Hydrodynamic Response of the Deep Turbine Installation-Floating Concept

Floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) installations are progressing from the R&D stage to commercial installation projects. The prospective sites are situated in increasingly deeper water and further away from the shore. This paper presents the Deep Turbine Installation-Floating (DTI-F) concept, an innovative hybrid spar buoy-based FOWT capable of being able to raise and lower the tower and nacelle, which simplifies construction, installation, maintenance and decommissioning. The study is focused on the hydrodynamics of the moored floating system, and it is based on experimental and numerical modelling work. A 1:45 Froude scaled model of the DTI-F wind concept was tested using three different mooring configurations: i) three mooring lines, ii) four mooring lines, and iii) three mooring lines with a delta connection. Free decay and stiffness decay tests were carried out together with regular and irregular wave tests. The numerical study comprises diffraction (ANSYS AQWA) and time-domain modelling (OrcaFlex). The experimental hydrostatic and hydrodynamic results are compared with the numerical simulations based on the as-built scale model. Considering the natural frequencies results obtained for the three mooring configurations, the three lines configuration without delta connection was selected as the most suitable design. The obtained results for the three mooring lines configuration show good agreement between the experiment and numerical simulations. The presented analysis of the design concept indicates a high degree of technical feasibility.