Modern methods for investigating the stability of a pitching floating platform wind turbine

Abstract

The QBlade implementation of the Lifting Line Free Vortex Wake method(LLFVW) was tested in conditions analogous to floating platform motion. Comparisons against two independent test cases, using a variety of simulation methods show excellent agreement in thrust forces, rotor power, blade forces and rotor plane induction. Along with the many verifications already undertaken in literature, it seems that the code performs solidly even in these challenging cases. Further to this, the key steps are presented from a new formulation of the instantaneous aerodynamic thrust damping of a wind turbine rotor. A test case with harmonic platform motion and collective pitch is used to demonstrate how combining such tools can lead to better understanding of aeroelastic stability.