Study of motion performance of a floating system with four moonpools and a VAWT

In this paper the hydrodynamic performance of a barge-type floating foundation installed with four moonpools and a VAWT was investigated through model tests and theoretical calculations. The characteristics of wave-induced motion responses and tether tensions and the effects of turbine rotations were examined. Physical model tests were conducted in a wave tank using regular waves with the wave period ranging from 0.6 to 1.6 seconds and 0.01 or 0.02 meters in amplitude. A 2-MWclass VAWT was modelled with a scale ratio of 1/100 in the experiments. By varying the mass and the rotational speed of the turbine, gyroscopic moment effects were studied. In addition, numerical calculations based on the linear potential theory and Green function method were carried out to estimate motion responses and tether tensions. The present results indicate that the gyroscopic effect due to turbine rotations can be profound. It was found that the firstorder motions of the floating system were substantially reduced by the gyroscopic effect, while the second-order motions and tether tensions may be significantly increased. Moreover, the viscous damping of water motions in moonpools was found not negligible. As a result, theoretical models based on linear potential theory should be used with care in hydrodynamic analysis with regard to the floating systems with VAWT rotations. In addition, the present in-house program code was validated against WAMIT through comparing hydrodynamic predictions of a floating foundation with four moonpools, with reasonable agreement.