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This paper proposes a stress analysis method for three-dimensional structures, with the consideration of the global hydroelasticity which is calculated through the beam connected discrete modules method. First, the continuous structure is discretized into rigid modules connected by elastically equivalent beams. The hydroelastic responses are solved by the coupling of the hydrodynamics of rigid modules and the structural stiffness of elastic beams. Then, according to six degrees of freedom motions of each module extracted from the hydroelasticity, the pressure distributions of rigid modules can be obtained based on the three-dimensional potential theory. Finally, the inertia force and the pressure distributions are statically loaded on three-dimensional finite element model. The process is applied to a barge under the regular wave. In rigid condition, the local stress using the proposed method is verified against the result from the Quasi-static method. Furthermore, the springing effect on the local stress is investigated. In the test model, the result shows that the springing effect induces an obvious difference.

This paper presents the design of a compact gearbox for the DTU 10 MW reference offshore wind turbine. An innovative gearbox concept consisting of a fixed planetary stage with a differential compound epicyclic stage is proposed. Power splitting and compound epicyclic transmission technologies are employed, which could effectively reduce the gearbox’ size. Power transmission principle of the gearbox is described, and power distribution on two transfer paths is derived by the geometrical and mechanical relationships among the components. The gearbox is designed based on the design loads and criteria with reference to the relevant international standards, and all of the critical components, gears and bearings, are designed by performing fatigue limit state (FLS) check. A high fidelity drivetrain dynamic model, consisting of the compact gearbox and one four-point support drivetrain configuration, is established by means of multi-body system (MBS) approach. Then, validation of the power distribution is conducted by the comparison of the simulation results and design values. Resonance analysis of the drivetrain model is conducted by employing Campbell diagram, energy distribtuion of components and time domain simulation approach, and the results show that no resonance phenomenon appears in this drivetrain model during the normal operating conditions. In addition, load sharing performance of the MBS model is assessed, indicating the a favorable dynamic operating behavior of the gearbox. It is believed that such compact design could be good alternative for floating offshore wind turbines.

During the design of a floating bridge, extreme structural responses are required to be properly evaluated for ultimate limit state (ULS) design check. This study addresses the estimation of extreme structural responses for an end-anchored curved floating bridge. The floating bridge, about 4600 m, consists of a cable-stayed high bridge part and a pontoon-supported low bridge part. The long-term extreme responses are approximated by using a engineering approach, i.e., the environmental contour method. The sea state with 100-year environmental conditions is considered, and a 90% fractile is used to calculate the short-term extreme responses by using the Gumbel method and the mean up-crossing rate (MUR) method based on 100 1-hour simulations with different seeds. The extreme responses are expressed as μ + κσ, where μ and σ are the ensemble mean and standard deviation, and κ is a multiplying factor. Numerical results show that structural responses are close to Gaussian distributed. κ of axial force and strong axis bending moment along the bridge girder estimated by both the Gumbel and MUR methods vary in the vicinity of 4. κ estimated by the two method deviates, especially for axial force. Moreover, for both methods the estimated κ deviates more significantly if fewer ensembles are used.

Nowadays, there is an increasing demand for use of jack-up crane vessels to install offshore wind turbines. These vessels usually have shallow soil penetration during offshore crane operations because of the requirement of frequent repositioning. The soil-structure interaction should thus be properly modeled for evaluating the motion responses, especially at crane tip at large lifting height. Excessive crane tip motion affects the dynamic responses of the lifted components and subsequently affects the safety and efficiency of operations. The present study addresses the effects of soil behaviour modeling of a typical jack-up crane vessel on the dynamic motion responses of a wind turbine blade during installation using a fully coupled method. The coupled method account for wind loads on the blade and the vessel hull, wave loads on the vessel legs, soil-structure interaction, structural flexibility of the vessel legs and crane, and the mechanical wire couplings. Three models for the soil-leg interactions and two soil types are considered. The foundation modeling is found to have vital effects on the system dynamic motion responses. The characteristics of system motion differ under different types of soil. Compared to the combined linear spring and damper model, the simplified pinned and fixed foundations respectively lead to significant overestimation and underestimation of the motion responses of the blade during installation by jack-up crane vessels. To ensure safe and efficient offshore operations, detailed site specific soil properties should be used in numerical studies of offshore crane operations using jack-up crane vessels.

