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Experimental Study on New Multi-Column Tension-Leg-Type Floating Wind

Turbine

Article in China Ocean Engineering · April 2018

DOI: 10.1007/s13344-018-0014-0

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China Ocean Eng., 2018, Vol. 32, No. 2, P. 123–131
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13344-018-0014-0, ISSN 0890-5487
http://www.chinaoceanengin.cn/ E-mail: coe@nhri.cn

Experimental Study on New Multi-Column Tension-Leg-Type Floating

Wind Turbine
ZHAO Yong-shenga, b, SHE Xiao-hec, HE Yan-pinga, b, *, YANG Jian-mina, b, PENG Taoa, b,
KOU Yu-fenga, b
aState Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China

bCollaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Ship and Deep-Sea Exploration (CISSE), Shanghai Jiao Tong University,

Shanghai 200030, China

cShanghai University of Engineering Science, School of Management, Shanghai 201620, China

Received July 11, 2017; revised January 7, 2018; accepted February 7, 2018

©2018 Chinese Ocean Engineering Society and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

Abstract
Deep-water regions often have winds favorable for offshore wind turbines, and floating turbines currently show the
greatest potential to exploit such winds. This work established proper scaling laws for model tests, which were then
implemented in the construction of a model wind turbine with optimally designed blades. The aerodynamic,
hydrodynamic, and elastic characteristics of the proposed new multi-column tension-leg-type floating wind turbine
(WindStar TLP system) were explored in the wave tank testing of a 1:50 scale model at the State Key Laboratory of
Ocean Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Tests were conducted under conditions of still water, white
noise waves, irregular waves, and combined wind, wave, and current loads. The results established the natural
periods of the motion, damping, motion response amplitude operators, and tendon tensions of the WindStar TLP
system under different environmental conditions, and thus could serve as a reference for further research.
Key words: floating wind turbine, model test, WindStar TLP, dynamic response

Citation: Zhao, Y. S., She, X. H., He, Y. P., Yang, J. M., Peng, T., Kou, Y. F., 2018. Experimental study on new multi-column tension-leg-type
floating wind turbine. China Ocean Eng., 32(2): 123–131, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13344-018-0014-0

