Design of a 3D physical and numerical experiment on floating off-shore wind turbines

The knowledge of the behavior of floating offshore wind turbines (W/T) under wave and/or wind action remains one of the most difficult challenges in offshore engineering which is mostly due to the highly non-linear response of the structure. The present study describes the design process of a 3D physical experiment to investigate the behavior of the most promising structure technology of floating W/T: spar buoy (SB) and tension leg platform (TLP) under different meteo conditions. In order to properly design the two W/T models, the following topics have been analyzed: mooring lines, mass distribution, appropriate scaling factor and data relative to the geometrical characteristics, wave basin dimensions and wind and waves conditions. In addition, the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics method (SPH) (Monaghan 1994) has been considered to simulate the 3D behavior of a floating offshore W/T. In particular, the SPH, calibrated and verified on the basis of the experimental observations, may represent a reliable tool for preliminary test of changes in the floater geometry.