Articles | Volume 8, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-71-2023
© Author(s) 2023. 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-8-71-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
A large-scale wind turbine model installed on a floating structure: experimental validation of the numerical design
Federico Taruffi
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Mechanical Engineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, Milan,
20156, Italy
Simone Di Carlo
Mechanical Engineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, Milan,
20156, Italy
Sara Muggiasca
Mechanical Engineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, Milan,
20156, Italy
Marco Belloli
Mechanical Engineering Department, Politecnico di Milano, Milan,
20156, Italy
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Federico Taruffi, Felipe Novais, and Axelle Viré
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 343–358, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-343-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-343-2024, 2024
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Floating wind turbines are subject to complex aerodynamics that are not yet fully understood. Lab-scale experiments are crucial for capturing these phenomena and validate numerical tools. This paper presents a new wind tunnel experimental setup able to study the response of a wind turbine rotor when subjected to prescribed motions in 6 degrees of freedom. The observed unsteady effects underscore the importance of pursuing research on the impact of floater motions on wind turbine performance.
Alessandro Fontanella, Alberto Fusetti, Stefano Cioni, Francesco Papi, Sara Muggiasca, Giacomo Persico, Vincenzo Dossena, Alessandro Bianchini, and Marco Belloli
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2024-140, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2024-140, 2024
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The article 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.
Shyam VimalKumar, Delphine De Tavernier, Dominic von Terzi, Marco Belloli, and Axelle Viré
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 1967–1983, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-1967-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-1967-2024, 2024
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When standing still without a nacelle or blades, the vibrations on a wind turbine tower are of concern to its structural health. This study finds that the air which flows around the tower recirculates behind the tower, forming so-called wakes. These wakes initiate the vibration, and the movement itself causes the vibration to increase or decrease depending on the wind speed. The current study uses a methodology called force partitioning to analyse this in depth.
Alessandro Fontanella, Giorgio Colpani, Marco De Pascali, Sara Muggiasca, and Marco Belloli
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 1393–1417, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-1393-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-1393-2024, 2024
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Waves can boost a floating wind turbine's power output by moving its rotor against the wind. Studying this, we used four models to explore the impact of waves and platform dynamics on turbines in the Mediterranean. We found that wind turbulence, not waves, primarily affects power fluctuations. In real conditions, floating wind turbines produce less energy compared to fixed-bottom ones, mainly due to platform tilt.
Federico Taruffi, Felipe Novais, and Axelle Viré
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 343–358, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-343-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-343-2024, 2024
Short summary
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Floating wind turbines are subject to complex aerodynamics that are not yet fully understood. Lab-scale experiments are crucial for capturing these phenomena and validate numerical tools. This paper presents a new wind tunnel experimental setup able to study the response of a wind turbine rotor when subjected to prescribed motions in 6 degrees of freedom. The observed unsteady effects underscore the importance of pursuing research on the impact of floater motions on wind turbine performance.
Stefano Cioni, Francesco Papi, Leonardo Pagamonci, Alessandro Bianchini, Néstor Ramos-García, Georg Pirrung, Rémi Corniglion, Anaïs Lovera, Josean Galván, Ronan Boisard, Alessandro Fontanella, Paolo Schito, Alberto Zasso, Marco Belloli, Andrea Sanvito, Giacomo Persico, Lijun Zhang, Ye Li, Yarong Zhou, Simone Mancini, Koen Boorsma, Ricardo Amaral, Axelle Viré, Christian W. Schulz, Stefan Netzband, Rodrigo Soto-Valle, David Marten, Raquel Martín-San-Román, Pau Trubat, Climent Molins, Roger Bergua, Emmanuel Branlard, Jason Jonkman, and Amy Robertson
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1659–1691, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1659-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1659-2023, 2023
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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.
Alessandro Fontanella, Elio Daka, Felipe Novais, and Marco Belloli
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1351–1368, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1351-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1351-2023, 2023
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This study aims to enhance wind turbine modeling by incorporating industry-standard control functionalities. A control design framework was developed and applied to a 1 : 100 scale model of a large floating wind turbine. Wind tunnel tests confirmed the scaled turbine accurately reproduced the steady-state rotor speed, blade pitch, and thrust torque characteristics of the full-size turbine. However, challenges arose in simulating the turbine's aerodynamic response during above-rated operation.
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
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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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.
Alessandro Fontanella, Alan Facchinetti, Simone Di Carlo, and Marco Belloli
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1711–1729, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1711-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1711-2022, 2022
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The aerodynamics of floating wind turbines is complicated by large motions permitted by the foundation. The interaction between turbine, wind, and wake is not yet fully understood. The wind tunnel experiments of this paper shed light on the aerodynamic force and wake response of the floating IEA 15 MW turbine subjected to platform motion as would occur during normal operation. This will help future research on turbine and wind farm control.
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.
Related subject area
Thematic area: Dynamics and control | Topic: Wind turbine aerodynamics
Some comments on experimental results of three lift controllers for a wind turbine blade section using an active flow control
Controller design for model-scale rotors and validation using prescribed motion
Loïc Michel, Caroline Braud, Jean-Pierre Barbot, Franck Plestan, Dimitri Peaucelle, and Xavier Boucher
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2024-15, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2024-15, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for WES
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Capturing energy from a wind turbine requires control algorithms to manage in real-time the operation of the wind turbine in order to optimize the energy extraction. This work focuses on the development of control algorithms applied at the level of the blade section to interact locally with the aerodynamics flow and hence modify the aerodynamic lift. Some dedicated control strategies are experimentally investigated to give an overview of performances according to different operating scenarios.
Alessandro Fontanella, Elio Daka, Felipe Novais, and Marco Belloli
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1351–1368, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1351-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1351-2023, 2023
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This study aims to enhance wind turbine modeling by incorporating industry-standard control functionalities. A control design framework was developed and applied to a 1 : 100 scale model of a large floating wind turbine. Wind tunnel tests confirmed the scaled turbine accurately reproduced the steady-state rotor speed, blade pitch, and thrust torque characteristics of the full-size turbine. However, challenges arose in simulating the turbine's aerodynamic response during above-rated operation.
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Short summary
The work focuses on the experimental validation of the design of a large-scale wind turbine model, based on the DTU 10 MW reference wind turbine, installed on a scaled multipurpose platform deployed in an outdoor natural laboratory. The aim of the validation is to assess whether the behaviour of the model respects the targets established during the design phase in terms of structure, rotor aerodynamics and control. The outcome of the investigation ensures the validity of the design process.
The work focuses on the experimental validation of the design of a large-scale wind turbine...
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