Numerical Study of a Novel Procedure for Installing the Tower and Rotor Nacelle Assembly of Offshore Wind Turbines Based on the Inverted Pendulum Principle

Current installation costs of offshore wind turbines(OWTs) are high and profit margins in the offshore wind energy sector are low, it is thus necessary to develop installation methods that are more efficient and practical. This paper presents a numerical study(based on a global response analysis of marine operations) of a novel procedure for installing the tower and Rotor Nacelle Assemblies(RNAs) on bottom-fixed foundations of OWTs. The installation procedure is based on the inverted pendulum principle. A cargo barge is used to transport the OWT assembly in a horizontal position to the site, and a medium-size Heavy Lift Vessel(HLV) is then employed to lift and up-end the OWT assembly using a special upending frame. The main advantage of this novel procedure is that the need for a huge HLV(in terms of lifting height and capacity) is eliminated. This novel method requires that the cargo barge is in the leeward side of the HLV(which can be positioned with the best heading) during the entire installation. This is to benefit from shielding effects of the HLV on the motions of the cargo barge, so the foundations need to be installed with a specific heading based on wave direction statistics of the site and a typical installation season. Following a systematic approach based on numerical simulations of actual operations, potential critical installation activities, corresponding critical events, and limiting(response) parameters are identified. In addition, operational limits for some of the limiting parameters are established in terms of allowable limits of sea states. Following a preliminary assessment of these operational limits, the duration of the entire operation, the equipment used, and weather-and water depth-sensitivity, this novel procedure is demonstrated to be viable.

Power Absorption of A Two-Body Heaving Wave Energy Converter Considering Different Control and Power Take-off Systems

This study proposed a wave power system with two coaxial floating cylinders of different diameters and drafts.Wavebob’s conceptual design has been adopted in the wave power system.In this study,a basic analysis of the wave energy extraction by the relative motion between two floats is presented.The maximum power absorption was studied theoretically under regular wave conditions,and the effects of both linear and constant damping forces on the power take-off(PTO)were investigated.A set of dynamic equations describing the floats’displacement under regular waves and different PTOs are established.A time-domain numerical model is developed,considering the PTO parameter and viscous damping,and the optimal PTO damping and output power are obtained.With the analysis of estimating the maximum power absorption,a new estimation method called Power Capture Function(PCF)is proposed and constructed,which can be used to predict the power capture under both linear and constant PTO forces.Based on this,energy extraction is analyzed and optimized.Finally,the performance characteristics of the two-body power system are concluded.

Hydrodynamics of marine and offshore structures

An overview of hydrodynamic problems related to the broad variety of ships and sea structures involved in transportation, oil and gas exploration and production, marine operations, recovery of oil-spill, renewable energy, infrastructure and aquaculture is given. An approximate hydroelastic model for wave and current induced response of a floating fish farm with circular plastic collar and net cage is discussed. Weakly nonlinear potential-flow problems such as slow-drift motions and stationkeeping, springing of ships and ringing are given special attention. Body-fixed coordinate system is recommended in weakly nonlinear potential-flow analysis of bodies with sharp corners. Dynamic ship instabilities, Mathieu-type instabilities, chaos and two-phase flow involving interface instabilities are discussed. It is advocated that slamming must be coupled with structural mechanics in order to find important time scales of the many physical effects associated with slamming and that both water entry and exit matter in describing the global wetdeck slamming effects. Further, sloshing-induced slamming in prismatic LNG tanks is perhaps the most complicated slamming problem because many fluid mechanic and thermodynamic parameters as well as hydroelasticity may matter.

晃荡（英文）

本文列举了诸多工程领域中的液体共振运动现象,详细探讨了船舱中伴有剧烈流动的晃荡问题.描述了基于理论分析的非线性多模态方法,该方法便于波动稳定性分区、多分支解和物理稳定性的研究.强调了方形舱、垂向圆柱舱以及球形舱内伴有旋转和混沌(不规则波动)的三维流动的重要性.晃荡引起的砰击涉及到各种各样的内流条件,这些条件随液体深度与舱体长度之比而变化.针对棱柱状LNG舱,讨论了许多与流体力学和热力学参数、影响砰击载荷效应的水弹性以及模型实验缩尺比的物理现象.

