Evaluation of the effect of hurricane induced swell on the global response of floating offshore wind turbine

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a simulation-based study aimed at evaluating the response of floating offshore wind structures in offshore environmental conditions during hurricanes. The marine environment data used in the study was obtained through simulation of hurricane scenarios using the University of Miami Coupled Model (UMCM), one of the hurricane numerical prediction models. We analyzed the response characteristics of the swell component of the wave spectrum to the floating offshore structure through the used load. We used wave age criterion to separate the swell component from the wind sea to see the contribution of the swell to the response. NREL's OC4 DeepCwind semi-submersible floating structure was selected and the hydrodynamic module of FAST (Fatigue Aerodynamics Structures and Turbulence) was modified to calculate the load. The responses were evaluated. The output used in the analysis was surge, heave, pitch, mooring tension, which were platform global motions. In the surge and heave analysis, swell was more affected than wind sea component mooring tension resulted in a significant effect on surge and pitch response.