1 Introduction Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering (SKLOE) at Shang-

As the development of wind energy continues, offshore
turbines will be built in increasingly deep water. Floating
wind turbines (FWTs) on platforms tethered to the seabed
by cables are the most promising new method for develop-
ing deep-water sites, and have become a hot research topic
in recent years. This novel type of structure comprises a
complicated coupled aero-hydro-servo-elastic multi-body
system that experiences multiple loads during the turbine
operation. Wide-ranging research by teams around the
world has led to various FWT design concepts that have
been tested in wave basins (Kimball et al., 2014; Martin et
al., 2014; Robertson et al., 2013). Unlike model tests of con-
ventional offshore structures, tests of FWTs must establish
the complicated coupled dynamics of the whole platform-
and-turbine system, and thus the model must include both a
wind turbine and its platform to allow study of the system’s
overall dynamic performance. Therefore, it is crucial to
design an appropriate wind turbine model for the FWT
model testing. In 2012, a new multi-column TLP-type FWT
concept (WindStar TLP system) was proposed by the State
Foundation item: This work was financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, Grant No. 2014CB046205).
*Corresponding author. E-mail: hyp110@sjtu.edu.cn
hai Jiao Tong University (Zhao et al., 2012a, 2012b).
This work reports a comprehensive wave basin model
test of the WindStar TLP system; the results identify the
system’s dynamic motion responses and global perform-
ance under the combined wind, wave, and current loading.
A redesigned model blade was used to achieve the target ro-
tor thrust coefficient and the Reynolds number scaling ef-
fect was thus eliminated. An elastically similar turbine
tower model was designed to ensure the natural frequencies
scale consistently with time. Tests were conducted under
conditions of still water, white noise waves, irregular waves,
and combined wind, wave, and current loads. The natural
periods of the motion, damping, motion response amplitude
operators (RAOs), and tendon tensions of the WindStar TLP
system were obtained, verifying its technical feasibility.
2 WindStar TLP system
The WindStar TLP system comprises three main parts:
the wind turbine rotor, the tower, and the supporting plat-
form. A NREL offshore 5MW baseline wind turbine model
124 ZHAO Yong-sheng et al. China Ocean Eng., 2018, Vol. 32, No. 2, P. 123–131
was mounted on the tower model. The model was a conven-
tional three-bladed upwind variable-speed, variable blade-
pitch-to-feather-controlled turbine (Jonkman et al., 2009).
The support platform has a central column, three equi-
valent radiating corner columns, pontoons, tendon support
structures (TSSs), and a vertical tension mooring system.
The corner columns provide the buoyancy and external sta-
bility during the wet-tow transportation, installation, and op-
eration of the system and also when the tendons are absent.
Three TSSs support the tendons and increase the system’s
pitch and yaw stiffness. The vertical tension mooring sys-
tem comprises three identical tendons, of which each has a
pair of tethers made of polyester rope to implement secure
redundancy. To better transfer the large overturning mo-
ment of the wind’s force on the rotor and to minimize the
stress concentration at the tower base, the conical tube tower
structure is designed to be installed directly on the central
column (Zhao et al., 2016b). The configuration of the pro-
posed WindStar TLP system is illustrated in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Proposed WindStar TLP system.
3 Scaling laws and parameters in the floating wind tur-
bine basin tests
The FWT model was tested in a wave basin to investig-
ate its hydrodynamic, aerodynamic, and elastic characterist-
ics. Wave tank testing of offshore floating structures gener-
ally employs the scale models that aim to be similar to the
reference system in terms of the geometry, kinematics, and
dynamics without suffering from the scale effects. Given
that the stiffness of the turbine tower greatly affects the
pitching motion of a TLP-type FWT, maintaining the refer-
ence’s elastic properties in the model is important.
It is considered that the Froude scaling law best pre-
serves the inertial and gravitational forces in the wave basin
tests. However, it leads to the Reynolds number being smal-
ler than that at the full scale, which gives smaller lift coeffi-
cients and larger drag coefficients for model turbine blades.
Therefore, the resulting rotor thrust of the model is much
lower than the Froude-scaled value of a full-sized turbine
(the Reynolds number scaling effect) (Martin, 2011; Du et
al., 2013, 2016).
This work modified the blade design to give the model
the same wind turbine thrust coefficient as the reference,
and so eliminate the Reynolds number scaling effect. In
summary, the following scaling relationships between the
reference and the model were considered.
(1) The model should be geometrically similar to the
reference. Its linear dimensions (L: e.g., length, width,
height, draft, location of the center of gravity, water depth,
and wave height) should all be scaled by the same factor,
Lm
= λ, (1)
Lr
where the subscript r refers to the reference and m to the
model.
(2) The model should be kinematically similar to the ref-
erence, thus preserving the rotational character of the refer-
ence (e.g., rotor frequency and other resulting excitations) in
the model. To ensure this similarity, the wind turbine tip
speed ratio (TSR) should be maintained as follows:
ωr Rr ωm Rm
(TSR)r = = = (TSR)m , (2)
Vr Vm
where V is the incoming wind velocity, ω is the wind tur-
bine rotor rotational velocity, and R is the blade radius.
(3) The model should be dynamically similar to the ref-
erence. This includes maintaining the Froude scaling law
and the rotor thrust coefficient. The Froude scaling law is
defined as follows:
Ur 2 Um 2
Fr = = , (3)
gr Lr gm Lm
where U is the characteristic velocity, including the wave
particle velocity, structural motion velocity, wind velocity,
etc.
To keep the model rotor thrust coefficient the same as
the reference, and so ensure the correct rotor aerodynamic
load, a modified blade design is preferred.
CT r = CT m . (4)
(4) The turbine tower model should be elastically simil-
ar to the reference to ensure the natural frequencies scale
consistent with time:
Er
= λ, (5)
Em
where E is the Young’s modulus of the tower structure.
However, it is difficult to achieve a Froude scale stiff-
ness by scaling the material Young’s modulus alone. The
natural frequency of a homogenous prismatic Euler-
Bernoulli beam is given by (Martin, 2011)
√
EI
ω = βn L , (6)
L3 m
where βn is dependent on the beam end boundary condition,
L is the beam length, I is the cross-section area moment of
the inertia, and m is the beam mass.
Application of the above scaling yields
 ZHAO Yong-sheng et al. China Ocean Eng., 2018, Vol. 32, No. 2, P. 123–131 125

