V-shaped semisubmersible offshore wind turbine: An alternative concept for offshore wind technology

The design aspects of a 5-MW V-shaped semisubmersible floating wind turbine considering the floater main dimensions and configurations are presented in this paper. Initially, the effect of different geometry parameters that correspond to different design cases have been investigated on the hydrostatic stability of the semisubmersible support platform through the comparison of righting arm and righting moments. Afterwards, the dynamic behavior and performance of the V-shaped semisubmersible wind turbine are presented for one of the examined design cases. Aero-hydro-servo-elastic numerical modeling has been applied for achieving coupled integrated time-domain analysis in order to investigate the dynamics of the V-shaped semisubmersible offshore wind turbine. The water depth is selected to be 100 m in order to study the feasibility of such concept in moderate water depth. The wave-induced as well as wave-wind-induced motions, tension of mooring lines and functionality of wind turbine are presented and discussed for selected environmental conditions. In general, the results show that the presented in the present paper V-shaped semisubmersible offshore wind turbine is a promising concept which can enhance the offshore wind industry. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.