DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: On the characteristics of the wake of a wind turbine undergoing large motions caused by a floating structure: an insight based on experiments and multi-fidelity simulations from the OC6 project Phase III

Journal Article · · Wind Energy Science (Online)
 [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]; ORCiD logo [7];  [7]; ORCiD logo [7];  [7];  [7];  [7];  [8];  [8];  [8];  [9] more »;  [9]; ORCiD logo [10]; ORCiD logo [11];  [12];  [12];  [13];  [14]; ORCiD logo [15]; ORCiD logo [16];  [16]; ORCiD logo [17]; ORCiD logo [17]; ORCiD logo [17]; ORCiD logo [17] « less
  1. Univ. of Florence (Italy)
  2. Technical Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby (Denmark)
  3. Electricite de France (EDF) R&D, Chatou (France)
  4. Electricite de France (EDF) R&D, Palaiseau (France)
  5. eureka!, Errigoiti (Spain)
  6. ONERA, The French Aerospace Lab., Paris (France)
  7. Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
  8. Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. (China)
  9. Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, Petten (Netherlands)
  10. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray (France); Delft Univ. of Technology (Netherlands)
  11. Delft Univ. of Technology (Netherlands)
  12. Hamburg University of Technology (Germany)
  13. Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco (Chile)
  14. Technische Univ. Berlin (Germany)
  15. Centro Nacional de Energias Renovables (CENER), Sarriguen (Spain)
  16. Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona (Spain)
  17. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

This study reports the results of the second round of analyses of the Offshore Code Comparison, Collaboration, Continued, with Correlation and unCertainty (OC6) project Phase III. While the first round investigated rotor aerodynamic loading, here, focus is given to the wake behavior of a floating wind turbine under large motion. Wind tunnel experimental data from the UNsteady Aerodynamics for FLOating Wind (UNAFLOW) project are compared with the results of simulations provided by participants with methods and codes of different levels of fidelity. The effect of platform motion on both the near and the far wake is investigated. More specifically, the behavior of tip vortices in the near wake is evaluated through multiple metrics, such as streamwise position, core radius, convection velocity, and circulation. Additionally, the onset of velocity oscillations in the far wake is analyzed because this can have a negative effect on stability and loading of downstream rotors. Results in the near wake for unsteady cases confirm that simulations and experiments tend to diverge from the expected linearized quasi-steady behavior when the rotor reduced frequency increases over 0.5. Additionally, differences across the simulations become significant, suggesting that further efforts are required to tune the currently available methodologies in order to correctly evaluate the aerodynamic response of a floating wind turbine in unsteady conditions. Regarding the far wake, it is seen that, in some conditions, numerical methods overpredict the impact of platform motion on the velocity fluctuations. Moreover, results suggest that the effect of platform motion on the far wake, differently from original expectations about a faster wake recovery in a floating wind turbine, seems to be limited or even oriented to the generation of a wake less prone to dissipation.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office; Dutch Research Council (NWO)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
2280961
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA--5000-88496; MainId:89275; UUID:617a582b-f1ba-4558-a009-ac838102512e; MainAdminID:71497
Journal Information:
Wind Energy Science (Online), Journal Name: Wind Energy Science (Online) Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 8; ISSN 2366-7451
Publisher:
Copernicus PublicationsCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (55)

