Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FLOAWER (FLOAting Wind Energy netwoRk)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-11-01 bis 2024-01-31
The FLOAting Wind Energy netwoRk prepared 13 Early Stage Researchers (ESR) with an interdisciplinary training with the aim to design better performing, economically viable Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWT). FLOAWER network uniquely gathered outstanding academics and FOW industrial leaders, covering the entire offshore wind industry value chain. ESRs thus benefited from the multidisciplinary expertise of 25 major academic and industrial partners, and a unique panel of research infrastructures, from lab scale to full scale.
The FLOAWER network was designed to fulfil the following objectives:
• Deliver leading-edge training to ESR by addressing the state-of-the-art scientific and transversal needs of the FOW sector
• Enable ESR to benefit from regular mobility across EU’s most prominent industry and academia actors of the FOW sector
• Confront the ESR to the current and upcoming engineering challenges faced by the FOW industry
• Create a multidisciplinary environment where industries and academia share ideas and work together towards solutions accelerating the commercialisation of the FOW sector
• Support the European offshore wind energy industries to identify technological improvements by providing high performance characterization and modelling tools that can enhance their competitiveness
6 tailored scientific, technical and transversal trainings were provided to the ESRs, covering all the different skills that they need to be a highly qualified but versatile researcher. Both academia and industry provided lectures on FOW challenges for commercialisation and design improvement to reduce LCOE.
ESRs benefited from many opportunities to travel across Europe to meet with industry and academia, either during network-wide trainings, secondments or during conferences and exhibitions at a European level. The participation to WindEurope summit 2022 and the organisation of a side-event dedicated to the FLOAWER communication towards an industrial audience was a highlight.
ESRs were engaged in advanced research, contributing to a collective knowledge base under the mentorship of leading figures in the academic and industry community. The project yielded numerous innovative methodologies and essential tools. These advancements emphasized cost efficiency, incorporating techno-economic strategies to enhance technology performance, such as the integration of structural optimization in floaters.
The FLOAWER network was designed to fulfil the following objectives:
• Deliver leading-edge training to ESR by addressing the state-of-the-art scientific and transversal needs of the FOW sector
• Enable ESR to benefit from regular mobility across EU’s most prominent industry and academia actors of the FOW sector
• Confront the ESR to the current and upcoming engineering challenges faced by the FOW industry
• Create a multidisciplinary environment where industries and academia share ideas and work together towards solutions accelerating the commercialisation of the FOW sector
• Support the European offshore wind energy industries to identify technological improvements by providing high performance characterization and modelling tools that can enhance their competitiveness
6 tailored scientific, technical and transversal trainings were provided to the ESRs, covering all the different skills that they need to be a highly qualified but versatile researcher. Both academia and industry provided lectures on FOW challenges for commercialisation and design improvement to reduce LCOE.
ESRs benefited from many opportunities to travel across Europe to meet with industry and academia, either during network-wide trainings, secondments or during conferences and exhibitions at a European level. The participation to WindEurope summit 2022 and the organisation of a side-event dedicated to the FLOAWER communication towards an industrial audience was a highlight.
ESRs were engaged in advanced research, contributing to a collective knowledge base under the mentorship of leading figures in the academic and industry community. The project yielded numerous innovative methodologies and essential tools. These advancements emphasized cost efficiency, incorporating techno-economic strategies to enhance technology performance, such as the integration of structural optimization in floaters.
13 ESRs hosted by 10 institutions worked together in the FLOAWER project. They focused on four scientific challenges (Work Packages - WP):
WP4: Wind resource assessment in deep waters
ESR1, Telem Avidor, studied the wind resource assessment by the combination of spatially distributed measurement systems. He used wind observations from lighthouse and floating lidar buoys and compared the wind data using the measure-correlate-predict method.
ESR2, Moritz Gräfe, processed wind data from a nacelle-mounted lidar on a FOWT. After correcting data from the system motion, the work was extended with a simulation of the motions coupled with an aero-elastic simulation to account for FOWT dynamics.
ESR3, Daniel Hatfield, analysed floating wind lidar buoy data to estimate the atmospheric stability. Wind lidar data from a ferry was investigated and compared to other data types to check the accuracy. He proposed a vertical extrapolation of satellite ocean winds to turbine hub-height using machine learning.
WP5: Advanced floater analysis
ESR4, Xiaoming Ran, studied how the combination of nonlinear wave loads and floater flexibility affects the tendon responses for a tension leg platform.The importance of nonlinear wave loads for the load effects in the flexible floater are seen to be more important for the TLP than for the spar.
ESR5, Seung-Yoon Han, produced an extensive database of hydrodynamic loads on a vertical column with a heave plate, and compared the results against CFD and a simplified model based on potential flow and Morison’s equation.
ESR6, Navid Belvasi, carried out experimental measurements of the flow around a FOWT hull. Particle image velocimetry was used to give insights about the details of the flow. It is an important tool for validation of higher fidelity methods such as computational fluid dynamics.
ESR7, Eva Schmitt, improved the optimization framework for FOWT mooring systems. He concluded that better modelling of the power cable is required to enable such a design optimization, and that the power cable geometry must be included in an efficient manner.
WP6: Dynamics of wind turbines
ESR9, Mariana Montenegro, investigated numerical engineering aerodynamic models of different complexity for Horizontal and Vertical Axis Wind Turbines. She focused on the response of wind turbines to platform motions, highlighting the different response of horizontal and vertical axis wind turbines.
ESR10, Thomas Messmer, further developed a new experimental set-up to investigate the wake development and dynamics of FOW. The motion allows a faster transition to the far wake compared with the wake of the fixed turbine, linked to nonlinear spatiotemporal dynamics in the shear layer region of the wake.
