Coupled dynamic analysis of semi-submersible floating wind turbine integrated with oscillating water column WEC

The present study envisages to investigate the coupled dynamic behaviour of three configurations of a hybrid wind-wave energy system integrating Oscillating Water Column (OWC) wave energy converters to DeepCwind semi-submersible supporting an NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) 5 MW wind turbine. DeepCwind semi-submersible is a platform designed specifically for the purpose of supporting floating offshore wind turbines and the stability of the platform has been well confirmed by scaled-down experiments and numerical studies. The numerical simulation for the present study is performed using the aero-hydro-servo-elastic tool OpenFAST. The dynamic responses of the hybrid platforms are determined for different operational and parked wind speed conditions of the wind turbine in irregular waves. The motion responses, tower base forces and moments, mooring tensions and power absorption of the hybrid configurations have been characterized. Furthermore, the effect of coupling between the semi-submersible platform and the OWCs is studied by comparing the results of the combined platforms with that of the uncoupled wind energy platform. The coupled dynamic analysis in the time domain shows that increasing the number of OWC helps to reduce the motion responses in heave and pitch. The capture width ratio of the system is observed to be highest for hybrid configuration with a single OWC device. The present study will be helpful in the design and analysis of hybrid floating wave-wind energy platform.