structure, Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 465–485, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-465-2023, 2023.
Cabezon, D., Migoya, E., and Crespo, A.: Comparison of turbulence models for the computational fluid dynamics simulation of wind turbine wakes in the atmospheric boundary layer, Wind Energy, 14, 909–921, 2011.
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Short summary
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.
A multi-fidelity approach is leveraged to investigate the capabilities of engineering models to...
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