A comparative study on the dynamic response of three semisubmersible floating offshore wind turbines

Abstract

Currently, there is a great interest to globally develop offshore wind energy due to the greenhouse effect and energy crisis. Great efforts have been devoted to develop reliable floating offshore wind energy technology to exploit the wind energy resources in deep seas. This paper presents a comparative study of the dynamic response of three different semisubmersible floating wind turbine structures. All the three platforms support the same 5MW wind turbine. The platforms examined are: a V-shaped Semi, an OC4-DeepCwind Semi and a Braceless Semi at 200 m water depth. A dynamic analysis is carried out in order to calculate and compare the performance of these platforms. The comparison is made on the rigid body motions of the semisubmersible platform and tensions of the mooring lines. The presented comparison is based on statistical values and spectra of the time series of the examined response quantities. Coupling effects are more significant for the V-shaped Semi platform. The V-shaped Semi and the Braceless Semi show a more rational motion response under the investigated load cases. The results of this analysis may help to resolve the fundamental design tradeoffs between among different floating system concepts.