Development and validation of a fully coupled dynamic analysis tool for an articulated foundation offshore wind turbine

Abstract

Offshore wind turbines are located in complex marine environments where various components interact with environmental loads, leading to complex dynamic responses. Numerical simulation methods can more quickly and conveniently explore their complex coupled dynamic response characteristics. This paper developed a simulation framework that includes multi-body dynamics, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, seismic dynamics, and controller dynamics, and programmed as an integrated code ADRT (short for AFOWT Dynamic analysis and Responses prediction Tool), for the fully coupled dynamic analysis of offshore wind turbines (OWTs). Unlike conventional wind turbine numerical programs, ADRT can address the response of wind turbine systems under various complex environmental loads, including waves, currents, wind, and earthquakes. Moreover, the program modules in ADRT are not encapsulated, allowing users to modify the kinetics equations and load conditions based on their specific requirements. To better verify the effectiveness of the program, we used a case study of an articulated foundation offshore wind turbine (AFOWT) as an example and conducted a comparative analysis between ADRT and Openfast programs. The results show that the calculation errors of loads and structural responses for both programs are within 5%. This indicates that the newly-developed coupling code, possesses satisfactory capabilities for conducting fully coupled simulation analysis of OWTs.