√ √
√ (EI)m E r Ir depth could be adjusted by the movable floor of the basin.
ωm = λωr = = λ , (7) The design water depth was 160 m, and the model wa-
Lm 3 mm 3
(λ Lm 3 )(λ3 m
m)
ter depth was 3.2 m. A 1/50 scale model of the WindStar
yielding TLP system was designed and fabricated given the scaling
1 ratios in Table 1 (Fig. 2). Data recorded during the tests in-
(EI)m = E r Ir . (8)
λ5 cluded six degrees of freedom (DOF) of the tower top
Therefore, the combination of the material density, mod- forces, turbine nacelle translational accelerations, turbine ro-
ulus and geometry were tuned together to achieve the desire tation velocity, platform deck translational accelerations, six
stiffness of the tower model. DOF of platform motions, and tendon tensions. All data
Given these scaling relationships, the proposed scaling were recorded with a sampling rate of 40 Hz. The low-pass
ratios are summarized in Table 1. FFT filter was applied for the noise elimination of the raw
experimental data. To eliminate the electromagnetic inter-
4 Model and experimental set-up ference generated in the sensors, the servo motor and the
Tests were conducted in SKLOE’s wave basin (50 m× controller were connected to the earth ground with a flat
40 m), which allowed a geometric scaling factor of 50. Water braided grounding strap.

Table 1 Summary of scaling ratios

Property Symbol Scaling ratios Property Symbol Scaling ratios
Length Lr/Lm λ Mass moment of the inertia Jr/Jm γλ5
Velocity Vr/Vm λ1/2 Angular velocity ϕs'/ϕm' λ–1/2
Acceleration ar/am 1 Time Tr/Tm λ1/2
Angle ϕs/ϕm 1 Frequency fr/fm λ–1/2
Area Ar/Am λ2 Force Fr/Fm λ3
Volume ▽s/▽m λ3 Moment Mr/Mm λ4
Water desity ρs/ρm γ Torque Tr/Tm λ4
Displacement Δs/Δm γλ3 Power Pr/Pm λ7/2

materials: the blades were manufactured from carbon fiber,

Fig. 2. Scale model (1:50) of the WindStar TLP system in the deep water
wave basin at SKLOE.
4.1 Coordination system definition
The fixed global and moveable body coordinate sys-
tems are defined in Fig. 3a. The WindStar TLP is defined
with a local coordinate system fixed on itself, and can move
relative to the global coordinate system. It is considered as a
rigid body with six DOFs: three translational (surge, sway,
and heave) and three rotational (roll, pitch, and yaw), as
shown in Fig. 3b. Wind and waves were considered as col-
linear in the test.
and the rest (nacelle, hub, and tower) were made of alumini-
um. To eliminate the Reynolds number scaling effect, three
redesigned model blades based on the NACA4412 aerofoil
were adopted. The model blade is shown in Fig. 4, and its
parameters are listed in Table 2.
The tower model was fabricated with seven sections of
2024 aluminium alloy hollow rod. Its section properties
were determined by the application of the aforementioned
scaling laws. The first fore-aft bending natural frequency
and the associated mode shape were calculated and com-
pared with the full scale by using the Nastran software. Fig.
5 shows the calculation results of the first fore-aft bending
natural frequency and the associated mode shape for both
the tower model and the reference. It is found that the first
fore-aft bending natural frequency of the tower model is
only 0.98% lower than desired.
Fig. 6 shows the fabricated 1/50 scale rotor model. An
electrical servo motor with the gearbox was applied to con-
trol the rotor speed (to maintain the target TSR), and can
produce or consume electrical power automatically. The
main properties of the reference turbine and the model are
summarized in Table 3.

4.2 Wind turbine model 4.3 WindStar TLP and tendon model
The NREL 5MW wind turbine was chosen as the refer- The WindStar TLP hull model was manufactured using
ence (Jonkman et al., 2009). To meet the strict requirement fibreglass, and tethers were modelled using wire rope and
of the gravity similitude, the model was fabricated with light springs. An aluminium flange was preinstalled in the hull
126 ZHAO Yong-sheng et al. China Ocean Eng., 2018, Vol. 32, No. 2, P. 123–131

Fig. 3. (a) Global and body coordinate system; (b) WindStar TLP system motion definition

Fig. 4. Optimized design of the model blade based on the NACA4412 aerofoil.

