Wind energy represents a clean and sustainable power source that is gaining increasing importance in the global transition to renewable energy. Among all renewable technologies, wind power stands out as the most mature and fastest-growing sector. Over the past decade, global wind power capacity has seen consistent double-digit growth, with offshore wind energy playing an increasingly significant role. As technology advances, floating wind turbines have become a focal point for both industry and academic research, especially with the expansion of offshore projects into deeper waters.
Floating wind turbines are subject to complex dynamic interactions from oceanic conditions such as wind and waves. These forces cause significant oscillatory movements, which can greatly affect the turbine’s operational safety and aerodynamic performance. Moreover, the coupling between the floating platform, mooring system, hydrodynamic loads, structural dynamics, and aerodynamic forces presents major challenges in accurately simulating and evaluating the behavior of these systems.
Since 2002, several researchers—including Bulder, Lee, Wayman, Vijfhuizen, Henderson, Withee, Fulton, and Nielsen—have conducted preliminary feasibility studies on floating wind turbine designs. In 2006, Jonkman and his team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developed a fully coupled "aero-hydro-servo-structural" model and proposed three different floating platform configurations, marking a significant step forward in the field.
To better understand the dynamic and aerodynamic behaviors of floating wind turbines, the blade development team at the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, performed extensive simulations under various wind and wave conditions. They analyzed the motion patterns of different floating turbine models and studied how the angle of attack changes during operation.
Their findings revealed that swaying motion is the dominant type of movement, with its average value primarily influenced by wind speed and amplitude mainly affected by wave height. The study also focused on the dynamic stall characteristics of thick airfoils, discovering that while lift coefficients remain largely unaffected, drag and pitching moment coefficients exhibit strong dynamic stall effects. This movement not only alters aerodynamic performance but also influences the interaction between the turbine and its wake, changing the wake structure significantly.
To further investigate these effects, the research team improved the actuating line method commonly used in wind turbine wake studies and developed a two-dimensional brake line model. The results showed that this new approach offers higher accuracy and reduces computational time by approximately 10%.
Based on their understanding of the dynamic responses, the team designed a swing test bench to simulate the oscillating motion of floating wind turbines within a wind tunnel. They conducted a series of steady and unsteady experiments on model turbines, analyzing power output and load fluctuations under different conditions.
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under the project “Study on the Three Dimensional Flow and Dynamic Stall Characteristics of Floating Wind Turbines†(No. 50976117). The findings were published in the *Journal of Engineering Thermophysics* in 2013 (Vol. 34, No. 7, pp. 1256–1261), contributing valuable insights to the ongoing development of offshore wind energy systems.
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