Hydrodynamic Responses of a 6 MW Spar-Type Floating Offshore Wind Turbine in Regular Waves and Uniform Current

Abstract

In order to improve the understanding of hydrodynamic performances of spar-type Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs), in particular the effect of wave-current-structure interaction, a moored 6MW spar-type FOWT in regular waves and uniform current is considered. The wind loads are not considered at this stage. We apply the potential-flow theory and perturbation method to solve the weakly-nonlinear problem up to the second order. Unlike the conventional formulations in the inertial frame of reference, which involve higher derivatives on the body surface, the present method based on the perturbation method in the non-inertial body-fixed coordinate system can potentially avoid theoretical inconsistency at sharp edges and associated numerical difficulties. A cubic Boundary Element Method (BEM) is employed to solve the resulting boundary-value problems (BVPs) in the time domain. The convective terms in the free-surface conditions are dealt with using a newly developed conditionally stable explicit scheme, which is an approximation of the implicit Crank–Nicolson scheme. The numerical model is firstly verified against three reference cases, where benchmark results are available, showing excellent agreement. Numerical results are also compared with a recent model test, with a fairly good agreement though differences are witnessed. Drag loads based on Morison’s equation and relative velocities are also applied to quantify the influence of the viscous loads. To account for nonlinear restoring forces from the mooring system, a catenary line model is implemented and coupled with the time-domain hydrodynamic solver. For the considered spar-type FOWT in regular-wave and current conditions, the current has non-negligible effects on the motions at low frequencies, and a strong influence on the mean wave-drift forces. The second-order sum-frequency responses are found to be negligibly small compared with their corresponding linear components. The viscous drag loads do not show a strong influence on the motions responses, while their contribution to the wave-drift forces being notable, which increases with increasing wave steepness.