Comparison of Hydrodynamic Load Predictions Between Reduced Order Engineering Models and Computational Fluid Dynamics for the OC4-DeepCwind Semi-Submersible

Authors

Maija A. Benitz, Roger Williams UniversityFollow

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2020

Comments

Published in: Proceedings Series: 33rd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, San Francisco, CA, June 2014.

Abstract

Hydrodynamic loads on the platforms of floating offshore wind turbines are often predicted with computer-aided engineering tools that employ Morison’s equation and/or potential-flow theory. This work compares results from one such tool, FAST, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s wind turbine computer-aided engineering tool, and the high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package, OpenFOAM, for the OC4-DeepCwind semi-submersible analyzed in the International Energy Agency Wind Task 30 project. Load predictions from HydroDyn, the offshore hydrodynamics module of FAST, are compared with results from OpenFOAM. HydroDyn uses a combination of Morison’s equation and potential-flow theory to predict the hydrodynamic forces on the structure, at a small computational cost compared to CFD. The implications of the assumptions in HydroDyn are evaluated based on this code-to-code comparison.

Recommended Citation

Benitz M.A., Schmidt D.P., Lackner M.A., Jonkman J., Robertson A., & Stewart G.S. (2014, June). Comparison of Hydrodynamic Load Predictions Between Reduced-Order Engineering Models and CFD for the OC4-DeepCWind Semi-Submersible. Proceedings Series: 33rd International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, CA: San Francisco.