Simulation of the fluid-structure interaction of a floating wind turbine

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we present a method for the analysis of the motion behaviour and also the structural response – stresses and deformations – of a floating wind turbine. A partitioned approach is chosen to solve the fluid-structure interaction problem. Therefore, our C++ library comana, developed to couple various solvers, is enhanced to couple the fluid solver pan MARE and the structural solver ANSYS. Initially, a simple elastic finite element model is used in the coupled analysis. This finite element model is described, and some results of the coupled simulation are presented. In order to use a more detailed finite element model without drastically increasing the computation time, superelements can be employed. This procedure is described and applied to an example, a floating buoy in waves, to demonstrate its applicability in fluid-structure interaction simulations.

KEYWORDS:

• Floating wind turbine
• fluid-structure interaction
• partitioned solution approach
• substructuring
• superelement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Bjarne Wiegard http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4155-9199

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany (BMWi) in the joint project HyStOH (project number 03SX409C).