Table 2 Geometric parameters of the model blade

Section Aerofoil r/R Twist (°) Chord (mm) Section Aerofoil r/R Twist (°) Chord (mm)
1 Cylinder 0.05 13.308 70.8 10 NACA4412 0.58 2.743 122.1
2 Cylinder 0.09 13.308 77.1 11 NACA4412 0.64 1.997 118.6
3 Transional 0.13 12.403 83.3 12 NACA4412 0.71 1.369 113.8
4 NACA4412 0.19 9.690 124.8 13 NACA4412 0.77 0.859 106.6
5 NACA4412 0.25 8.239 128.8 14 NACA4412 0.84 0.466 95.7
6 NACA4412 0.32 6.904 129.8 15 NACA4412 0.89 0.226 82.3
7 NACA4412 0.38 5.687 129.0 16 NACA4412 0.93 0.097 68.3
8 NACA4412 0.45 4.588 127.2 17 NACA4412 0.98 0.020 50.5
9 NACA4412 0.51 3.607 124.9

Fig. 6. Model rotor of the WindStar TLP system.

Fig. 5. Calculations of the first bending natural frequency of the reference
and scaled tower model.
model to connect it to the tower model. Table 4 gives the
main particulars of the reference and the WindStar TLP
model. Fig. 7 shows the layout of the mooring system.
5 Test plan and environmental conditions
5.1 Test cases
The IEC 61400-3 design standard (International Electro-
technical Commission, 2009) was chosen for the WindStar
TLP system. It requires the design of an offshore wind tur-
bine based on the environmental conditions of the installa-
tion site, which was assumed to be 61°20′N latitude and
0°0′E longitude, near the Shetland Islands, north-east of
Scotland, U.K. (Zhao et al., 2014, 2016a). The assumed wa-
ter depth was 160 m below the mean sea level. The joint
probability distribution for wind and waves is provided
from 37992 samples, from approximately 13 years of data
(Jonkman, 2007).
 ZHAO Yong-sheng et al. China Ocean Eng., 2018, Vol. 32, No. 2, P. 123–131 127

Table 3 Reference and model properties for the NREL 5MW wind
turbine
Property Full scale Model scale Units
Rotor diameter 126.0 2.52 m
Rated wind speed 11.4 1.612 m/s
Rated rotor rotational speed 12.1 85.56 rpm
Rotor mass 110000 0.859 kg
Nacelle mass 240000 1.873 kg
Tower length 65.6 1.312 m
Tower mass 265000 2.068 kg
Tower CG 27.0 0.54 m
Tower 1st fore-aft bending natural frequency 0.5 3.536 Hz Fig. 7. Mooring system arrangement of the WindStar TLP.
Tower 1st side-side bending natural frequency 0.492 3.48 Hz

sea states. Load cases with winds faster than the rated wind
Table 4 Reference and model properties for the WindStar TLP (Zhao speed had the blade pitch angle and rotor rpm set manually
et al., 2014)
to prescribed values to provide the design rotor thrust value.
Property Full scale Model scale Units
Centre column diameter 4.5 0.09 m
The model test categories and load cases are summarised in
Corner column sectional dimension 5.4×4.2 0.108×0.084 m×m Table 5, and the corresponding environmental conditions
Moulded depth 51.3 1.026 m are listed in Table 6.
Design draft 30.0 0. 6 m
Platform mass (including ballast) 2445000 19.56 kg 5.2 Modelling of environment
CM location of the platform above keel 20.3 0.407 m A steady wind field was generated by nine axial fans in
Roll/Pitch radius of gyration 21.61 0.432 m a 3×3 stacked square configuration installed on a towing
Yaw radius of gyration 21.05 0.421 m carriage. A honeycomb screen was placed in front of the
Tendon length 128.0 2.56 m fans to reduce turbulence (Duan et al., 2016). Constant cur-
Radius to fairleads 40.7 0.814 m rent, represented by the surface velocity, was generated by
Tendon stiffness (EA/L) 298.8 0.119 t/m
banks of submerged jets. The JONSWAP spectrum was ap-
Total Pretension 2351000 18.81 kg
plied to generate irregular waves. Fig. 8 shows both the
Total displacement 5460.0 42.615 kg
measured data and the theoretical spectrum of the 50-year
extreme wave condition. The wave spectrum generated in
The experiment had three main parts: still water tests, the basin by the high-precision wave generators closely
white noise wave tests, and combined wind, wave, and cur-
matches the required specifications.
rent tests. The first part verified the horizontal stiffness of
the TLP and obtained the natural periods and damping. 6 Results and analysis
White noise wave tests studied the RAOs of the TLP. The
final set of tests included the turbine’s operating conditions 6.1 Still water tests
under low sea states and parked conditions under extreme Horizontal static offset tests and six DOF decay tests

