Session: 05-05-02 Floating System for Renewable Energy II

Paper Number: 78823

78823 - Hydrodynamic Performance Evaluation of a Semi-Submersible Floater Using Open-Source Tools 

Floating structures are viable alternatives for supporting wind turbines as offshore wind projects move deeper into the water. The design of floating support structures for successful utility-scale offshore floating wind turbines is a challenging task, and extensive research has been conducted. Design evaluation plays an essential role in developing different concepts of floating offshore wind turbines by focusing on cost reduction while assuring optimal system performance.

 An approach for evaluation of a braceless semi-submersible floating structure has been developed in this paper. The semi-submersible is used to support a 5-MW horizontal axis wind turbine in the northern North Sea and the hull of interest consists of a central column, three side columns, and three pontoons make up the hull. The evaluation framework is built using Python, with modelling and numerical simulations performed in open-source tools. A Python-SALOME-NEMOH interface is used to simulate the hydrodynamic properties for different geometries with various variables. The geometries are subjected to three performance constraints related to the static platform pitch, metacentric height, and nacelle acceleration. When analyzing the hull geometries, loads in different operating and parked conditions are taken into account. Finally, the geometries are evaluated using two combined objective functions related to material cost and nacelle acceleration. The optimum geometries are presented and discussed.

Presenting Author: Zhiyu Jiang Department of Engineering Sciences, University of Agder, Norway

Authors:

Lin Li University of Stavanger
Milad Hassani University of Stavanger
Filippos Kalofotias Vorticity Engineering
Zhiyu Jiang Department of Engineering Sciences, University of Agder, Norway