The present paper describes the experiences gained from the design methodology and operation of a 3D physical model experiment aimed to investigate the dynamic behaviour of a spar buoy (SB) off-shore floating wind turbine (WT) under different wind and wave conditions. The physical model tests have been performed at Danish Hydraulic Institute (DHI) off-shore wave basin within the European Union-Hydralab+ Initiative, in April 2019. The floating WT model has been subjected to a combination of regular and irregular wave attacks and wind loads.@en

In recent years wind-assisted propulsion for commercial ships has gained an increasing interest as valuable alternative to reduce fuel pollutant emissions. However, the development of feasible and commercially viable wind propulsion systems to partially (or fully) propel a ship is nowadays hindered by the difficulties of modelling the complicated aerodynamic and hydrodynamic aspects involved. From an aerodynamic point of view, it appears that one of the main challenges of predicting the performance of a wind-assisted ship, is to properly evaluate the interaction effects that occur between the various wind propulsion systems mounted on the deck of the ship. This research deals with the validation of a simple and quick-to-use aerodynamic model that is capable of evaluating such effects, i.e. upwash, downwash and wake, occurring between two generic propulsion systems placed at any given relative position on the ship's deck. The wind propulsion systems might assume any given angle of attack; the flow can be attached as well as separated. Such aerodynamic model, that was first presented in [1], consists of the horseshoe vortex method modified with semi-empirical formulas to take into account the effects of viscosity. First, the results provided by the aerodynamic model were compared with results obtained by using more sophisticated tools, i.e. a CFD body force model and RANS CFD. Then, experimental validation was carried out by means of dedicated wind-tunnel tests. It can be concluded that, despite the simplicity of the aerodynamic model employed, it proved to give reasonable results when compared to more sophisticated tools and to experimental data. REFERENCES [1] K. Roncin and J.M. Kobus, “Dynamic simulation of two sailing boats in match racing”, Sports Engineering , Vol. 7, pp. 139-152, (2004).@en

The Flettner rotor is attracting increasing attention as a viable technology for wind-assisted ship propulsion. Nonetheless, the influence of the Reynolds number on the aerodynamic performance of rotating cylinders is still unclear and under debate. The present study deals with a series of wind-tunnel experiments on a large-scale Flettner rotor in which the forces and pressures acting on the cylinder were measured for Reynolds numbers as large as Re=1.0⋅10 6 . The rotating cylinder used in the experimental campaign had a diameter of 1.0 m and span of 3.73 m. The results indicate that the lift coefficient is only affected by the Reynolds number in the critical flow region and below velocity ratio k=2.5. Conversely, in the velocity ratio range 1<k≤2.5, the drag coefficient is markedly influenced by the Reynolds number over the entire range of flow conditions analyzed. The power coefficient scales with the cube of the tangential velocity and it appears to be insensitive to the Reynolds number or whether the cylinder is spun in an air stream or in still air. @en

Experiments on a large-scale Flettner rotor were carried out in the boundary-layer test section of Politecnico di Milano wind tunnel. The rotating cylinder used in the experimental campaign (referred to as Delft Rotor) had a diameter of 1.0 m and span of 3.73 m. The Delft Rotor was equipped with two purpose-built force balances and two different systems to measure the pressure on the rotor’s outer skin. The goal of the experiments was to study the influence of different Reynolds numbers on the aerodynamic forces generated by the spinning cylinder. The highest Reynolds number achieved during the experiments was.@en

Flettner rotors are nowadays becoming a widespread solution for wind-assisted propulsion. To increase the fuel savings of the ship on which they are installed, multiple devices are typically used. However, in the performance estimate of these hybrid ships, it is currently assumed that Flettner rotors operate independently, regardless of the number of devices employed and their relative position on the ship's deck. The present investigation deals with a wind-tunnel experimental campaign aimed at understanding the aerodynamic interaction effects on the performance of two similar Flettner rotors. The study indicates that the aerodynamic performance of the two Flettner rotors is affected by their interaction, and, generally, this is most noticeable when the devices are set closer to each other and when they are aligned with the wind direction. It is demonstrated that, depending on the apparent wind direction, the layout of the Flettner rotors on the ship's deck has a remarked influence on the driving and heeling force coefficients of the entire rig. Lastly, the velocity ratio is found to play a key role in the determination of how the interaction affects the Flettner rotor aerodynamic performance.@en

Flettner rotors are nowadays becoming a widespread solution for wind-assisted propulsion. To increase the fuel savings of the ship on which they are installed, multiple devices are typically used. However, in the performance estimate of these hybrid ships, it is currently assumed that Flettner rotors operate independently, regardless of the number of devices employed and their relative position on the ship's deck. The present investigation deals with a wind-tunnel experimental campaign aimed at understanding the aerodynamic interaction effects on the performance of two similar Flettner rotors. The study indicates that the aerodynamic performance of the two Flettner rotors is affected by their interaction, and, generally, this is most noticeable when the devices are set closer to each other and when they are aligned with the wind direction. It is demonstrated that, depending on the apparent wind direction, the layout of the Flettner rotors on the ship's deck has a remarked influence on the driving and heeling force coefficients of the entire rig. Lastly, the velocity ratio is found to play a key role in the determination of how the interaction affects the Flettner rotor aerodynamic performance.@en

