Effect of Heave Plates on the Wave Motion of a Flexible Multicolumn FOWT
Taisuke Takata, Mayuko Takaoka, Hidetaka Houtani, Kentaro Hara, Sho Oh, Edgard B. Malta, Kazuhiro Iijima, Hideyuki Suzuki, Rodolfo T. Gonçalves
Abstract
Three models with different footing types were used to clarify the effect of heave plates on the hydrodynamic behavior of the elastic response of a flexible multicolumn floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT). The models were tested under regular waves, whose added mass, damping, and motion response results were compared with numerical simulations by NK-UTWind and WAMIT codes. As a whole, the attachment of heave plates was responsible for increasing the added mass and damping levels, consequently modifying the RAO of the models. Regarding the response in a sea condition, a decrease of 33% and 66% of the significant motion height (heave and pitch) was observed. Thus, the heave plate can be a good feature for the future design of FOWT.