Numerical and Experimental Investigations on Offshore Wind Turbine Structures and the Application of Real-Time Hybrid Simulation: A State-of-the-Art Review

Abstract

Over the past few years, offshore wind power has had a rapid growth owing to its development potential. The structural safety and reliability of these energy-harvesting systems must be guaranteed. Various research methods have been employed to study the complex structural behavior and to accurately predict the dynamic response. This paper presents an integrated literature review of numerical and experimental analysis methods of offshore wind turbine (OWT) structures, with an emphasis on the newly developed approach—real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS). Numerical simulation struggles to capture structural nonlinear behavior and replicate complicated marine environments, while experimental testing has scaling issues and equipment limitations. Hybrid testing, by performing physical model testing on the substructure and the remainder being simulated, can make up for the shortcomings of numerical simulation and experimental testing. It not only effectively captures nonlinear behavior well but also addresses the scaling issues. This paper presents a comprehensive review of hybrid testing and encapsulates different RTHS methods available for some floating OWTs.

Keywords

offshore wind turbine / real-time hybrid simulation / review / structural analysis

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