Numerical and experimental modeling of offshore wind energy capture: Application to reduced scale model testing

Gonzalo Doisenbant (1) , Marc Le Boulluec (2) , Yves-Marie Scolan (1) , Marc Guyot (3)

1 IRDL - Institut de Recherche Dupuy de Lôme
2 IFREMER - Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer
3 Eolink

Horizontal axis wind turbines installed on board floating supports stand among the principles of offshore wind energy capture. This document describes the experimental device and methodology for analyzing the performance of a reduced scale model of a 12 MW horizontal axis floating wind turbine. The particularity of this turbine is that it is mounted on a floater conceived according to Eolink's concept, where several masts connect the nacelle with the floater. The tests are performed at Ifremer's ocean basin. For that purpose, a wind generator and a model at scale 1:50 are developed. The experimental results are compared with numerical estimations obtained with the blade element momentum method.

Keywords: Offshore wind energy; Model testing; Horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT); Floating bodies; Pitch angle; Blade element momentum

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]; Engineering Sciences [physics]; Mechanics [physics.med-ph]; Engineering Sciences [physics]; Mechanics [physics.med-ph]; Fluids mechanics [physics.class-ph]

Gonzalo Doisenbant, Marc Le Boulluec, Yves-Marie Scolan, Marc Guyot. Numerical and experimental modeling of offshore wind energy capture: Application to reduced scale model testing. Wind Engineering, 2018, OWEMES 2017 Special Edition, 42 (2), pp.108-114. ⟨10.1177/0309524X18756967⟩. ⟨hal-01783542⟩