Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2021
26th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Numerical and experimental investigation of the hydrodynamics of a semisubmersible platform model for floating offshore wind turbines
Submission Author:
André Scopel , SP
Co-Authors:
André Scopel, Daniel Francisconi Oliveira, Lucas Carmo, Pedro Cardozo de Mello, Edgard Malta, Guilherme Franzini, Alexandre Simos, Rodolfo Gonçalves, Hideyuki Suzuki, Bruno Carmo
Presenter: André Scopel
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2021.COB2021-1166
Abstract
As the global energy consumption is continuously growing, the search for clean and renewable sources has increasingly become one of the main concerns of modern engineering, bringing along many challenges that need to be solved. As one of the many viable solutions, wind energy is one of the most attractive alternatives and represents now a significant parcel of the total energy generated around the world. While onshore projects are still dominant in number, offshore wind power generation is now a well-established reality, and, as the turbines go deeper into the ocean, the floating offshore wind turbines become more feasible than their fixed counterparts. However, with a free-to-move platform, new problems arise, and it is important to determine its behaviour under waves, water currents, and wind. With that in mind, this study focuses on the hydrodynamics of a semisubmersible platform model, designed to support a floating offshore wind turbine. This model was subject to forced sinusoidal motion tests in a water tank experimental facility, for a range of amplitudes and periods. Forces and displacements were measured so we could calculate hydrodynamic drag and inertia coefficients. Next, we performed numerical simulations using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) of the same setup. After the validation of the computational model and postprocessing procedures through the comparison of the force results, we analysed the velocity, vorticity and pressure fields in order to relate the behaviour of the hydrodynamic forces to characteristics of the flow field. We finally draw conclusions with respect to the strengths and limitations of these approaches and their potential as analysis and design tools of other floating offshore wind turbine platforms.
Keywords
hydrodynamics, Semisubmersible platform, Floating offshore wind turbines, numerical simulations, Water tank experiments
