Mean Wave Drift Force on a Barge-Type Floating Wind Turbine With Moonpools

Abstract The barge-type foundation with moonpool(s) is a promising type of platform for floating offshore wind turbines, since the moonpool(s) could improve the hydrodynamic performance at particular frequencies and reduce the costs of construction. In this paper, the horizontal mean drift force and yaw drift moment of a barge-type platform with four moonpools are numerically and experimentally investigated. Physical model tests are carried out in a wave tank, where a 2MW vertical-axis wind turbine is modelled in the 1:100 scale. By varying the rotating speed of the turbine and the mass of the blades, the gyroscopic effects due to turbine rotations on the mean drift forces are experimentally examined. The wave diffraction and radiation code WAMIT is used to carry out numerical analysis of wave drift force and moment. The experimental results indicate that the influence of the rotations of a vertical-axis wind turbine on the sway drift force is generally not very significant. The predictions by WAMIT are in reasonable agreement with the measured data. Numerical results demonstrate that the horizontal mean drift force and yaw drift moment at certain frequencies could be reduced by moonpool(s).