Investigation of wake characteristics of floating offshore wind turbine with control strategy using actuator curve embedding method.

The wake characteristics of a variable-speed pitch-regulated floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) under surge motions are studied using a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method which combines the Actuator Curve Embedding (ACE) method and collective blade pitch control strategy. Verifications and validations show the method is accurate with affordable computational cost. Comparative analysis of a FOWT under specified surge motion at rated wind speed indicates the controller significantly reduces the mean wake deficits, which highlights the necessity of considering controller for FOWT(s) wake analysis and floating offshore wind farm layout optimizations. The mean wake deficits and wake widths are observed to reduce with increasing surge amplitudes for a controlled FOWT. At rated wind speed, the helical tip vortices of a controlled FOWT under surge motions are observed transitioning into well-organized vortex ring structures and the vortex ring distances are found almost independent on surge amplitudes. The total wake vortex transition distance and vortex ring distance are observed increasing linearly with surge periods. These findings contribute to a better understanding of FOWT wake dynamics in real operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]