Session: New & Innovative FOW Design

Paper Number: 165099

165099 - Development of a Coupled Model for Disruptive Floating VAWT Concept 

Abstract: 

This paper presents a numerical tool developed in Python and integrated into Orcaflex for the coupled analysis of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs) fitted with vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs). The design of such a system requires a fully coupled model that accurately captures floater hydrodynamics, turbine aerodynamics, control strategies, and mooring line dynamics, ensuring a comprehensive modelling of the system’s behaviour in real-world conditions. While numerous numerical tools exist for Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs), there remains a gap for VAWT concepts.

Within the design of its disruptive FOWT concepts equipped with innovative and disruptive twin VAWTs, Bluetwin has developed both a methodology and a numerical tool fitted to the specificities of VAWTs aerodynamics and mechanics and ensuring accurate interactions with other physics of the system. The aerodynamic forces acting on the turbine rotors are derived from a combination of wind tunnel experiments and high-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. The tool has been developed within OrcaFlex software to take advantage of its reliable modelling of floater hydrodynamics and mooring line dynamics.

Following an introduction to the BLUETWIN innovative floating VAWT concept, this paper details the numerical model and its implementation, highlighting the methodologies employed to enhance the accuracy of VAWT simulations. Several benchmark cases are presented to validate the tool’s ability to capture the complex physical interactions within the system. Finally, the tool has been integrated into a Software-In-the-Loop (SIL) framework, enabling real-time coupling with physical basin tests. These tests were performed in the ‘South France - Ocean Basin’ in La Seyne-sur-Mer, operated by Océanide, using the developed SIL system. The coupled model was ultimately calibrated and validated based on these experimental results, ensuring its reliability for actual design and future applications.

Through these validations, this paper demonstrates the capability of the developed tool to accurately simulate the complex physical interactions governing floating VAWTs. Finally, it concludes by outlining future developments, particularly the implementation of a strong coupling with free vortex modelling like method to refine the aerodynamic loading representation on the rotors.

Presenting Author: Alexandre Cinello BLUETWIN

Presenting Author Biography: Alexandre Cinello is an experienced engineer specializing in offshore structure hydrodynamics since 2004. Currently serving as Technical Advisor at Bluetwin since 2024, he brings two decades of expertise in offshore engineering, hydrodynamics, and mooring systems across both the renewable and oil & gas industries.

From 2020 to 2024, Alexandre Cinello led offshore activities and managed the 'South France – Ocean Basin' at Océanide, after previously working as a scientific expert (2011-2020).

Earlier in his career, he held key positions at DORIS Engineering, serving as Head of the Hydrodynamics and Mooring Department (2008-2012) and initially starting as a Hydrodynamics and Mooring Engineer (2004-2008).

Authors:

Florian Ducerf BLUETWIN
Cédric Perisse BLUETWIN
Antoine Delon BLUETWIN
Alexandre Cinello BLUETWIN
Matthieu Minguez BLUETWIN
Benjamin Rousse Océanide
Thibaud Giroud Océanide