This research aims to develop the first public floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) scale model dataset to incorporate advanced turbine controls, floating hull load mitigation technology, and hull flexibility to enable validation of FOWT engineering numerical tools. This work helps us further understand the limitations of advanced turbine controls for floating offshore wind technology. This research will make the development of full scale wind floating turbines easier, which will allow engineers to utilize the energy of offshore wind.
1:70-Scale Model Testing of the Reference OpenSource Controller (ROSCO) on the IEA-Wind 15MW Reference Wind Turbine Including Floating Feedback
Matthew L. Fowler; Eben Lenfest; Anthony Viselli; Andrew J. Goupee; Richard W. Kimball; Daniel Zalkind; Alan Wright; Roger Bergua; Lu Wang; Amy Robertson
ISOPE 2023 The 33rd International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference
This paper presents results from the Floating Offshore-Wind Controls Advanced Laboratory (FOCAL) Experimental campaign performed at the University of Maine’s (UMaine’s) Harold Alfond Wind/Wave Ocean Engineering Laboratory (W2). The project involves four Froude-scaled test campaigns considering the International Energy Agency (IEA) Wind 15MW Reference Wind Turbine deployed on the VolturnUS-S semi-submersible platform with tuned-mass damper elements in the hull. The turbine employs real-time rotor torque and blade pitch control through the Reference OpenSource Controller (ROSCO), including the additional control strategies of ROSCO’s thrust peak shaving and a floating feedback control loop. Results with the floating feedback control are considered in this paper and show a significant reduction in platform pitch motion and loads around the platform pitch natural frequency with minimal negative impact of rotor power quality.
Advanced Structures & Composites Center