High fidelity simulations of a floating offshore wind turbine in irregular waves by coupling OpenFOAM and OpenFAST

Abstract

This study introduces a solver that integrates the computational capabilities of OpenFAST, OpenFOAM, and MoorDyn to simulate a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) by considering aerodynamics, servo-control, hydrodynamics, and mooring system under various environmental conditions. This solver aims to model the wave？structure interaction around the platform with high fidelity while simplifying the servo-aerodynamic loads on the wind turbine. The coupling is validated using the database from the SOFTWIND benchmark project at ？cole Centrale Nantes. A spar-type FOWT in three irregular wave conditions with and without a wind field, are selected for the validation. The FOWT motions and mooring line tensions obtained from simulations and experiments are compared. The simulations closely matched the experimental results, confirming the effectiveness and high fidelity of the coupling solver in replicating real-time hybrid experiments and its potential use in general FOWT analyses.