INTERACTION BETWEEN ADVANCED SPAR AND REGULAR WAVES

摘要

Advanced spar type of the floating wind turbine with a short spar and a cylindrical column floater has been developed and tested recently. However, numerical methods to accurately simulate the interaction between the advanced spar and waves have not been established yet. In this study we simulated the free surface flow around an advanced spar in regular waves using open source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software OpenFOAM to examine its applicability. We used olaFOAM which equipped with the functions to set the boundary conditions of wave generation at the inlet and wave absorption at the exit. An experiment of the advanced spar model fixed in space in the regular waves with various wave periods was also conducted to obtain an experimental database on the horizontal and vertical forces acting on the structure and pressure distribution on the floater surface. The results of the forces obtained by the numerical simulation, experiment, Morison's equation were compared to examine the validity of the numerical model. Numerical and experimental results of the horizontal and vertical forces as well as pressure distribution on the floater surface were in good agreement, which confirmed the validity of the present numerical method. Then, we evaluated numerically the effects of the edge of the column by simulating a sharp-edged and a chamfered column floater. The result clarified that a chamfered edge decreased the wake which reduced the forces acting on the floater structure.