Table 5 Summary of the model test categories and load cases

Categories Test cases
Horizontal stiffness verification cases
Still water
Six DOF free decay cases
White noise wave White noise wave cases (WN01)
Turbine operating case No.1 (CM01)
Turbine operating case No.2 (CM02)
Combined wind wave current
Turbine operating case No.5 (CM03)
50-year extreme case (CM04)
Test contents
Horizontal stiffness of the tension leg system
Natural periods and damping
RAOs
Dynamic responses below the rated wind speed
Dynamic responses under the rated wind speed
Dynamic responses near the cut-out wind speed
Dynamic responses under the 50-year extreme case

Table 6 Environmental conditions

Mean wind speed (m/s) Significant wave height (m) Peak spectrum period (s) Peak enhancement factor γ Current velocity (m/s)
Test cases
Full Model Full Model Full Model Full Model Full Model
WN01 0.0 0.0 ~2.0 ~0.04 5—25 0.707—3.54 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
DLC01 7.0 0.99 1.9 0.038 12.7 1.796 1.0 1.0 0.6 0.085
DLC02 11.4 1.612 2.4 0.048 13.4 1.895 1.0 1.0 0.6 0.085
DLC03 23.8 3.366 5.5 0.11 15.5 2.192 1.0 1.0 0.6 0.085
DLC04 42.5 6.01 13.8 0.276 19.1 2.701 2.4 2.4 2.0 0.283
128 ZHAO Yong-sheng et al. China Ocean Eng., 2018, Vol. 32, No. 2, P. 123–131

Table 7 Still water decay test results

Natural period Linear damping ratios
Motion
Td (s) ζ
Surge 45.31 0.0498
Sway 45.31 0.0482
Heave 3.78 0.0175
Roll 5.33 0.0158
Pitch 5.33 0.0161
Yaw 25.21 0.0448

ing the resonance and strong motion, especially for the

Fig. 8. Comparison of target and measured JONSWAP wave spectra.
were carried out in still water. By prescribing a series of the
surge displacements while measuring the restoring force and
heave, static offset results (Fig. 9) and a set-down curve
(Fig. 10) were obtained for the WindStar TLP. As expected,
the tendon system showed a linear stiffness trend, whereas
the set-down curve is strongly nonlinear. The measure-
ments agree well with the theoretical predictions (Chakra-
barti, 2005).
To predict the natural periods and total damping of the
WindStar TLP system, free decay tests were conducted in
still water given an initial displacement in the surge, sway,
heave, roll, pitch, and yaw directions. The measured natural
periods and linear damping ratios are listed in Table 7. The
natural periods of the WindStar TLP system remain well
away from the range of wave excitation periods, thus avoid-
heave and pitch.
6.2 White noise wave tests
White noise wave tests were performed over a range of
frequencies from 0.2 to 1.5 rad/s. The significant wave
height is 0.04 m, corresponding to a reference wave height
of 2.0 m; the wave approach angle is 0° (heading). As
shown in Fig. 11, the white noise wave spectrum generated
in the basin shows a good agreement with the theoretical
spectrum.
Figs. 12–14 show the surge, heave, and pitch RAOs of
the WindStar TLP system, respectively. For the surge mo-
tion, the RAO is large at low frequency, whereas those for
the heave and pitch mainly consist of high-frequency com-
ponents.
6.3 Combined wind, wave, and current tests
The combined wind, wave, and current tests considered

Fig. 9. Comparison of the calculated and measured surge-restoring loads. Fig. 11. Comparison of the target and measured white noise wave spectra.

Fig. 10. Comparison of the calculated and measured platform set-down. Fig. 12. RAO results for the surge motion.
 ZHAO Yong-sheng et al. China Ocean Eng., 2018, Vol. 32, No. 2, P. 123–131 129

Fig. 13. RAO results for the heave motion.

