Structural vibration control for the offshore floating wind turbine including drivetrain dynamics analysis

Inerter-based Passive Structural Control for Barge Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

In order to extract more wind energy, the wind turbine rotor becomes larger and the tower becomes taller. With more flexibility and smaller damping, wind turbine tower is prone to vibrate in winds. Meanwhile, the tower suffers the periodic loadings caused by the rotor rotation in the operational condition. The excessive vibrations could not only significantly affect the power generation but shorten the structural life due to the fatigue as well. It is challenging to reduce the vibration caused by the rotor rotation using the passive tuned mass damper (TMD) and traditional LQR controller due to the limited effective bandwidth. Therefore, an active tuned mass damper (ATMD) using a virtual TMD algorithm is proposed to mitigate the along-wind vibration of the tower under parked and operational conditions. The virtual TMD algorithm exhibits wide effective bandwidth and only requires the acceleration information on the top of the tower or the relative displacement of the active TMD. Firstly, the aerodynamic-structure-servo coupling (ASSC) model of the wind turbine is established which considers the interaction among the aerodynamic load, structure, and servo system. Secondly, the accuracy of the ASSC model is then verified using the onshore 5 MW wind turbine by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Thirdly, the ATMD feedback control force is designed by the virtual TMD algorithm. Finally, the reduction effect on the along-wind vibration by the proposed controller is evaluated at both of operational and parked conditions using the ASSC model. The TMD and LQR controller are utilized for comparison. The numerical results demonstrate that tuned mass damper (TMD) system with fixed parameters becomes detuned and may loses its effectiveness at different wind speeds. In contrast, active control can suppress the vibration of wind turbines at different wind speeds. Compared to the LQR controller, the proposed controller can enhance the reduction effect of wind turbine response with smaller stroke and control force at operational conditions.

As offshore wind power continues to develop, with increased capacity and ability to function in deeper waters, jacket-type offshore wind turbines (OWTs) are becoming increasingly challenged by complex environmental loads and significant structural vibration issues. This study focuses on a 10 MW jacket foundation OWT and proposes an optimization approach for tuned mass damper (TMD) parameters based on the artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm. A fully coupled model of the OWT and TMD system is developed, and the TMD parameters are optimized through frequency-domain analysis and time-domain simulations. The vibration control performance of the optimized TMD is then evaluated under combined wind, wave, and seismic excitations. The results show that the passive TMD achieves substantially greater vibration suppression under seismic loading compared to combined wind and wave conditions. In addition, the optimized TMD reduces the standard deviations of tower-top displacement and tower-base bending moment by more than 50%, significantly enhancing the dynamic response of the structure and contributing to an extended fatigue life.

A semiactive control strategy for the vibration control of structures using a stiffness varying tuned mass damper (TMD) with application of bang-bang control force to TMD is proposed. The control strategy involves a combination of controlling the response of structure using bang-bang control with a control force applied to the TMD, and the use of the principle of minimizing the maximum value of the frequency response function (FRF) for the coupled structure-variable stiffness TMD system. The optimal tuning parameter and damping ratio for the TMD are obtained based on this principle. When the control force is applied to the TMD, the TMD is simultaneously retuned (by varying the stiffness) in real time to achieve the minimax principle for the desired level of response reduction. When the active control is ineffective or is turned off, the damper system acts as a passive TMD. The performance of the control strategy is examined under harmonic excitations and is compared to previous results on bang-bang control and minimax shaping of the FRF when the TMD is not retuned in real time. In order to examine the robustness of the controller, a wind excitation obtained from the Davenport spectrum is applied to a structure with low natural frequency. The control strategy is shown to achieve substantial response reduction with relatively low control force requirements.