ESR11, Wessel van der Deijl, performed a deep experimental analysis of the wake of a vertical-axis wind turbine designed for floating conditions. The opportunity to perform experiments in different wind tunnels enabled to assess the sensitivity of the experimental results to facility properties.
WP7: System design to reduce LCOE
ESR8, Victor Benifla, developed a comprehensive framework for optimizing the design of FOWT substructures using frequency domain analysis and Genetic Algorithm.
ESR12, Kutay Yilmazlar, focused on the research activity on the integrated design of FOWTs with the aim of minimizing LCoE. A novel wind farm design methodology was presented, integrating design variables from different design aspects into an optimization problem.
ESR13, Daniel Craig, developed a techno-economic tool to analyse the LCoE under various boundary conditions. He plugged the gap in research through a range of dynamic functions that address this by adapting to site and technical conditions and are only limited by the ability to predict future commodity prices.
16 journal publications (17+ expected after the end of the project), 47 talks and 21 posters in international conferences, and 2 brochures were produced, witnessing the large impact on the targeted audience. They were designed to target specific audiences (industry and policy makers, respectively). A book on FLOAWER results is under evaluation by Springer for publication in the book series “Research Topics in Wind Energy” of the European Academy of Wind Energy.
WP4: Wind resource assessment in deep waters
ESR1, Telem Avidor, studied the wind resource assessment by the combination of spatially distributed measurement systems. He used wind observations from lighthouse and floating lidar buoys and compared the wind data using the measure-correlate-predict method.
ESR2, Moritz Gräfe, processed wind data from a nacelle-mounted lidar on a FOWT. After correcting data from the system motion, the work was extended with a simulation of the motions coupled with an aero-elastic simulation to account for FOWT dynamics.
ESR3, Daniel Hatfield, analysed floating wind lidar buoy data to estimate the atmospheric stability. Wind lidar data from a ferry was investigated and compared to other data types to check the accuracy. He proposed a vertical extrapolation of satellite ocean winds to turbine hub-height using machine learning.
WP5: Advanced floater analysis
ESR4, Xiaoming Ran, studied how the combination of nonlinear wave loads and floater flexibility affects the tendon responses for a tension leg platform.The importance of nonlinear wave loads for the load effects in the flexible floater are seen to be more important for the TLP than for the spar.
ESR5, Seung-Yoon Han, produced an extensive database of hydrodynamic loads on a vertical column with a heave plate, and compared the results against CFD and a simplified model based on potential flow and Morison’s equation.
ESR6, Navid Belvasi, carried out experimental measurements of the flow around a FOWT hull. Particle image velocimetry was used to give insights about the details of the flow. It is an important tool for validation of higher fidelity methods such as computational fluid dynamics.
ESR7, Eva Schmitt, improved the optimization framework for FOWT mooring systems. He concluded that better modelling of the power cable is required to enable such a design optimization, and that the power cable geometry must be included in an efficient manner.
WP6: Dynamics of wind turbines
ESR9, Mariana Montenegro, investigated numerical engineering aerodynamic models of different complexity for Horizontal and Vertical Axis Wind Turbines. She focused on the response of wind turbines to platform motions, highlighting the different response of horizontal and vertical axis wind turbines.
ESR10, Thomas Messmer, further developed a new experimental set-up to investigate the wake development and dynamics of FOW. The motion allows a faster transition to the far wake compared with the wake of the fixed turbine, linked to nonlinear spatiotemporal dynamics in the shear layer region of the wake.
ESR11, Wessel van der Deijl, performed a deep experimental analysis of the wake of a vertical-axis wind turbine designed for floating conditions. The opportunity to perform experiments in different wind tunnels enabled to assess the sensitivity of the experimental results to facility properties.
WP7: System design to reduce LCOE
ESR8, Victor Benifla, developed a comprehensive framework for optimizing the design of FOWT substructures using frequency domain analysis and Genetic Algorithm.
ESR12, Kutay Yilmazlar, focused on the research activity on the integrated design of FOWTs with the aim of minimizing LCoE. A novel wind farm design methodology was presented, integrating design variables from different design aspects into an optimization problem.
ESR13, Daniel Craig, developed a techno-economic tool to analyse the LCoE under various boundary conditions. He plugged the gap in research through a range of dynamic functions that address this by adapting to site and technical conditions and are only limited by the ability to predict future commodity prices.
16 journal publications (17+ expected after the end of the project), 47 talks and 21 posters in international conferences, and 2 brochures were produced, witnessing the large impact on the targeted audience. They were designed to target specific audiences (industry and policy makers, respectively). A book on FLOAWER results is under evaluation by Springer for publication in the book series “Research Topics in Wind Energy” of the European Academy of Wind Energy.
The FLOAWER project made significant steps forward in tackling these challenges by strengthening the quality of wind resource assessment in deep waters, improving the knowledge on the aerodynamic properties of FOWT, optimising the design of floaters and mooring lines integrating the cost reduction into the FOWT design and developing a techno-economic tool to analyse dynamically the LCoE trends.
Overall, the project’s holistic approach, encompassing secondments, integration into research networks, exposure to industry practices, and soft skills training, empowered ESRs to excel in their careers and make significant contributions to the evolving landscape of FOW energy.3 ESRs were recruited in offshore wind sector, other ESRs are still dedicated to the PhD awarding.
Overall, the project’s holistic approach, encompassing secondments, integration into research networks, exposure to industry practices, and soft skills training, empowered ESRs to excel in their careers and make significant contributions to the evolving landscape of FOW energy.3 ESRs were recruited in offshore wind sector, other ESRs are still dedicated to the PhD awarding.