Numerical validations and investigation of a semi-submersible floating offshore wind turbine platform interacting with ocean waves using an SPH framework

Abstract

In this work, we propose numerical validations of the DeepCwind semi-submersible floating platform configuration for a single horizontal axis wind turbine using data from two experimental testing investigations. A Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics solver is employed to estimate fluid induced loads, whereas the mooring connections are handled via an external library. The first validation setup is based on the DeepCwind offshore wind semi-submersible concept moored with a system of taut-lines and tested for free-decay surge and heave motion (OC6-Phase Ia). The damping evaluation yields a fair estimation of the heave damping behavior, whereas much more dissipation is experienced for the surge. The second validation features a full hydrodynamic characterization of the frequency-related load patterns induced by three different sea-state representations (mono-, bi-chromatic, and irregular waves) (OC6-Phase Ib). The model accurately matches the hydrodynamic load estimation for the whole spectrum of investigated wave components, perfectly capturing the non-linear behavior shown by the considered wave patterns. This work concludes with a systematic study on the motion response, mooring tension, pressure and vorticity, suggesting that: the wave steepness criterion alone cannot identify the most restrictive load case; waves with spectral characteristics close to the heave resonance period lead to higher tensions in the mooring systems, whereas the maximum fluid-induced loads on the hull are decoupled from displacement peaks, showing an average reduction of 30% with respect to the maxima; very steep waves maximize the likelihood of wave overtopping and slamming loads, resulting in locally induced overpressure on the free-board of up to 100% higher than expected for similar wave heights with milder profiles. The input data for these last tests is released for the sake of reproduction.