A new numerical method, which is based on three-dimensional (3D) potential flow theory and finite element method (FEM), is used to predict the wave-induced hydroelastic responses of flexible floating bridges. The floating bridge is discretized into several modules based on the positions of the pontoons which are connected by elastic beams. The motion equations of the entire floating structure are established according to the six degrees of freedom (6DOF) motions of each rigid module coupled with the dynamics of the elastic beams. The hydrodynamics loads on each module are considered as external loads and simultaneously applied. The method is extended to take into account the shore side effect, which is obtained from the 3D potential flow theory and considered as a hydrodynamic boundary condition. The effects of inclination of shore side on the responses of the bending moment, horizontal and vertical displacements of the pontoon and their distribution along the bridge are investigated. The results show that the displacement response increase with an increasing steepness of the shore side. © 2018. This is the authors' accepted and refereed manuscript to the article. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/OMAE2018-78738

Designing floating bridges for wide and deep fjords is very challenging. The floating bridge is subjected to wind, wave, and current loads. All these loads and corresponding load effects should be properly evaluated, e.g. for ultimate limit state design check. In this study, the wind-, wave- and current-induced load effects of an end-anchored floating bridge are numerically investigated. The considered floating bridge, about 4600 m long, was an early concept for crossing Bjørnafjorden, Norway. It consists of a cable-stayed high bridge part and a pontoon-supported low bridge part, and has a number of eigen-modes, which might be excited by the relevant environmental loads. Numerical simulations show that the sway motion and strong axis bending moment along the bridge girder are primarily induced by wind loads, while variations of heave motion and weak axis bending moment are mainly induced by wave loads. Current loads mainly provide damping force to reduce the variations of sway motion and strong axis bending moment. Turbulent wind can cause significantly larger low-frequency resonant responses than second-order difference-frequency wave loads. Copyright © 2018 by ASME

Based on relevant accident experiences with oil and gas platforms, a brief overview of structural integrity management of offshore structures is given; including an account of adequate design criteria, inspection, repair and maintenance as well as quality assurance and control of the engineering processes. The focus is on developing research based design standards for Accidental Collapse Limit States to ensure robustness or damage tolerance in view damage caused by accidental loads due to operational errors and to some extent abnormal structural damage due to fabrication errors. Moreover, it is suggested to provide robustness in cases where the structural performance is sensitive to uncertain parameters. The use of risk assessment to aid decisions in lieu of uncertainties affecting the performance of novel and existing offshore structures, is briefly addressed.

Tidal energy has the advantages of high predictability, high energy density, and limited environmental impacts. As tidal turbines are expected to be used in the most energetic waters where there might be significant waves, the assessment of unsteady hydrodynamic load due to surface waves is of great concern. The objective of this paper is to assess the effects of surface waves and submergence of the turbine on the power performance and loads of a tidal turbine by experimental approach. The experiments on a 1 : 25th model tidal turbine were carried out in a towing tank. A wide range of regular waves with periods from 1.0 s to 3.0 s at model scale were generated. Different submergence conditions were considered to investigate the effects of the presence of free surface. The cases with blade tip partly going out of water were also performed. The regular waves did not have significant influences on average loads and power output in the present experiments, but caused large amplitude of the cyclic variation of the loads. The amplitudes of the cyclic load were proved to be proportional to the incident wave height, and to be sensitive to the wave frequency and submergence of the rotor. As the tidal turbine getting close to free surface, significant waves were induced by the underwater rotating blade. The effects of surface waves and submergence need to be taken into account in design. (c) 2017 by ASME

Common industrial practice for designing floating wind turbines is to set an operational limit for the tower-top axial acceleration, normally in the range of 0.2–0.3g, which is typically understood to be related to the safety of turbine components. This paper investigates the rationality of the tower-top acceleration limit by evaluating the correlation between acceleration and drivetrain responses. A 5 MW reference drivetrain is selected and modelled on a spar-type floating wind turbine in 320 m water depth. A range of environmental conditions are selected based on the long-term distribution of wind speed, significant wave height, and peak period from hindcast data for the Northern North Sea. For each condition, global analysis using an aero-hydro-servo-elastic tool is carried out for six one-hour realizations. The global analysis results provide useful information on their own — regarding the correlation between environmental condition and tower top acceleration, and correlation between tower top acceleration and other responses of interest — which are used as input in a decoupled analysis approach. The load effects and motions from the global analysis are applied on a detailed drivetrain model in a multi-body system (MBS) analysis tool. The local responses on bearings are then obtained from MBS analysis and post-processed for the correlation study. Although the maximum acceleration provides a good indication of the wave-induced loads, it is not seen to be a good predictor for significant fatigue damage on the main bearings in this case. (c) 2017 by ASME

