Coupled aero-hydro-servo-elastic analysis of advanced wet-towing schemes for the IEA 15MW floating wind turbine

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Tang, Yichang and Chen, Mingsheng and Chen, Yingjie and Yu, Ning and Wu, Jiaxi and Jiang, Xingyu and Liu, Suqian and Yuan, Zhi-Ming (2026) Coupled aero-hydro-servo-elastic analysis of advanced wet-towing schemes for the IEA 15MW floating wind turbine. Ocean Engineering, 356 (Part 1). 125321. ISSN 0029-8018 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2026.125321)

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Abstract

The safety and operability are pivotal in enabling the deployment of the floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT), particularly when addressing challenges such as the wet-towing of fully assembled systems to offshore sites. This study focuses on the wet-towing phase of an International Energy Agency (IEA) 15 MW FOWT, employing a novel coupled aero-hydro-servo-elastic analysis to evaluate different towing strategies. The accuracy of model is established by validating frequency-domain predictions against nonlinear time-domain simulations, ensuring reliable representation of the motion dynamics in both frequency and time domains. Using this approach, three towing methods are systematically compared under representative sea states and practical towing speeds ranging from 2 to 5 kn. The results indicate that towing speed exerts a dominant influence on the dynamic response of the FOWT. With increasing towing speed, both platform pitch motions and nacelle acceleration levels are markedly amplified. Pronounced differences are observed among the towing methods. The double columns forward towing method produces the smallest pitch oscillations and superior overall stability, whereas the single column single cable towing method results in the largest pitch excursions and the highest cable tension levels. The peak cable tension associated with the single cable towing configuration attains values on the order of 2 to 3 MN at a towing speed of 4 kn, which represents an increase of approximately 60 % relative to multi cable schemes. This pronounced amplification highlights the elevated operational risk of the single cable method, and identifies a towing speed of approximately 4 kn as a practical upper threshold for safe towing operations under the assumed moderate sea states and standard single-tugboat bollard pull capabilities. Based on comparative feasibility, safety, and efficiency, the study recommends the double columns forward with single tugboat towing scheme as the optimal strategy for FOWT wet-towing, offering a balanced and cost-effective solution for safe deployment.

ORCID iDs

Tang, Yichang, Chen, Mingsheng, Chen, Yingjie, Yu, Ning, Wu, Jiaxi, Jiang, Xingyu, Liu, Suqian and Yuan, Zhi-Ming ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9908-1813;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)