Hydroelasticity analysis of a vessel-shaped fish cage under incident,diffraction and radiation wave fields

Vessel-shaped fish cages are promising large aquaculture structures developed in recent years,with an overall length of nearly 400 m.In this paper,a coupled hydroelasticity model of a vessel-shaped fish cage is used to calculate the motion and structural response in the time domain.First,the floating body of the cage is discretized into a multimodule system to calculate the frequency-domain hydrodynamic loads.Then,the multimodule system is connected by equivalent elastic beams to consider the hydroelastic be-havior in the time domain.The hydrodynamic loads of the multimodule system are transformed from the frequency-domain loads.Moreover,based on the velocity field transfer functions and the motion of the multimodule system,coupling wave fields considering incident,diffraction and radiation waves are built and used to calculate the loads on the net and steel frame.By iterating the motion response of the multi-module system and the hydrodynamic loads on the net and steel frame in the time domain,the balanced hydroelasticity response of the whole cage is finally obtained.The results show that the hydroelasticity effects have a significant influence on the vertical displacement and cross-sectional load effects of the vessel-shaped fish cage.

Comparative numerical and experimental study of two combined wind and wave energy concepts

With a successful and rapid development of offshore wind industry and increased research activities on wave energy conversion in recent years,there is an interest in investigating the technological and economic feasibility of combining offshore wind turbines(WTs)with wave energy converters(WECs).In the EU FP7 MARINA Platform project,three floating combined concepts,namely the spar torus combination(STC),the semi-submersible flap combination(SFC)and the oscillating water column(OWC)array with a wind turbine,were selected and studied in detail by numerical and experimental methods.This paper summarizes the numerical modeling and analysis of the two concepts:STC and SFC,the model tests at a 1:50 scale under simultaneous wave and wind excitation,as well as the comparison between the numerical and experimental results.Both operational and survival wind and wave conditions were considered.The numerical analysis was based on a time-domain global model using potential flow theory for hydrodynamics and blade element momentum theory(for SFC)or simplified thrust force model(for STC)for aerodynamics.Different techniques for model testing of combined wind and wave concepts were discussed with focus on modeling of wind turbines by disk or redesigned small-scale rotor and modeling of power take-off(PTO)system for wave energy conversion by pneumatic damper or hydraulic rotary damper.In order to reduce the uncertainty due to scaling,the numerical analysis was performed at model scale and both the numerical and experimental results were then up-scaled to full scale for comparison.The comparison shows that the current numerical model can well predict the responses(motions,PTO forces,power production)of the combined concepts for most of the cases.However,the linear hydrodynamic model is not adequate for the STC concept in extreme wave conditions with the torus fixed to the spar at the mean water level for which the wave slamming on the torus occurs and this requires further investigation.Moreover,based on a preliminary comparison of the displacement,the PTO system as well as the wind and wave power production,the STC concept will have a lower cost of energy as compared to the SFC concept.However,the cost of energy of either the STC or the SFC concept is higher than that of a pure floating wind turbine with the same floater.

Validation and correction of auto-logged position measurements

Accurate position measurements are extremely valuable in the shipping industry for various reasons such as safety(collision avoidance),security(situational awareness),fuel-saving(weather identification),punctuality(route prediction),etc.Although GNSS(Global Navigation Satellite System)receivers installed on-board the ships are proven to be highly accurate,the data logging process may occasionally be problematic,mainly due to the complexity of the measurements and the decimal precision that is required.Data were collected from 3 years of operations of 228 Maersk Line container vessels and an analysis reveals that there is a substantial amount (≈20%) of historical position measurements sent to shore that does not reflect reality.In the study,the sources of the faulty logged position measurements are categorized and an interpolation methodology is proposed to validate and correct them by using AIS(Automatic Identification System)data.