Floating suspension bridges, one of several new designs to make it possible to cross deep and wide fjords, consist of three spans and supported by two tension leg platforms and two fixed traditional concrete pylons. Geometric nonlinearities, nonlinear aerodynamic and hydrodynamic forces and nonlinear mooring systems can become of high importance. Time domain methods are commonly applied when nonlinearities need to be considered. The main challenge in time domain simulation of the floating suspension bridge is the modelling of frequency-dependent aerodynamic self-excited forces and hydrodynamic radiation forces. This paper shows how rational functions fitted to aerodynamic derivatives and hydrodynamic added mass and potential damping can be converted to state space models to transform the frequency-dependent forces to time-domain. A user element is implemented in the software ABAQUS to be able to include the self-excited forces in the dynamic analysis. The element is developed as a one node element that is included in the nodes along the girder and the tension leg platforms. The responses of the floating suspension bridge under turbulent wind forces and first-order wave excitation forces are calculated in a comprehensive case study and compared with results obtained using a multi-mode frequency domain approach to illustrate the performance of the presented time-domain methodology. (c) 2017 by ASME

The finite element model (FEM) of a pentapod offshore wind turbine (OWT) is established in the newly compiled FAST. The dynamic responses of the OWT are analyzed in detail. Further, a tuned mass damper as a passive control strategy is applied in order to reduce the OWT responses under seismic loads. The influence of the tuned mass damper (TMD) locations, mass and control frequencies on the reduction of OWT responses are investigated. A general configuration of TMD can effectively reduce the local and global responses to some degree, but due to the complexity of characteristics of the OWT structure and seismic waves, the single TMD can not obtain consistent controlling effects. (c) 2017 by ASME

This paper introduces the design data and numerical analysis of a braceless steel semi-submersible wind turbine. The hull of the semi-submersible wind turbine is designed to support a reference 5-MW horizontal axis wind turbine at a site in the northern North Sea. The hull is composed of a central column, three side columns and three pontoons. The side columns and pontoons are arranged radially outward from the central column which is used to support the wind turbine. The side columns form the corners of a triangle on the horizontal plane and are connected by the pontoons to the central column at the bottom to form an integrated structure. Numerical analysis has been carried out to analyze the intact stability, natural periods and modes and global dynamic responses in winds and waves. Results of the numerical analysis show that the design has very good intact stability, well designed natural periods and modes, moderate rigid-body motions in extreme environmental conditions and a reasonable structural design. This paper emphasizes the structural responses of the hull considering both the global and local load effects. The global forces and moments in the hull are calculated by carrying out time-domain global analysis and used as inputs for simplified ultimate limit state design checks for structural strength of the hull. The design can be used as a reference semi-submersible wind turbine. (c) 2016 by ASME

In the last decade the wind energy industry has developed rapidly in China, especially offshore. For a water depth less than 20m, monopile and multi-pile substructures (tripod, pentapod) are applied widely in offshore wind farms. Some wind farms in China are located in high seismicity regions, thus, the earthquake load may become the dominant load for offshore wind turbines. This paper deals with the seismic behavior of an offshore wind turbine (OWT) consisting of the NREL 5MW baseline wind turbine, a pentapod substructure and a pile foundation of a real offshore wind turbine in China. A test model of the OWT is designed based on the hydro-elastic similarity. Test cases of different load combinations are performed with the environmental conditions generated by the Joint Earthquake, Wave and Current Simulation System and the Simple Wind Field Generation System at Dalian University of Technology, China, in order to investigate the structural dynamic responses under different load conditions. In the tests, a circular disk is used to model the rotor-nacelle system, and a force gauge is fixed at the center of the disk to measure the wind forces during the tests. A series of accelerometers are arranged along the model tower and the pentapod piles, and strain gauges glued on the substructure members are intended to measure the structural dynamic responses. A finite element model of the complete wind turbine is also established in order to compare the theoretical results with the test data. The hydro-elastic similarity is validated based on the comparison of the measured dynamic characteristics and the results of the prototype modal analysis. The numerical results agree well with the experimental data. Based on the comparisons of the results, the effect of the wind and sea loads on the structural responses subjected to seismic is demonstrated, especially the influence on the global response of the structure. It is seen that the effect of the combined seismic, wind, wave and current load conditions can not be simply superimposed. Hence the interaction effect in the seismic analysis should be considered when the wind, wave and current loads have a non-negligible effect.

In the present paper the effect of flap type wave energy converters on the response of a floating semi-submersible wind turbine is investigated and reported. Two different layouts with regard to the number of rotating flaps that are utilized are considered and compared with the case of a pure floating semi-submersible wind turbine. Comparisons of response in terms of stability, motions and internal loads are made for selected environmental conditions. The combined operation of the rotating flaps results in an increase of the produced power without affecting significantly selected critical response quantities of the semi-submersible platform.Copyright © 2014 by ASME

This paper discusses the influence of rigid body motions on rotor induced velocities and aerodynamic loads of a floating horizontal axis wind turbine. Analyses are performed with a simplified free wake vortex model specifically aimed at capturing the unsteady and non-uniform inflow typically experienced by a floating wind turbine. After discussing the simplified model in detail, comparisons are made to a state of the art free wake vortex code, using test cases with prescribed platform motion. It is found that the simplified model compares favourably with a more advanced numerical model, and captures the essential influences of rigid body motions on the rotor loads, induced velocities and wake influence.Copyright © 2014 by ASME

