Abstracted/indexed

We present a model for assessing the aerodynamic performance of a wind turbine rotor through a different parametrization of the classical blade element momentum model. The model establishes an analytical relationship between the loading in the flow direction and the power along the rotor span. The main benefit of the model is the ease with which it can be applied for rotor optimization and especially load constraint power optimization.

A novel wind turbine rotor optimization methodology is presented. Using an assumption of radial independence it is possible to obtain the Pareto-optimal relationship between power and loads through the use of KKT multipliers, leaving an optimization problem that can be solved at each radial station independently. Combining it with a simple cost function it is possible to analytically solve for the optimal power per cost with given inputs for the aerodynamics and the cost function.

This paper introduces the numerical models of two 15 MW floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) WindCrete and Activefloat. WindCrete is a spar floating platform designed by Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, while Activefloat is a semi-submersible platform designed by Esteyco. The floaters are designed within the Horizon 2020 project COREWIND. Later in the paper, the responses of both models to wind and second-order waves are analysed with an emphasis on the effect of second-order waves.

Floating wind is a key technology to harvest the abundant wind energy resource of deep waters. This research introduces a new way of controlling the wind turbine to better deal with the action of waves. The turbine is made aware of the incoming waves, and the information is exploited to enhance power production.