The safety and reliability margin of offshore floating wind turbines need to be higher than that of onshore wind turbines due to larger environmental loads and higher operational and maintenance costs for offshore wind turbines compared to onshore wind turbines. However rotor cyclic loads coupled with 6 DOFs motions of the substructure, amplifies the fatigue damage in offshore floating wind turbines. In general a lower fatigue design factor is used for offshore wind turbines compared to that of the stationary oil and gas platforms. This is because the consequence of a failure in offshore wind turbines in general is lower than that of the offshore oil and gas platforms. In offshore floating wind turbines a sub-system fault in the electrical system and blade pitch angle controller also induces additional fatigue loading on the wind turbine structure. In this paper effect of selected controller system faults on the fatigue damage of an offshore floating wind turbine is investigated, in a case which fault is not detected by a fault detection system due to a failure in the fault detection system or operator decided to continue operation under fault condition. Two fault cases in the blade pitch angle controller of the NREL 5MW offshore floating wind turbine are modeled and simulated. These faults include: bias error in the blade pitch angle rotary encoder and valve blockage or line disconnection in the blade pitch angle actuator. The short-term fatigue damage due to these faults on the composite blade root, steel low-speed shaft, tower bottom and hub are calculated and compared with the fatigue damage under normal operational conditions considering same environmental conditions for both cases. This comparison shows that how risky is to work under the fault conditions which could be useful for wind turbine operators. The servo-hydro-aeroelastic code HAWC2 is used to simulate the time domain responses of the spar-type offshore floating wind turbine under normal and faulty operational conditions. The rain-flow cycle counting method is used to calculate the load cycles under normal operational and fault conditions. The short term fatigue damage to the composite blade root and steel structures are calculated for 6-hour reference period. The bi-linear Goodman diagram and a linear SN curve are used to estimate the fatigue damage to the composite blade root and the steel structures respectively. Moreover the fatigue damage for different mean wind speeds, sea states and fault amplitudes are calculated to figure out the region of wind speeds operation with the highest risk of damage.

General Electric, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass), and Glosten have recently completed a US Department of Energy (DOE)-funded research program to study technologies for mitigating loads on floating offshore wind turbines through the use of advanced turbine controls and tuned mass dampers (TMDs). The analysis was based upon the Glosten PelaStar tension leg platform (TLP) with GE Haliade 150 turbine, a system developed in a previous front end engineering design (FEED) study funded by the Energy Technology Institute (ETI) in the UK. The platform was designed for the WaveHub wave energy research site, with a mean water depth of 59-m. Loads were analyzed by running time-domain simulations in four 50-year return period (50-YRP) ultimate load state (ULS) conditions and 77 fatigue load state (FLS) environmental conditions. In 50-YRP conditions advanced controls are not active. The influence of TMDs on ULS loads have been reported previously (Park et al. [2]). In FLS conditions advanced controls and TMDs afford dramatic reductions in fatigue damage, offering the potential of significant savings in tower structural requirements. Simulations in turbine idling conditions were run in OrcaFlex, and simulations in operating conditions were run in FAST. Simulations were run with a baseline turbine controller, representative of the current state of the art, and an advanced controller developed by NREL to use collective and individual blade pitch control to maintain rotor speed and reduce tower loads. UMass developed a number of TMD types, with varying system configurations, including passive nonlinear dampers and semi-actively controlled dampers with an inverse velocity groundhook control algorithm. Loads and accelerations in FLS conditions were evaluated on the basis of damage equivalent loads (DELs), and fatigue damage was computed by Miner’s summations of stress cycles at the tower base. To study sensitivity to water depth, loads were analyzed at both the 59-m WaveHub depth and a more commercially realistic depth of 100 m. TMDs reduce fatigue damage at the tower-column interface flange by up to 52% in 59-m water depth and up to 28% in 100 m water depth. Advanced controls reduce fatigue damage at the tower-column flange by up to 22% in 59-m water depth and up to 40% in 100 m water depth. The most effective load-mitigation strategy is combining advanced controls with TMDs. This strategy affords a 71% reduction in fatigue damage in both 59-m and 100-m water depths.