Semi-submersible floating structures might be an attractive system to support wind turbines and wave energy converters (WECs) in areas with abundant wind and wave energy resources. The combination of wind turbines and WECs may increase the total power production and reduce the cost of the power. A concept of a semi-submersible with a 5 MW horizontal axis wind turbine combined with three flap-type WECs is presented in this paper. The concept is named as Semi-submersible Flap Combination (SFC). The WECs of the SFC are inspired by an optimized bottom-fixed rotating flap-type wave energy absorber. Each WEC of SFC includes an elliptical cylinder, two supporting arms, a rotational axis and a power take off (PTO) system. A time domain numerical modeling method for the SFC is presented. The numerical model is using the state-of-the-art code Simo/Riflex/Aerodyn. Linear rotational damping is introduced to model the effects of the PTO system. The choice of a PTO damping coefficient and of the mass of the elliptical cylinders has a significant effect on the power generated by the WECs. Such effects have been addressed and discussed in the paper through a sensitivity study.

As part of the deployment of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) in deep sea, robust coupled dynamic design codes based on engineering models are being developed to investigate the behaviour of FOWTs in the offshore environment. The recent re-emerging interest in vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) for floating foundation applications has resulted in a number of design codes being developed concurrently by different researchers. In this study, two such design codes for floating VAWTs developed at Cranfield University and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology are compared through a series of increasingly complex simulation load cases. A floating VAWT design was specified to be used in this study. The rotor is based on the Darrieus Troposkein shape and is the same used within the DeepWind VAWT spar concept, with a 5MW rated capacity. The floating support structure is a semi-submersible that is being used in the Offshore Code Collaboration Continuation (OC4) Phase II project for floating horizontal axis wind turbines. A series of load cases were set out to assess and compare the two different design codes. A comparison of the performance of the two design tools is presented, illustrating their level of maturity and areas of improvement.

Although the majority of studies of tension leg platform wind turbines (TLPWTs) have focused on aligned wind and wave conditions, it is not uncommon for the wind and waves to be significantly misaligned. Wind-wave misalignment is expected to influence both ultimate and fatigue loads. The present work compares the dynamic response of a representative TLPWT in both aligned and misaligned wind and wave conditions, with and without second order sum-frequency potential forces. The contribution of the second order loads to the maximum stress and to the short-term fatigue damage at the tower base, tower top, and tendon fairleads is examined for several operational conditions. The same TLPWT with softened tendons is also studied in order to examine the sensitivity of the results to the system natural frequencies. The fatigue damage decreased in misaligned wind and wave conditions, but the effect of second order forces increased. For the soft TLPWT design, second order forces had an important effect on fatigue in both aligned and misaligned conditions. Despite the increase in side-side loading in misaligned conditions, aligned conditions were associated with larger maximum stresses (in operational conditions).Copyright © 2014 by ASME

In this work, a combined concept called Spar-Toru-Combination (STC) involving a spar-type floating wind turbine (FWT) and an axi-symmetric two-body wave energy converter (WEC) is considered. From the views of both long-term fatigue damage prediction of the mooring lines and the annual energy production estimation, a coupled analysis of wind-wave induced long-term stochastic responses has been performed using the SIMO-TDHMILL code in the time domain, which includes 79200 one-hour short term cases (the combination of 22 selected mean wind speeds * 15 selected significant wave heights * 12 selected spectral peak wave periods * 20 random seeds). The hydrodynamic loads on the Spar and Torus are estimated using potential theory, while the aerodynamic loads on the wind rotor are calculated by the validated simplified thrust force model in the TDHMILL code. Considering the long-term wind-wave joint distribution in the northern North Sea, the annual fatigue damage of the mooring line for the STC system is obtained by using the S-N curve approach and Palmgren-Miner’s linear damage hypothesis. In addition, the annual wind and wave power productions are also obtained by using hourly mean output power for each short-term condition and the joint wind-wave distribution.Copyright © 2014 by ASME

