On Common Research Needs for the Next Generation of Floating Support Structures

The world is facing several industrial and societal challenges, such as providing enough renewable energy and enough safe and healthy food as formulated in the United Nations sustainable development goals. Using floating stationary structures, the ocean can contribute to solving several of the challenges. New applications need new types of structures, with which we have limited experience. These support structures will be diverse, but also have essential research needs in common. Design of novel floating structures need reliable descriptions of the marine environment. This is particularly challenging for semi-sheltered coastal regions, with complex topography and bathymetry. Novel structures are likely to be compliant, modular and/or multi-body, requiring increased understanding and rational models for wave-structure interaction. Structures with sustainable, safe, and cost-efficient use of materials, including untraditional ones, must be developed. Smart, affordable, and reliable mooring systems and anchors for novel applications are necessary for station keeping. Digital solutions connecting the various stages of design and operation, as well as various design disciplines, researchers, and innovators, will be necessary. Sustainability will be an integral part of any new design. To unlock the potential of novel floating structures, we need to understand the requirements of the applications, as well as the associated technology gaps and knowledge and research needs. This paper highlights research needs for innovation within floating offshore wind, floating solar power plants, novel aquaculture structures, and coastal infrastructure.acceptedVersio

An immersed interface method for two-dimensional modelling of stratified flow in pipes

This thesis deals with the construction of a numerical method for solving two-dimensional elliptic interface problems, such as fully developed stratified flow in pipes. Interface problems are characterized by its non-smooth and often discontinuous behaviour along a sharp boundary separating the fluids or other materials. Classical numerical schemes are not suitable for these problems due to the irregular geometry of the interface. Standard finite difference discretization across the interface violates the interfacial boundary conditions; therefore special care must be taken at irregular grid nodes. In this thesis a decomposed immersed interface method is presented. The immersed interface method is a numerical technique formulated to solve partial differential equations in the presence of an interface where the solution and its derivatives may be discontinuous and non-smooth. Componentwise corrections terms are added to the finite difference stencil in order to make the discretization well-defined across the interface. A method that approximates the correction terms is also proposed. Results from numerical experiments show that the rate of convergence is approximately of second order. Moreover, the immersed interface method is applied to stratified multiphase flow in pipes. The flow is assumed to be fully developed and in steady-state. For turbulent flow, both a low Reynolds number turbulence model and a two-layer turbulence model are adopted in order to imitate turbulence in the flow field and in the vicinity of the boundaries. The latter turbulence model is modified accordingly to account for the effects of a wavy interface. In this case, the concept of interfacial roughness is used to model the wavy nature of the interface. Numerical results are compared with analytical solutions for laminar flow and experimental data for turbulent flow. It is also demonstrated that the current numerical method offers more flexibility in simulating stratified pipe flow problems with complex shaped interfaces, including three-phase flow, than seen in any previous approach.Paper I reprinted with kind permission of Elsevier, Sciencedirec

Effect of the Beam Element Geometric Formulation on the Wind Turbine Performance and Structural Dynamics

In this paper, the original double symmetric cross section beam formulation in RIFLEX used to model the blades is compared against a newly implemented generalised beam formulation, allowing for eccentric mass, shear and elastic centres. The generalised beam formulation is first evaluated against an equivalent ABAQUS beam model (Using the generalised beam formulation implemented in ABAQUS) which consists of DTU 10MW RWT (reference wind turbine) blade in static conditions. A static displacement is applied to the tip, which is close to an operating load. The results appear very similar and ensure that the implementation is correct. The extended beam formulation is afterwards used on the Land-based 10MW turbine from DTU with external controller. This case study aims at evaluating the effect of the newly implemented formulation on realistic, flexible structure. During the study, the blades were discretised using both the old and new formulation, and dynamic simulations were performed. The effect of the beam formulation was evaluated using several wind conditions that are thought to be characteristic of operating conditions. Results show slight difference between two formulations but could be more significant for next generation flexible blades.acceptedVersio

Calibration of Hydrodynamic Coefficients for a Semi-Submersible 10 MW Wind Turbine

Hydrodynamic model tests and numerical simulations may be combined in a complementary manner during the design and qualification of new offshore structures. In the EU H2020 project LIFES50+ (lifes50plus.eu), a model test campaign of floating offshore wind turbines using Real-Time Hybrid Model (ReaTHM) testing techniques was carried out at SINTEF Ocean in fall 2017. The present paper focuses on the process of calibrating a numerical model to the experimental results. The concepts tested in the experimental campaign was a 1:36 scale model of the public version of the 10MW OO-Star Wind Floater semi-submersible offshore wind turbine. A time-domain numerical model was developed based on the as-built scale model. The hull was considered as rigid, while bar elements were used to model the mooring system and tower in a coupled finite element approach. First-order frequency-dependent added mass, potential damping, and excitation forces/moments were evaluated across a range of frequencies using a panel method. Distributed viscous forces on the hull and mooring lines were added to the numerical model according to Morison’s equation. Potential difference-frequency excitation forces were also included by applying Newman’s approximation. The quasi static properties of the mooring system were assessed by comparing the restoring force and maximum line tension with the pull-out test. Drag coefficients for the line segments were estimated by imposing the measured fairlead motion from model tests as forced displacement and comparing the calculated and measured dynamic line tension. The linear and viscous damping coefficients were first estimated based on the decay tests, and the tuned damping coefficients were compared to initial guesses based on the Reynolds and Keulegan-Carpenter number at model scale. The results were then applied in the numerical model, and simulations in extreme irregular waves were compared to the experiments. It was found that second order drift forces proved to be significant, particularly for the severe irregular seastate. These could not be modelled correctly applying the potential drift forces together with quadratic damping matrix tuned to the free decay test. And the model with viscous drag coefficients tuned to decay tests also underestimated the slow drift motions. Thus, new viscous drag coefficients were determined to match the low frequency platform response. To inverstigate the performance of the tuned model, comparisons were made for a moderate seastate and for a simulation with both waves and wind on an operating turbine. In the end, possible further improvements to the modelling were suggested.acceptedVersio

