Responses of floating wind turbines to wind and wave excitation

Abstract

The use of wind power has recently emerged as a promising alternative to conventional electricity generation. However, space requirements and public pressure to place unsightly wind turbines out of visual range make it desirable to move large wind farms offshore and into deeper coastal waters. A necessary step for the deployment of wind turbines into deeper waters is the development of floating platform systems. This thesis will present a general technical description of two concept designs for floating wind turbine systems, and make a preliminary evaluation of their performance in wind and waves. A new approach to computing the nonlinear wave excitation is also presented.