This paper addresses the load/vibration reduction problem of offshore floating wind turbines (FWTs). Based on the tuned mass damper (TMD), a novel semi-active control method is designed to mitigate the floating platform’s structural vibration. Different from existing results, the proposed control method is model-free and insensitive to system uncertainties and unmodelled dynamics. We base our design on the model-free adaptive control (MFAC) method. A data-based surrogate model is developed to approximate the unknown FWT dynamical system through the dynamic linearization technique. In addition, a quadratic programming (QP) module is embedded in our MFAC-based semi-active structural controller for constraint handling and control allocation purposes. High-fidelity simulations of FWTs show that our model-free semi-active structural controller can address the limitations of existing results and significantly reduce the platform’s vibration.

This article proposes a method for optimizing multiple tuned mass damper (TMD) devices for reducing bridge vibration as a vehicle passes over it. The method can design multiple TMD parameters simultaneously for different modes contributing to multiple resonance peaks. Moreover, the study analyzed the vibration of bridges with uncertain parameters. This study’s motivation is based on the optimal design of TMDs for bridge structures under external forces, such as the loads of moving cars and high-speed trains. In this case, the resonant response phenomenon can only happen at specific frequencies. The proposed optimization was developed based on the H 2 norm method to design the TMD parameters. The target of the present method is to minimize the response peaks around the resonance frequencies. Moreover, the contribution of the excited modes to each other at their resonance frequencies is considered. The TMD parameters were found to demonstrate good performance for reducing the vibration of bridges due to moving vehicles.

The Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) is generally as a passive vibration control device consisting of added auxiliary mass with functioning spring and damping elements. TMD is basically designed to be tuned to the dominant frequency of a structure which the excitation of frequency will resonate the structural motion out of phase to reduce unwanted vibration. However, a single unit TMD is only capable of suppressing the fundamental structural mode. In order to control multimode vibrations and to cater wide band seismic frequency, more than one TMD is required to improve the effectiveness of a control mechanism. For the purpose of this study, a 3-storey benchmark reinforced structural building subjected to El Centro seismic ground motion is modelled as uncontrolled Primary Structure (PS) by considering appropriate structural properties such as stiffness and damping. Mathematical modelling of uncontrolled PS is developed and further evaluated numerically by assuming the PS as an equivalent lumped system. For the case of controlled PS which the passive mechanism is included to the system, optimum parameters of both TMD and Multiple TMD (MTMD) are designed to be tuned to the dedicated structural modes where the performance is dependent on specified parameters such as auxiliary mass ratio, optimum damping ratio, and optimum frequency ratio. The eigen value analysis is carried out by assuming that the structure is a linear time-invariant system. The input and output components of structural system arrangements are then characterized in the transfer function manner and then converted into state space function. To enhance structural control effectiveness, the adaptive system is incorporated by the attachment of Magneto-Rheological (MR) damper to both single TMD and MTMD passive system. The response analysis of the control system arrangements is executed using both time history and frequency response analysis. The main objectives of the design are to minimize both structural peak and Root Mean Square (RMS) displacements. From the analysis, the designed control mechanisms are concluded as highly effective in reducing all structural floor displacements for the semi-active cases with 99% displacement reduction for the third and second floors, and 98% for the first floor, compared to the uncontrolled case. It is concluded that the MR damper significantly contributed to the enhancement of the passive system to mitigate structural seismic vibration.

Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) are the largest rotating structures on earth. FOWTs are very flexible and dynamically sensitive, they are also installed in very harsh environments and exposed to stochastic environmental loading from wind and ocean waves. In recent years dampers have been installed in the towers of offshore wind turbines to mitigate vibrations. In this paper, structural dynamic models are used to demonstrate improvements in the fatigue life of FOWT towers when they are equipped with a new type of damper - the tuned mass damper inerter (TMDI). A multi-body dynamic approach is used to model the wind turbine and the TMDI installed in the tower. The model is subjected to stochastically generated wind and wave loads of varying magnitudes to develop wind-induced probabilistic demand models for towers of FOWTs under model and load uncertainties. Numerical simulations are carried out to determine the improvements in fatigue life of FOWT towers that can be achieved by installing TMDIs in comparison to traditional tuned mass dampers (TMDs). The results show that the TMDI outperforms the classical TMD when considering fatigue life.