OC2018 A-116 - Loads, design and operation of floaters in the Arctic - Ptil – NORD ST20

This report presents results from hydrodynamic analysis of interaction between glacial ice and semisubmersible drilling units, as part of the Petroleum Safety Authority's project "NORD ST20 Loads, design and operation of floaters in the northern area". The overall objective of the study has been to study the hydrodynamic behaviour of smaller masses of glacial ice (growlers or bergy bits) exposed to environmental loads, and to assess the hydrodynamic interaction and possibility of collision with a semisubmersible drilling unit. Comprehensive numerical analysis of ice mass response in waves have been performed, with focus on nonlinear Froude-Krylov forces and hydrodynamic interactions due to the near presence of a larger semisubmersible. Position of impact, impact velocity and impact energy have been estimated in cases when collision between the ice mass and semisubmersible occurred.OCE2018 A-116 - Loads, design and operation of floaters in the Arctic - Ptil – NORD ST20publishedVersio

Identification of wave drift force QTFs for the INO WINDMOOR floating wind turbine based on model test data and comparison with potential flow predictions

The paper presents a comparison between empirical and numerical quadratic transfer functions (QTFs) of the horizontal wave drift loads on the INO WINDMOOR floating wind turbine. The empirical QTFs are determined from cross bi-spectral analysis of model test data obtained in an ocean basin. Validation of the identified QTF is provided by comparing low frequency motions reconstructed from the empirical QTF with measurements. The numerical QTFs are calculated by a panel code that solves the wave-structure potential flow problem up to the second order. Systematic comparisons between numerical and empirical QTFs allows identification of tendencies of empirical QTFs and limitations of the second order potential flow predictions. The study is limited to hydrodynamic loads from waves only, i.e. without current. For small seastates, the results indicate that the second order potential flow predictions of the surge QTFs agree quite well with the wave drift coefficients identified empirically from the model test data. For moderate and high seastates, second order predictions underestimate the surge wave drift coefficients for all compared diagonals of the QTFs. The discrepancies between predictions and empirical coefficients are not small, especially at the lower frequency range (below around 0.10 Hz) where the potential flow wave drift forces tend to zero

Identification of wave drift force QTFs for the INO WINDMOOR floating wind turbine based on model test data and comparison with potential flow predictions

The paper presents a comparison between empirical and numerical quadratic transfer functions (QTFs) of the horizontal wave drift loads on the INO WINDMOOR floating wind turbine. The empirical QTFs are determined from cross bi-spectral analysis of model test data obtained in an ocean basin. Validation of the identified QTF is provided by comparing low frequency motions reconstructed from the empirical QTF with measurements. The numerical QTFs are calculated by a panel code that solves the wave-structure potential flow problem up to the second order. Systematic comparisons between numerical and empirical QTFs allows identification of tendencies of empirical QTFs and limitations of the second order potential flow predictions. The study is limited to hydrodynamic loads from waves only, i.e. without current. For small seastates, the results indicate that the second order potential flow predictions of the surge QTFs agree quite well with the wave drift coefficients identified empirically from the model test data. For moderate and high seastates, second order predictions underestimate the surge wave drift coefficients for all compared diagonals of the QTFs. The discrepancies between predictions and empirical coefficients are not small, especially at the lower frequency range (below around 0.10 Hz) where the potential flow wave drift forces tend to zero.publishedVersio

Numerical Investigation of Irregular Breaking Waves for Extreme Wave Spectra Using CFD

Offshore structures are exposed to irregular sea states. It consists of breaking and non-breaking waves. They experience breaking wave loads perpetually after being installed in the open ocean. Thus, the study of wave breaking is an important factor in the design of offshore structures. In the present study, a numerical investigation is performed to study breaking irregular waves in deep water. The irregular waves are generated using the Torsethaugen spectrum which is a double-peaked spectrum defined for a locally fully developed sea. The Torsethaugen spectrum takes both the sea and swell waves into account. Thus, the generated waves can be very steep. The numerical investigation of such steep breaking waves is quite challenging due to their high wave steepness and wave-wave interaction. The present investigation is performed using the open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model REEF3D. The wave generation and propagation of steep irregular waves in the numerical model is validated by comparing the numerical wave spectrum with the experimental input wave spectrum. The numerical results are in a good agreement with experimental results. The changes in the spectral wave density during the wave propagation are studied. Further, the double-hinged flap wavemaker is also tested and validated by comparing the numerical and experimental free surface elevation over time. The time and the frequency domain analysis is also performed to investigate the changes in the free surface horizontal velocity. Complex flow features during the wave propagation are well captured by the CFD model.acceptedVersio