Session: 06-01-01 Computational Mechanics and Design Applications

Paper Number: 78419

78419 - Preliminary Study of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines Motions Using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Method 

Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) can be used to widen the viable area for wind energy exploitation, allowing the turbine to generate electricity in water depths where fixed-foundation turbines are not feasible and to access locations with higher and steadier wind characteristics. Tension-Leg Platforms (TLPs) gain stability through vertical displacement and tendons, mostly, to limit movement along the vertical axis, which can also provide surge constraints at the expense of certain lateral displacements. Due to the fact that these structures are in their early prototype development stage, numerical tools can be very useful for investigating their response. Accurate simulation of the fluid mechanics requires the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods, but it is also important to pay attention to simulating the multiphysics nature of these systems. The open-source code DualSPHysics, based on the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method for solving the fluid mechanics, defines a complete numerical environment for simulating the interaction of floating structures with waves and currents, and includes external libraries to simulate kinematic- and dynamic-type restrictions. For this piece of research, we propose a full validation of the presented SPH framework using validation data available for an experimental test campaign on a 1:37th-scale FOWT TLP. The first set of validation cases includes a surge decay test, to assess the quality of the fluid-solid interaction, and regular wave tests, which stimulate the mooring system to a large extent. The high computational cost of using the SPH approach is addressed by using a parallel version of the DualSPHysics code that runs on Graphics Processor Unit (GPU) cards.

Presenting Author: Bonaventura Tagliafierro University of Salerno

Authors:

Bonaventura Tagliafierro University of Salerno
Madjid Karimirad Queen's University Belfast
Iván Martínez-Estévez University of Vigo
José Manuel Domínguez University of Vigo
Alejandro Jacobo Crespo University of Vigo
Moncho Gómez Gesteira University of Vigo
Giacomo Viccione University of Salerno