High-Fidelity Calculation of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines Under Pitching Motion

Andrea Ortolani, Giacomo Persico, Jernej Drofelnik, Adrian Jackson, M. Sergio Campobasso

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

The unsteady aerodynamics of floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) rotors is more complex than that of fixed–bottom turbine rotors, and the uncertainty of low-fidelity aerodynamic predictions, such as those of the blade element momentum theory (BEMT) codes, is higher for the former rotors. Navier-Stokes CFD can improve the understanding of FOWT rotor and wake aerodynamics, and help improve lower-fidelity models. To highlight this potential, blade–resolved analyses of the in-house compressible CFD COSA code and the commercial incompressible CFD code FLUENT were used to investigate the unsteady flow of the NREL 5 MW rotor subjected to prescribed harmonic pitching past the tower base. CFD results were compared to the predictions of the FAST wind turbine code, using BEMT for rotor aerodynamics. Improved tuning of the COSA numerical set-up enabled close matching of the FAST rotor power and loads in fixed–tower mode, and high resolution of the near field wake dynamics; similar agreement levels were obtained with the FLUENT simulations. A novel user-defined function approach, enforcing an additional rigid body motion of the rotor grid conformal to the tower motion, enabled the FLUENT FOWT rotor simulations of this study, and provided new general-purpose FLUENT functionalities for FOWT analyses. All predicted periodic patterns of rotor power and thrust were found to be qualitatively similar, but the power peaks of both CFD predictions were significantly higher than those of FAST. Inspection of the CFD profiles of blade static pressure highlighted and quantified significant compressible flow effects on FOWT rotor power and loads.The blade–resolved analyses of the rotor downstream flow field revealed wake features unique to pitching turbine rotors, primarily the space- and time–dependence of the wake generation, highlighted by the intermittency of the tip vortex shedding.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the ASME Turbo Expo 2020: Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition
Subtitle of host publicationVolume 12: Wind Energy
Number of pages16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Jan 2021
EventASME Turbomachinery Technical Conference & Exposition 2020 - ExCeL London Convention Center, Virtual Conference, United Kingdom
Duration: 21 Sept 202025 Sept 2020
Conference number: GT2020
https://event.asme.org/Turbo-Expo

Conference

ConferenceASME Turbomachinery Technical Conference & Exposition 2020
Abbreviated titleASME Turbo Expo 2020
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityVirtual Conference
Period21/09/2025/09/20
Internet address

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