Technology innovation has led to an increase in floating wind turbine size aimed at releasing the pressure on capital cost and increasing its capacity factor. Large-size turbines pose high challenges regarding design with essential structure reliability. The dynamic performance of an integrated 15-megawatt (MW) wind turbine under extreme sea loads is investigated in this paper. Platform motions, mooring system positioning forces, sizeable blades, and tower behaviors are all studied under the targeted typhoon condition and extreme coherent gust with direction change (ECD) wind condition. Potential flow theory is used to analyze the first-order wave load, mean-drift wave load, and second-order difference-frequency wave load on the substructure of the ultra-large 15 MW floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT). The blade element momentum (BEM) theory is adopted for the calculation of the aerodynamic loads on the floating wind turbine, and the finite element method (FEM) is applied to analyze the mooring lines of the floating wind turbine. The results show that the effect of quadratic transfer function (QTF) will significantly increase the dynamic response of FOWT under the typhoon sea state. The ECD wind condition has an influential impact on the motion responses, the axial force of the mooring lines, and structural responses under the normal operating state.

High-rise buildings and wind turbines under dynamic environmental loads experience excessive vibrations. Excessive vibration in tall buildings can exceed both strength and serviceability limit states, leading to structural damage and occupant discomfort. In contrast, unwanted vibration in wind turbines can have adverse effects on energy generation, fatigue life, and initial cost. The current research investigates two high-rise buildings and a 5 MW wind turbine from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) numerically and experimentally to single out the optimal vibration mitigation techniques under diverse environmental loads. A performance-based design of viscous dampers with magnifying mechanism was employed to mitigate the vibration in 76 story benchmarks building under seismic and wind loads. Displacement, acceleration, inter-story drift ratio, shear force, and base bending moment are considered along with other concise sets of system-level performance criteria that are easily understood by decision-makers and/or stakeholders of diverse technical backgrounds. The results suggest viscous dampers as a viable solution for vibration attenuation in high-rise buildings. Viscous dampers can reduce structural and nonstructural damage by counteracting multi-hazard forces in real-time. We proposed a robust pendulum-pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD) to attenuate vibration in wind turbines. The NREL wind turbine equipped with the pendulum PTMD was modeled following the Lagrangian method to facilitate the numerical study. The results reveal that the optimum frequency ratio of the pendulum PTMD can be far different from the corresponding tuned mass damper (TMD) frequency ratio. The pendulum PTMD exhibits higher performance over the corresponding TMD, in terms of robustness and capabilities to reduce maximum accelerations and displacements under earthquakes. We verified the numerical results using a shake table experiment under several earthquake excitations. We carried out dynamic analysis investigations of a 42-story timber-hybrid building, along with a comparative control performance study of three mass dampers: (1) pendulum pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD), (2) tuned mass damper inerter (TMDI), and (3) tuned mass damper (TMD) under the earthquake excitations. Coupling the inerter with TMD to form TMDI can impact the optimal frequency ratio and damping ratio of TMD, resulting in reduced performance. Compared to TMD/TMDI, the pendulum PTMD was more robust, with a higher potential to reduce building responses under seismic loads. We performed aerodynamic investigations of a large-scale high-rise building model at a high Reynolds number (~1 million) to evaluate wind pressure distribution and wind loads. To demonstrate, aerodynamic testing of a 1:50 scale test model was executed with two aspect

