Article by UMaine Researchers Young, Dagher, Viselli, Goupee To Be Published in Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering (OMAE)
A paper by UMaine Composites Center researchers Andrew C. Young, Dr. Habib J. Dagher, Dr. Anthony M. Viselli, Dr. Andrew J. Goupee, and Steve Hettick of Ershigs, Inc., has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering. The paper was part of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) 2014 33rd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering conference proceedings which was held in San Francisco, June 8-13, 2014.
The abstract of the paper, titled “VolturnUS 1:8-Scale FRP Floating Wind Turbine Tower: Analysis, Design, Testing and Performance,” follows:
In May of 2013 the VolturnUS 1:8 floating semi-submersible wind turbine was successfully deployed off the coast of Castine, Maine, making the unit the first grid connected offshore turbine in the United States. The VolturnUS 1:8 structure features a 20 kW turbine, a post-tensioned and reinforced concrete semi-submersible base and a fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) tower (E-glass and polyester resin). The VolturnUS 1:8 structure is a geometrically 1:8-scale of a 6 MW floating turbine design and is used to demonstrate the feasibility of both the concrete base and FRP tower and validate the performance of the structure in a scaled environment. Data collected from the deployed 1:8-scale structure will be used for modeling and simulating the behavior of the system at full-scale. The effort was led by the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center (UMaine) and a consortium of industry partners, including FRP manufacturer Ershigs, Inc.
An overview of the process and methodology used in the analysis, design and testing of the 1:8 scale FRP floating wind turbine tower is presented. The use of an FRP tower on a floating wind turbine platform offers the benefits of reduced tower mass and maintenance requirements and has the potential to further reduce hull mass by lowering the global center of gravity of the structure. An FRP tower for use on the UMaine semi-submersible concrete VolturnUS 1:8 platform was developed that meets all strength and serviceability criteria and is robust enough to withstand the loading from both wind and waves. An overview of the tower loads analysis and FAST modeling, tower structural design, structural proof testing and preliminary analysis of performance are presented.
The VolturnUS 1:8 wind turbine tower is the first time FRP materials have been used in an offshore wind tower application. Further, the methodologies and procedures that were developed in the design of the pilot-scale tower are directly applicable to the design and analysis of composite wind turbine towers at the full-scale level. These “lessons learned” are already in use as Ershigs and UMaine work to design a full-scale composite tower over 80 meters tall for use on the VolturnUS platform with a 6MW wind turbine. The results of the 1:8-scale program demonstrate the successful use of an FRP wind turbine tower on a floating platform and highlights the potential for the use of an FRP tower at the full-scale (6 MW) level.
View the paper: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/proceeding.aspx?articleID=1911731
ASME 2014 33rd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Volume 5: Materials Technology; Petroleum Technology
San Francisco, California, USA, June 8–13, 2014
Young, Andrew C., Steve Hettick, Habib J. Dagher, Anthony M. Viselli, and Andrew J. Goupee. “VolturnUS 1: 8-Scale FRP Floating Wind Turbine Tower: Analysis, Design, Testing and Performance.” In ASME 2014 33rd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, pp. V005T03A012-V005T03A012. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2014.