In this paper, the 50-year long-term 1-hour extreme responses of a fixed jacket-type offshore wind turbine with consideration of one-blade-pitch-actuator-stuck fault and the effect of normal transient events such as normal shut-down and start-up process is studied. The long-term extreme results are found based on each short-term extreme response distributions at different environmental conditions. Structure responses such as tower and jacket bottom shear and bending moments as well as blade root bending moments will be focused in this paper. To study the long-term effect of the fault and transient events, the service life of a wind turbine is divided into normal part, faulted part, and transient part. Normal part includes both normal operation and parking of the wind turbine at different wind speed range without any faults. Faulted part includes the parked and emergency shut-down condition of the wind turbine under the fault assuming that the faults are detected soon after they occur but require a longer time before fully repaired. Transient part includes the start-up and shut-down process during the normal operation when wind speed is beyond operation range. The contribution of each part to the long-term extreme response distribution is calculated by weighting factors based on the probability of occurrence of each part. From the results, it is found that in general, the blade-pitch-actuator-stuck fault and the normal transient events generally increase the extreme responses of the wind turbine. The jacket wind turbine is more affected compared to its land based counterpart. In this study since the wind direction is aligned with wind turbine, it is found that the fault primarily increases the tower bottom shear force perpendicular to the wind direction and the bending moments with the axis parallel to the wind as well as the torsional moment, while normal transient events, especially the start-up process at cut-out speed, causes a much greater increase compared to the fault. It contribute mostly to the shear forces parallel and bending moment with axis perpendicular to the wind direction. The azimuth of the blades is found to be very important for blade responses during start-up process especially at higher wind speed.Copyright © 2014 by ASME

A combined wind and wave energy extraction device is studied, consisting of a single column tension leg platform (TLP) which supports a 5MW wind turbine (WT) and 3 point absorber wave energy converters (WECs). Two variations of the WECs are considered: one that is constrained to purely heave motion relative to the TLP hull, and a hinged device which moves in coupled surge and pitch as well as heave. The effects of both types of WECs on the WT power takeoff; on structural loads in the turbine tower and blades, WEC supporting structure, and tendons; and on the platform motions are examined for operational and 50-year extreme environmental conditions.Copyright © 2013 by ASME

The design standards (IEC, DNV and GL) define a minimum set of combinations of external conditions and design situations as load cases. Like other design load conditions, the design situations relating to fault and shut-down events shall be addressed. Emergency shut down occurs in the presence of severe faults to prevent turbine damage. For pitch-regulated turbines, blade pitching to feather provides an effective means of aerodynamic braking. The blades are pitched to feather at the maximum pitch rate. This action exerts huge loading on the turbine and may challenge the structural safety. In this paper a 5-MW spar-type wind turbine is used as a case study. By using the HAWC2 code, the turbine pitch actuator fault and shut-down scenarios are simulated through external Dynamic Link Libraries. The shut-down scenarios are: normal shut down with blade pitching, emergency shut down with blade pitching, and emergency shut down with blade pitching and mechanical brake. Due to the occurrence of fault, the pitch angle of one blade is fixed from a specific occurrence time. The supervisory controller reacts by pitching the remaining two blades to the maximum pitch set. The maximum yaw motion value is observed after the first revolution of the rotor during which the tower-top torsion experiences a change of direction. Negative platform pitch motion as well as tower-bottom bending moment are induced due to the pitching activity of the two blades. The response extremes of the main shaft bending moment and the yaw motion exhibit clear variation with the blade azimuth when emergency shut down is initiated. The tower-bottom bending moment and nacelle acceleration are relatively more affected by the wave loads. For a given blade azimuth, larger response variation is observed under harsher environmental conditions. Under the fault scenario, the effects of different shut-down procedures on the response extremes are investigated. It is found that the response extremes are affected significantly by the rotor speed. Among the three procedures, normal shut down, which is associated with the slowest decaying aerodynamic excitations and the highest rotor speed, usually leads to the largest response extremes near the rated wind speed. The employment of mechanical brake reduces rotor speed, motion responses and structural responses effectively. During shut down, the responses of yaw motion, nacelle fore-aft acceleration, main shaft bending moment, and tower-bottom side-to-side moment may be of concern for the floating wind turbine studied.Copyright © 2013 by ASME

It is of interest to investigate the potential advantages of floating vertical axis wind turbine (FVAWT) due to its economical installation and maintenance. A novel 5MW vertical axis wind turbine concept with a Darrieus rotor mounted on a semi-submersible support structure is proposed in this paper. In order to assess the technical and economic feasibility of this novel concept, a comprehensive simulation tool for modeling of the floating vertical axis wind turbine is needed. This work presents the development of a coupled method for modeling of the dynamics of a floating vertical axis wind turbine. This integrated dynamic model takes into account the wind inflow, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, structural dynamics (wind turbine, floating platform and the mooring lines) and a generator control. This approach calculates dynamic equilibrium at each time step and takes account of the interaction between the rotor dynamics, platform motion and mooring dynamics. Verification of this method is made through model-to-model comparisons. Finally, some dynamic response results for the platform motion are presented as an example for application of this method.

