CFD Simulation of a Floating Wind Turbine with OpenFOAM: an FSI approach based on the actuator line and relaxation zone methods

Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) have the potential to harness wind resources in deepwater, which is so far prohibitive for conventional approaches. This, however, comes at a cost: the platform’s extra degrees of freedom (DoFs) introduce complex aerodynamic and hydrodynamic behaviours. Therefore, FOWTs must be accurately modeled to reduce...

Wind farm wake flow recovery with the use of kites

With an ever increasing demand for sustainable energy, limitations of current sustainable technologies are studied widely. In wind farms, the so-called wake effect provides the biggest limitation on wind farm total power output. Using wind from the unaffected boundary layer to re-energize the wind flow in the wake provides a method of limiting...

Aerodynamics of a 15-MW and a 5-MW Reference Wind Turbine Using Varying Fidelity Tools

The most effective way to decrease the cost of energy of wind turbines is to increase the rotor diameter. Therefore, this calls for the need of aerodynamic research on large wind turbines. This thesis project will tackle the topics addressed by the IEA Wind Task 47 which is focused on the aerodynamic analysis and comparison of the newly proposed...