Roundness and slenderness effects on the dynamic characteristics of spar-type floating offshore wind turbine

Abstract Spar-type floating offshore wind turbine has been massively developed considering its design simplicity and stability to withstand the wave-induced motion. However, the variation of the local sea level and the readiness of supporting production facilities demand the spar design to adapt in a viable way. Considering this, the present article investigated how the slenderness (length over diameter ratio) and the roundness of cross section influence the hydrodynamic characteristics, which are the crucial parameters of floater performances. The OC3-Hywind spar-type floating platform was adapted as the reference model. The length of the reference floater was then varied with a ratio of 1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3 and the diameter was proportionally scaled to obtain constant buoyancy. The number of the sides which indicated the roundness of the cross section was varied to be 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and infinity (cylindrical shape). The analysis was conducted using potential flow theory in a boundary element method solver through an open-source code NEMOH. Initially, panel convergence was conducted and compared with the experimental results of the reference model to obtain the appropriate simulation settings before being used for the case configuration analysis. Results stated that the roundness effect with sides greater than 16 had little effect on dynamic characteristics. Meanwhile, the spar with the largest diameter was more stable against the translational motion.