Interference between trawl gears and subsea pipelines is an important issue. A special case called hooking, defined as the situation when the trawl gear gets “stuck” under the pipeline, should be a rarely occurring situation. In this case, however, the warp line tension could be high as its breaking strength. This may be detrimental with respect to both fishing vessel safety and pipeline integrity. This calls for a better understanding of the hooking phenomenon. The goal of this study is to develop a proper numerical model to describe the hooking event. The proposed model is based on the finite element method. A special penalty-based contact element that includes the friction effect is utilized to deal with the trawl board and pipeline interaction. The trawl board and seabed (span shoulder) contact is also accounted for in order to simulate the hooking event. To validate the proposed model, numerical simulation results are compared with previous model test results. A rectangular type trawl board was selected as the target object. The pull-over cases with different span height were firstly tested and compared. Then, the hooking event set-ups were modeled. Based on the model tests, there are two most likely scenarios for hooking: 1) a de-stabilized trawl board with small span height; 2) small crossing angle with large span height. The above two cases were both tested by the proposed model. In the first case, the trawl board is towed flat on the seabed. Permanent hooking was successfully obtained in the simulation. Then, two cases with small crossing angle were studied. Hooking event was reproduced in the case of a 20 degree crossing angle by introducing a disturbance on the trawl board. It shows that the proposed model could reproduce the hooking event, provided that the trawl board motion similar to the model test could be obtained. This gives a good basis for further studies.

This paper deals with structural modeling and analysis of a wave energy converter. The device, called Wavestar, is a bottom fixed structure, located in a shallow water environment at the Danish Northwest coast. The analysis is concentrated on a single float and its structural arm which connects the WECto a jackup structure. The wave energy converter is characterized by having an operational and survival mode. The survival mode drastically reduces the exposure to waves and therfore to the wave loads. Structural response analysis of the Wavestar arm is carried out in this study. Due to the relative stiff behavior of the arm the calculation can be reduced to a quasi-static analysis. The hydrodynamic and the structural analyses are thus performed separately. In order to reduce the computational time of the finite element calculation the main structure is modeled as a superelement. The structural detail, where the stress analysis is carried out, is connected with the superstructure by interface nodes. The analysis is conducted for two different control situations. Numerical results will be presented which can be further used to carry out fatigue analysis in which a more refined FE model is required to obtain the stress concentration factors. This paper deals with structural modeling and analysis of a wave energy converter. The device, called Wavestar, is a bottom fixed structure, located in a shallow water environment at the Danish Northwest coast. The analysis is concentrated on a single float and its structural arm which connects the WEC to a jackup structure. The wave energy converter is characterized by having an operational and survival mode. The survival mode drastically reduces the exposure to waves and therfore to the wave loads. Structural response analysis of the Wavestar arm is carried out in this study. Due to the relative stiff behavior of the arm the calculation can be reduced to a quasi-static analysis. The hydrodynamic and the structural analyses are thus performed separately. In order to reduce the computational time of the finite element calculation the main structure is modeled as a superelement. The structural detail, where the stress analysis is carried out, is connected with the superstructure by interface nodes. The analysis is conducted for two different control situations. Numerical results will be presented which can be further used to carry out fatigue analysis in which a more refined FE model is required to obtain the stress concentration factors.

Monopiles are the most commonly used support structures for offshore wind turbines with up to 40m water depth due to the simplicity of the structure. The installation of turbine support structures can be carried out by a jack-up vessel which provides a stable working platform. However, the operational weather window using jack-up vessels is very limited due to the low sea states required for jacking up and down. Compared to jack-up installation vessels, floating vessels have more flexibility due to fast transportations between foundations. However, the vessel motions will affect the motion responses of the lifting objects, which might bring installation difficulties. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the dynamic responses of the coupled system to ensure safe offshore operations. In this paper, the installation operation of a monopile using a floating installation vessel is studied by a numerical model. Time domain simulations were carried out to study the installation process of a monopile, including lowering phase, landing phase and steady states after landing. Sensitivity studies were performed focusing on the effects by the gripper device stiffness and landing device stiffness. Comparisons of critical responses by using floating vessel and a jack-up vessel were also studied in the paper.