Floating wind turbines rely on feedback-only control strategies to mitigate the negative effects of wave excitation. Improved power generation and lower fatigue loads can be achieved by including information about incoming waves in the turbine controller. In this paper, a wave-feedforward control strategy is developed and implemented in a 10 MW floating wind turbine. A linear model of the floating wind turbine is established and utilized to understand how wave excitation affects rotor speed and so power, as well as to show that collective pitch is suitable for reducing the effects of wave excitation. A feedforward controller is designed based on the inversion of the linear model, and a gain-scheduling algorithm is proposed to adapt the feedforward action as wind speed changes. The performance of the novel wave-feedforward controller is examined first by means of linear analysis and then with non-linear time-domain simulations in FAST. This paper proves that including some information about incoming waves in the turbine controller can play a crucial role in improving power quality and the turbine fatigue life. In particular, the proposed wave-feedforward control strategy achieves this goal complementing the industry-standard feedback pitch controller. Together with the wave-feedforward control strategy, this paper provides some insights about the response of floating wind turbines to collective-pitch control and waves, which could be useful in future control-design studies.@en

This paper presents a new hardware-in-the-loop methodology for wave-basin scale-model experiments about floating offshore wind turbines and its application as a tool for the validation of control strategies. In the hardware-in-the-loop experiments, the physical Froude-scaled wind turbine model used in conventional scale-model tests is replaced by a numerical model, measurements and a multi-fan actuator. As usual, properly-scaled waves are generated in the wave basin and the floating platform is simulated by means of a scale-model. The hardware-in-the-loop methodology was used to recreate the interaction between the collective pitch controller and the platform pitch mode that, often observed in numerical studies. In addition, the blade-root load measurement available in the numerical model of the rotor was used to implement an individual pitch control strategy. Different from in conventional experiments, the hardware-in-the-loop methodology allows to recreate a realistic three-dimensional wind field that was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the individual pitch control. The improved emulation of the rotor loads and wind field make the hardware-in-the-loop experimental methodology an effective tool for the development and validation of control strategies for floating offshore wind turbines.@en

Floating offshore wind turbines allow wind energy to be harvested in deep waters. However, additional dynamics and structural loads may result when the floating platform is being excited by wind and waves. In this work, the conventional wind turbine controller is complemented with a novel linear feedforward controller based on wave measurements. The objective of the feedforward controller is to attenuate rotor speed variations caused by wave forcing. To design this controller, a linear model is developed that describes the system response to incident waves. The performance of the feedback-feedforward controller is assessed by a high-fidelity numerical tool using the DTU 10MW turbine and the INNWIND.EU TripleSpar platform as references. Simulations in the presence of irregular waves and turbulent wind show that the feedforward controller effectively compensates the wave-induced rotor oscillations. The novel controller is able to reduce the rotor speed variance by 26%. As a result, the remaining rotor speed variance is only 4% higher compared to operation in still water.@en

The hybrid testing method developed by CENER for floating wind turbine scaled tests combining wind and waves (SIL) has been upgraded in order to introduce not only the wind turbine rotor thrust, but also the out-of-plane rotor moments (aerodynamic and gyroscopic). The former ducted-fan has been substituted by a multi-propellers actuator system. The new system has been completely developed, calibrated and used on a test campaign carried out at MARIN's Concept Basin. It was installed on a 1/50 scaled model of the DeepCwind 5MW semisubmersible turbine built by MARIN within the EU MARINET2/Call No.3 under ACTFLOW project framework. The control strategy of the floating turbine was developed by POLIMI and TUDELFT and integrated into the SIL numerical model. The experiment has proved a good behaviour of the enhanced SiL method. It has revealed that the relative importance of gyroscopic moments is low in comparison with the aerodynamic rotor moments in the considered cases. The results also show how rotor moments are particularly important in the floating turbine dynamics in cases with large rotor load imbalances such as situations where one blade fails to pitch.@en

The design of control strategies for floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) is even more difficult than for onshore and bottom-fixed offshore ones and a recognized control strategy for FOWTs is currently lacking. In order to design effective control strategies, the additional dynamics of these systems should be taken into account in the models used to solve this task. This paper presents the analytical derivation of a novel model conceived for control design purposes. In detail, the model is based on a linear description of the highly non-linear phenomena that are relevant for an FOWT. The quasi-steady assumption is used to give a description of the aerodynamic loads and how these are influenced by the main control inputs. Hydrodynamic radiation and diffraction forces are introduced by means of linear-time-invariant parametric models. Simulation results shows that the proposed linear model is able to predict the structural response of the turbine system and the floating platform effectively in the case of control inputs, wind and wave disturbances. Compared to the nonlinear high-fidelity model, the proposed model shows similar results, however, without much complexity, which is promising in the desing of FOWT control strategies.@en