_

This paper presents the comparison between three different numerical models with the results of the experimental campaign conducted by the University of Plymouth, in the context of the First FOWT Comparative Study. Experimental tests were conducted to evaluate the hydrodynamic properties of a 1:70 scaled VolturnUS-S semi-submersible floating platform supporting a 15 MW offshore reference wind turbine coupled with the mooring system. This paper uses three different software with increasing numerical accuracy: MOST, OrcaFlex, and Star-CCM+. MOST is a numerical model developed by the Politecnico di Torino and implemented in a MATLAB-Simscape environment; OrcaFlex is a commercial software dedicated to offshore structure analysis, especially used for the design of mooring systems; and Star-CCM+ is a commercial software for computational fluid dynamics analysis based on unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The validation of the experimental tests includes free decay and focused wave tests. All the experiments are performed considering the 1:70 scaled VolturnUS-s semi-submersible floating platform in its moored configuration. The results show how linear models, if properly calibrated, can provide satisfactory results with a low computational cost.

This content is only available via PDF.
You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.