Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Model Development and Loads Analysis of an Offshore Wind Turbine on a Tension Leg Platform with a Comparison to Other Floating Turbine Concepts: April 2009

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/973961· OSTI ID:973961

This report presents results of the analysis of a 5-MW wind turbine located on a floating offshore tension leg platform (TLP) that was conducted using the fully coupled time-domain aero-hydro-servo-elastic design code FAST with AeroDyn and HydroDyn. The report also provides a description of the development process of the TLP model. The model has been verified via comparisons to frequency-domain calculations. Important differences have been identified between the frequency-domain and time-domain simulations, and have generated implications for the conceptual design process. An extensive loads and stability analysis for ultimate and fatigue loads according to the procedure of the IEC 61400-3 offshore wind turbine design standard was performed with the verified TLP model. This report compares the loads for the wind turbine on the TLP to those of an equivalent land-based turbine. Major instabilities for the TLP are identified and described.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO.
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
973961
Report Number(s):
NREL/SR-500-45891; KXEA-3-33606-3
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English