This paper deals with analysis of the OC4 DeepCWind semi-submersible wind turbine, which is provided by NREL through the OC4 project. This concept is a three-column semi-submersible supporting a 5 MW wind turbine on an additional central column. The fact that the semi-submersible floater needs a large water line restoring moment to achieve sufficient stability and the control of the cost based on the steel weight make the design of braces and pontoons very challenging. Effective methods are needed to check the strength of the brace system based on the response forces and moments in the braces under different design environmental conditions, while the floating wind turbine is needed to be considered as an aero-hydro-servo-elastic system. A novel modeling methodology based on the code Simo/Riflex is introduced in this paper. Simo/Riflex is a state-of-the-art code that can account for the coupling effect between rigid body motions and slender structures (e.g. mooring lines, braces and blades) in the time-domain. Simo/Riflex can be combined with Aerodyn, which is a state-of-the-art aerodynamic code, to model the floating wind turbine as an aero-hydro-servo-elastic system, as well as be combined with simplified aerodynamic codes (e.g.TDHMILL) to improve the efficiency of the numerical simulation. The novel modeling method can give the forces and moments in the brace system of the floater under hydrodynamic and aerodynamic loads in the time-domain. In order to get the structural response of the braces, the side columns and the central supporting column are modeled as independent rigid bodies in Simo while the braces are modeled by beam elements in Riflex. Master and slave relationship is applied at the joints in between of the columns and braces. As an application example, the novel modeling method based on the code Simo/Riflex+TDHMILL, which is capable of modeling the floating wind turbine as an aero-hydro-elastic system, has been used to carry out Ultimate Limit State (ULS) design check for the brace system of the OC4 DeepCWind semi-submersible wind turbine based on relevant standards, i.e. NORSOK N00-3, NORSOK N-004, IEC61400-1, IEC61400-3. The modeling method can also be used by other codes which have similar features as Simo/Riflex.

Point absorber wave energy converters (WEC) are subjected to random wave loads. In addition, the power production of a WEC and the motions are considerably influenced by the applied control mechanism. For small waves, with a wave period close to the natural period of the oscillating system, the power output may be controlled passively by means of a constant damping coefficient. The energy is extracted proportionally to the square of the body′s velocity. If the wave period is away from the natural period, reactive power may be applied in order to enlarge the resonance bandwidth. Recent studies on a point absorber have shown that the stresses at a particular section of the structure depend on the control parameters. The power is increased by choosing a more advanced control mechanism. The consequences are that the stress amplitudes are higher than for the more conservative control case. In this study, the focus is given on the fatigue damage calculation of a structural detail by taking into account the control parameters of the power take-off system. The predicted fatigue damage is calculated based on the spectral approach. Finally the question will be answered which control strategy is more favorable regarding the trade off between the fatigue damage and power production of the wave energy device. Point absorber wave energy converters (WEC) are subjected to random wave loads. In addition, the power production of a WEC and the motions are considerably influenced by the applied control mechanism. For small waves, with a wave period close to the natural period of the oscillating system, the power output may be controlled passively by means of a constant damping coefficient. The energy is extracted proportionally to the square of the body′s velocity. If the wave period is away from the natural period, reactive power may be applied in order to enlarge the resonance bandwidth. Recent studies on a point absorber have shown that the stresses at a particular section of the structure depend on the control parameters. The power is increased by choosing a more advanced control mechanism. The consequences are that the stress amplitudes are higher than for the more conservative control case. In this study, the focus is given on the fatigue damage calculation of a structural detail by taking into account the control parameters of the power take-off system. The predicted fatigue damage is calculated based on the spectral approach. Finally the question will be answered which control strategy is more favorable regarding the trade off between the fatigue damage and power production of the wave energy device.

Today in the wind turbine global analysis codes such as Hawc2 [1] or FAST [2], the entire gear train is modelled by one degree of freedom constant stiffness torsional spring. This is because the focus in the global analysis programs lies mainly on the aerodynamic loads and the dynamic behaviour of structural members. For the small size gear trains, since the internal natural frequencies are expected in a frequency range above the overall wind turbine harmonics, this approach can be justified. However, as the industry trend is toward the larger drivetrains in offshore developments, the internal dynamic of gear trains are required to be modelled more accurately. Moreover, the development in generator technology with low, medium and high speed options has brought a variety of gear train design options with specific dynamic behaviour. In this paper the natural modes and internal dynamic excitations of high ratio wind turbine gear trains is investigated. Case study gear trains of 0.6, 2, 5 and 10 MW are modelled by pure torsional elements in a Multi Body Simulation (MBS) program; Simpack [3], where the natural modes are obtained and possible excitation are evaluated. The results show the resonance trend in various size wind turbine gear trains.

One of design criteria that have been used for the mooring system design for floating platforms in the oil and gas industry is the Ultimate Limit State (ULS). The 100-year level response in the mooring line should be applied for this ULS design check, which is ideally estimated by taking into account the dynamic mooring line tension in all sea state available in the operational site. This is called a full long-term response analysis using the all sea state approach. However, this approach is time consuming. Therefore, it is proposed to use the contour line method to estimate the 100-year response by primarily studying the short term response for the most unfavorable sea states along the 100-year environmental contour line. Experiences in the oil and gas industry confirmed that the method could give good prediction if the response at higher percentile than the median is used. In this paper, the mooring system of a two-body wave energy converter (WEC) is considered. Since this system involves interaction between two bodies, the estimation of the ULS level response by using the all sea state approach will be even more time consuming. Therefore, the application of the contour line method for this case will certainly be beneficial. However, its feasibility for a WEC case needs to be documented first. In the present paper, the ULS level response in the mooring tension that is predicted by the contour line method is compared with that estimated by taking into account all sea states. It is achieved by performing the coupled time domain mooring analyses using SIMO/Riflex for six cases with different mooring configurations and connections between two bodies. An axi-symmetric Wavebob-type WEC is chosen as the object of investigation and the Yeu site in France is assumed to be the operational site of the WEC. Hydrodynamic loads including 2nd order forces are determined using WAMIT. Finally, the applicability of the contour line method to predict the ULS level mooring tension for a two-body WEC is assessed and shown to yield accurate results with proper choice of percentile level for the extreme response.Copyright © 2012 by ASME