Steel–concrete hybrid towers (SCHTs) have been adopted as a popular supporting structure for wind turbines with the increasing hub height and rotor diameter. The excessive transverse vibration of the supporting tower adversely compromises the turbine’s operation and leads to structural deteriorations. The tuned mass damper (TMD) has been validated as an efficient device integrated with high-rise structures in vibration suppressions. This study aims to provide a reliable method for determining the key parameters of the TMD to obtain the optimal performance in vibration suppressions. This study begins with a rigorous theoretical analysis to investigate the dynamic responses of the SCHT. The dynamic analysis serves as a basis for developing a dynamics model of the SCHT integrated with a TMD, which provides a programmable method to analyze the effect of the TMD on the dynamic responses of the SCHT. Then, an optimization model based on the genetic algorithm (GA) is established to obtain the optimal parameters of the TMD. Finally, a numerical test comprising 12 loading conditions is conducted to analyze the vibration mitigation effect of the TMD. The validation process also provides discussions about the influence of the wind turbine operation states and the fitness function adopted in the GA on the efficiency of the TMD. Those findings demonstrate the effectiveness and limitations of the TMD for mitigating vibrations of the SCHT. It thereby contributes to the understanding and improvement of vibration control strategies for SCHT structures and can guide future design and optimization efforts.

Abstract. The numerical study of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) requires accurate integrated simulations which consider the aerodynamic, hydrodynamic, servo and elastic responses of these systems. In addition, the floating system dynamics couplings need to be included to calculate the excitation over the ensemble accurately. In this paper, a new tool has been developed for coupling NREL's aero-servo-elastic tool OpenFAST with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) toolbox OpenFOAM. OpenFAST is used to model the rotor aerodynamics along with the flexible response of the different components of the wind turbine and the controller at each time step considering the dynamic response of the platform. OpenFOAM is used to simulate the hydrodynamics and the platform's response considering the loads from the wind turbine. The whole simulation environment is called OF2 (OpenFAST and OpenFOAM). The OC4 DeepCWind semi-submersible FOWT together with NREL's 5 MW wind turbine has been simulated using OF2 under two load cases. The purpose of coupling these tools to simulate FOWT is to obtain high-fidelity results for design purposes, thereby reducing the computational time compared with the use of CFD simulations both for the rotor aerodynamics, which usually consider rigid blades, and for the platform's hydrodynamics. The OF2 approach also allows us to include the aero-servo-elastic couplings that exist on the wind turbine along with the hydrodynamic system resolved by CFD. High-complexity situations of floating offshore wind turbines, like storms, yaw drifts, weather vanes or mooring line breaks, which imply high displacements and rotations of the floating platform or relevant non-linear effects, can be resolved using OF2, overcoming the limitation of many state-of-the-art potential hydrodynamic codes that assume small displacements of the platform. In addition, all the necessary information for the FOWT calculation and design processes can be obtained simultaneously, such as the pressure distribution at the platform components and the loads at the tower base, fairleads tension, etc. Moreover, the effect of turbulent winds and/or elastic blades could be taken into account to resolve load cases from the design and certification standards.

This paper studies the feasibility of self-powered active vibration control of structures with Tuned Mass Dampers (TMDs). Without consuming external energy, the proposed self-powered vibration control strategy can provide better performance than the passive TMD in mitigating the vibration of buildings induced by wind load. the vibration-dissipative element of TMD is replaced with an electromagnetic machine, which serves as actuator and harvester at the same time. First, the desired force is obtained by adopting Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQG) optimal control. Then, the self-powered active control strategy is designed based on the essence of the desired force, which can be passive or active types. The energy of the vibration can be harvested as electricity in energy harvesting mode, and pumped back into the mechanical system when instant active force is required. Switch based circuits with capability of bi-directional power flow are presented for the implementation of self-powered active TMDs. With taking the efficiency of the harvesting and driving circuits into account, numerical simulations are carried out based on a tall building with a TMD under random and harmonic excitations. The results indicate the feasibility and effectiveness of self-powered active TMDs.