Dynamic inflow effects in measurements and high-fidelity computations journal August 2018
Investigation of wind turbine flow and wake journal January 2014
PIV uncertainty propagation journal June 2016
Wind tunnel investigation of the aerodynamic response of two 15 MW floating wind turbines journal August 2022
The stability of wakes of floating wind turbines journal July 2022
Characterization of the unsteady aerodynamic response of a floating offshore wind turbine to surge motion journal December 2020
The near wake of a model horizontal-axis wind turbine—II. General features of the three-dimensional flowfield journal December 1999
Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Winglets on the Tip Vortex Behavior of a Model Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine Using Particle Image Velocimetry journal September 2018
Floating platform effects on power generation in spar and semisubmersible wind turbines journal January 2021
Coupling wake alignment lifting line method and boundary element method for open water and unsteady propeller simulation journal October 2020
Stability of Floating Wind Turbine Wakes journal May 2021
Coupled aero-hydro-servo-elastic methods for floating wind turbines journal January 2019
Aero‐hydro‐servo‐elastic coupling of a multi‐body finite‐element solver and a multi‐fidelity vortex method journal November 2020
Review of Experimental-Numerical Methodologies and Challenges for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines journal September 2020
The aerodynamics of floating offshore wind turbines in different working states during surge motion journal August 2022
On the characteristics of the wake of a wind turbine undergoing large motions caused by a floating structure: an insight based on experiments and multi-fidelity simulations from the OC6 Phase III Project preprint March 2023
Visualization of the tip vortices in a wind turbine wake journal November 2011
UNAFLOW: a holistic wind tunnel experiment about the aerodynamic response of floating wind turbines under imposed surge motion journal January 2021
Aeroservoelastic stability of a floating wind turbine journal May 2022
A study on the aerodynamics of a floating wind turbine rotor journal February 2016
Wake meandering: a pragmatic approach journal July 2008
Analysis methodology for 3C-PIV data of rotary wing vortices journal March 2006
Maximum efficiency of wind turbine rotors using Joukowsky and Betz approaches journal April 2010
Phase-averaged dynamics of a periodically surging wind turbine journal January 2022
UNAFLOW project: UNsteady Aerodynamics of FLOating Wind turbines journal June 2018
A CFD study into the influence of unsteady aerodynamic interference on wind turbine surge motion journal May 2016
Dynamic inflow model for a floating horizontal axis wind turbine in surge motion journal March 2022
Vortex identification methods applied to wind turbine tip vortices journal March 2022
The platform pitching motion of floating offshore wind turbine: A preliminary unsteady aerodynamic analysis journal July 2015
Wind tunnel investigation of the wake-flow response for a floating turbine subjected to surge motion journal May 2022
The MEXICO project (Model Experiments in Controlled Conditions): The database and first results of data processing and interpretation journal June 2007
OC6 Phase Ia Definition Document: Validation of Nonlinear Hydrodynamic Loading on the DeepCwind Semisubmersible report February 2022
A Review on the Meandering of Wind Turbine Wakes journal December 2019
Validation of a free vortex filament wake module for the integrated simulation of multi-rotor wind turbines journal December 2021
A panel method for floating offshore wind turbine simulations with fully integrated aero- and hydrodynamic modelling in time domain journal May 2018
The Influence of Tilt Angle on the Aerodynamic Performance of a Wind Turbine journal August 2020
The aerodynamics of a blade pitch, rotor speed, and surge step for a wind turbine regarding dynamic inflow journal February 2022
CFD Prediction of Tip Vortex Aging in the Wake of a Multi-MW Wind Turbine journal September 2020
Dynamics of offshore floating wind turbines-analysis of three concepts journal January 2011
Grand challenges in the design, manufacture, and operation of future wind turbine systems journal July 2023
Characterization of the unsteady aerodynamics of offshore floating wind turbines: Unsteady aerodynamics of offshore floating wind turbines journal March 2012
A method to avoid negative damped low frequent tower vibrations for a floating, pitch controlled wind turbine journal June 2007
Simulating tip effects in vertical-axis wind turbines with the actuator line method journal May 2022
Effect of wind turbine surge motion on rotor thrust and induced velocity journal October 2012
Mesh and load distribution requirements for actuator line CFD simulations journal August 2012
Predicting Wind Turbine Wake Breakdown Using a Free Vortex Wake Code journal November 2020
Combining PIV, POD and vortex identification algorithms for the study of unsteady turbulent swirling flows journal August 2001
Modeling of near wake characteristics in floating offshore wind turbines using an actuator line method journal February 2022
A multipurpose lifting-line flow solver for arbitrary wind energy concepts journal March 2022
Investigation of the floating IEA Wind 15 MW RWT using vortex methods Part I: Flow regimes and wake recovery journal October 2021
The stability and development of tip and root vortices behind a model wind turbine journal August 2013
A brief discussion on offshore wind turbine hydrodynamics problem journal February 2022
OC6 project Phase III: validation of the aerodynamic loading on a wind turbine rotor undergoing large motion caused by a floating support structure journal April 2023
OLAF User's Guide and Theory Manual report June 2020
Wind Turbine Tip Vortices under the influence of Wind Tunnel Blockage Effects journal September 2020