Coupled Aero-Hydro-Mechanical Hybrid Simulation Testing Facility for Offshore Wind Turbines (OWTs) Subjected to Realistic Wind and Wave Loading

Presentation

Description: Offshore wind turbines (OWTs) are subjected to multidirectional long-term cyclic loads due to wind, wave, and periodic blade forces. Researchers have traditionally focused on the response of isolated subsystems comprising OWTs, e.g., geotechnical engineers study the response of OWT foundations. In contrast to such studies on single OWT subsystems, our research team is developing and implementing Real-Time Hybrid Simulation (RTHS) for the entire OWT structure. RTHS divides the OWT into dynamically coupled subsystems; some are modeled numerically, while others are experimentally tested in the lab. For the RTHS, an open-source simulation tool (OpenFAST) provides the wave and wind loading to the OWT superstructure, which is modeled numerically in a RTHS coordinator, and the soil-foundation subsystem is physically tested in the lab. A new Offshore Wind Multidirectional Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) Facility has been developed at Lehigh University with funding from the US Department of Energy. The new facility includes a soil box with dimensions of 15x12x12 ft that allow for applying realistic multidirectional loading in all three spatial directions. The facility also allows for the individual or combined application of wind and wave loads, gravity loads, and induced moments on the OWT. This presentation will focus on the capability of the new testing facility and its role in evaluating the SSI of OWT. Validation results will be presented for RTHS using OpenFAST and lab tests.