This paper deals with a novel concept by combining a spar-type floating wind turbine (FWT) and a Torus (donutshaped) point absorber-type wave energy converter (WEC) that is referred as the ‘Spar-Torus Combination’ (STC) herein. Concept feasibility study has been carried out by doing numerical simulations. It showed that the STC results in a positive synergy between wind and wave energy generation in terms of both capital investment and power production. As a novel concept, the STC concept is considered a simple compact combination of two technologies that have had high technology readiness level (TRL). It is suitable for deep water deployment and is not sensitive to seabed conditions and wave directions. Therefore, it is interesting to pursue a further development of this concept. The paper presents the technical information about the STC and highlights some challenging areas of the STC that should be carefully looked at to make it a proven concept.Copyright © 2012 by ASME

This paper compares the dynamic responses and performance of two spar-type wind turbines, DeepSpar and ShortSpar, in deep and intermediate water depths, respectively. The oil and gas industry has implemented spar platforms in deep water areas. Spar platforms show good hydrodynamic performance due to their deep draft. The same idea is applied to offshore wind turbines to present a reliable concept. Hywind is an example of a successful offshore wind turbine based on the spar concept in deep water. The good performance of spar-type wind turbines motivates us to study the feasibility of using these turbines in moderate water depth. Spar-type 5-MW wind turbines in deep and moderate water depths are compared. The power performance, dynamic motions, tension responses, accelerations, structural shear forces and bending moments are studied. Simo/Riflex/TDHMILL3D is used to perform the coupled wave- and wind-induced analyses. Simo/Riflex, developed by MARINTEK, is a commercial tool for analyzing the coupled wave-induced responses of moored offshore structures. TDHMILL3D, is an external DLL that accounts for spar motions while calculating the aerodynamic thrust at each time step using the turbine characteristics and relative velocities. Different environmental conditions are used to compare the responses. The results show that spar-type wind turbine in the moderate water depth exhibits good performance and that its responses are reasonable compared to those of spar-type wind turbine in deep water. This finding indicates the feasibility of implementing the same rotor-nacelle assembly for both concepts. The total mass (the structural mass plus the ballast) of the ShortSpar is 35% less than that of the DeepSpar, while the statistical characteristics of the power generated are almost the same. The reduced mass of the ShortSpar helps to achieve a more cost-effective solution for floating wind turbines in moderate water depth.Copyright © 2012 by ASME

Global loads on deck-structures due to air-gap loss in irregular seas are discussed. Estimation of such loads is important in structural integrity verification of fixed and floating platforms. The current study presents results from wave-tank experiments in which global forces and wetted lengths arising from wave impact on a rigid deck-box from several pseudo-random realizations of long-crested waves of moderate steepness are recorded. Short-term statistics and distributions of these quantities are estimated and compared against estimates from semi-analytical results previously reported by the authors for von Karman-type impact events in Gaussian waves. The scope of work presented here does not address wave loads on decks in extreme seas where the waves are steep and predominantly non-Gaussian.Copyright © 2012 by ASME

The Wave Dragon Wave Energy Converter is ready to be up-scaled to commercial size. The design and feasibility analysis of a 1.5 MW pre-commercial unit to be deployed at the DanWEC test center in Hanstholm, Denmark, is currently ongoing. With regard to the mooring system, the design has to be carried out numerically, through coupled analyses of alternative solutions. The present study deals with the preliminary hydrodynamic characterization of Wave Dragon needed in order to calibrate the numerical model to be used for the mooring design. A hydrodynamic analysis of the small scale model in the frequency domain is performed by the software HydroD, which uses WAMIT as core software. The quadratic damping term, accounting for the viscous effect, is determined through an iterative procedure aimed at matching numerical predictions on the mooring tension, derived through time domain coupled analysis, with experimental results derived from tank tests of a small scale model. Due to the complex geometry of the device, a sensitivity analysis is performed to discuss the influence of the mean position on the quality of the numerical predictions. Good correspondence is achieved between the experimental and numerical model. The numerical model is hence considered reliable for future design applications.