Abstract
Floating offshore wind turbines are subjected to higher tower fatigue loads than their fixed-to-seabed counterparts, which could lead to reductions in turbine life. The worst increases are generally seen in the tower axial fatigue, associated with the tower fore-aft bending moment. For a spar type platform, this has been shown to increase by up to 2.5 times and for a semi-submersible platform, by up to 1.8 times. Reducing these loads would be beneficial, as the alternative of strengthening the towers leads to increase in cost. Here, two offshore floating wind turbine systems, of the spar type, are analyzed and selected responses and tower fatigue are compared: one incorporates a variable-speed, variable-pitch-to-stall blade control system and a back twisted blade, and the other a conventional pitch-to-feather control. The results are then compared with those obtained in an earlier study, where the same turbine configurations were coupled to a semi-submersible platform. A weighted wind frequency analysis at three mean turbulent wind speeds of 8, 13, and 18 m/s highlights that the impact of the back twist angle magnitude and initiation point on tower axial fatigue life extension was the same for both platform types. Compared with their respective feather base models, an increase in the tower axial fatigue life of 18.8% was seen with a spar platform and 10.2% with a semi-submersible platform, when a back twist angle to the tip of −6 deg was imposed along with the variable-speed, variable-pitch-to-stall control.