Fig. 16. Statistics of the pitch motion.

rent loads, and the variations of the amplitude are largely in-
duced by wave loads. The maximum responses of the surge
and pitch motion are 27.8 m and 1.62°, respectively, which
occurred under the 50-year extreme load case (DLC04).
Note that the variations of the surge and pitch amplitude un-
der the combined load cases are lower than those under the
wave load only case, suggesting that the wind and current
loads stabilized the motions owing to the additional damp-
ing.
Fig. 17 presents the analysis of the surge acceleration of
the turbine nacelle. Unlike for an onshore fixed-bottom
Fig. 14. RAO results for the pitch motion.
wind turbine, the nacelle surge acceleration of a FWT com-
prises not only the horizontal acceleration induced by the
both operating (DLC01–03) and parked (DLC04) condi-
tower’s fore–aft vibration, but also the platform’s surge ac-
tions. To identify the dominant load of the dynamic re-
celeration and pitch-induced horizontal acceleration. It is
sponses, each design load case (DLC) was separated into
thus larger. The maximum nacelle surge acceleration under
four sub-cases: each load applied separately and then all
only a wind load occurred under the rated conditions and
three together. The global response variables of the plat-
was about 1.71 m/s 2 . In the wave-only load case, the na-
form motions, tendon tensions, rotor thrust, and nacelle ac-
celle surge acceleration increased with the increasing wave
celerations were examined for the given DLCs.
height, and reached its largest value of 4.05 m/s2 under the
Analysis of the surge and pitch motions (Figs. 15 and
50-year extreme condition. Low-frequency current load had
16) show that they are governed by the rotor thrust load, and
little effect on the nacelle surge acceleration due to its
have the peak responses under the turbine’s rated operating
steady nature. Under the combined loads, wind and current
conditions. Under parked conditions, as the wave height and
damping largely reduced the motion of the TLP system, and
current velocity increase, the surge and pitch motions be-
the largest nacelle surge acceleration was only about 3.3
come dominated by the wave and current loads. Mean re-
m/s2, obviously smaller than that in the wave load only case.
sponses are mainly induced by low-frequency wind and cur-
Overall, the wave load appeared to drive the nacelle surge

Fig. 15. Statistics of the surge motion. Fig. 17. Statistics of the nacelle surge acceleration.
130 ZHAO Yong-sheng et al. China Ocean Eng., 2018, Vol. 32, No. 2, P. 123–131

acceleration.
Figs. 18 and 19 present the analysis of the upwind and
downwind tendon tension, respectively. The tension is
highly influenced by the surge, heave, and pitch motions,
and thus exhibits similar trends to them. Damping by wind
and current (DLC04) reduces the magnitude of the vari-
ation of the tension relative to the wave-only case. Given
the collinear wind and wave action considered in the model
test, the upwind tendon shows larger tension variation than
the downwind tendon: the maximum tension of 5986 kN,
including the pre-tension, occurred under the 50-year ex-
treme combined load case (DLC04). As a result, a minim- Fig. 20. Comparison of the upwind tendon tension response spectra for
um safety factor of 2.88 is maintained, and the minimum the wave-only case and DLC04.
upwind tendon tension remains positive under all design
load cases, thus satisfying the design requirement.
Figs. 20 and 21 compare the response spectra and stand-
ard deviations of the upwind tendon tension under cases of
only wave load and the combined load (DLC04). The spec-
tra show a complex combination of low-frequency, wave-
frequency, and high-frequency components. The low-fre-
quency component is mainly induced by the wind and cur-
rent loads, whereas the wave-frequency and high-frequency
components are primarily induced by the wave load. The
pitch resonance response appears in the high-frequency
component, indicating that the high-frequency tendon ten-
sion is greatly affected by the platform pitching. The most Fig. 21. Comparison of standard deviations of downwind tendon tension
significant differences between the two spectra are in the for the wave-only case and DLC04.

low- and high-frequency components. Under the combined

load, the wind and current govern the low-frequency ten-
sion response, whereas the damped pitching motion greatly
influences the high-frequency tension response. The wave-
frequency component has the largest standard deviation,
which indicates that the fluctuations of the tendon tension
are mainly induced by the wave load.

Fig. 18. Statistics of the upwind tendon tension.
Fig. 19. Statistics of the downwind tendon tension.
7 Conclusions
A comprehensive wave basin model test was carried out
for the WindStar TLP system based on properly selected
scaling laws and a redesigned rotor model. Results for the
platform motion, nacelle surge acceleration, and tendon ten-
sion measured under different environmental conditions led
to the following conclusions.
(1) The Reynolds number scaling effect can be elimin-
ated by a modified blade design with the same wind turbine
thrust coefficient as the reference.
(2) The wave load drives the nacelle surge acceleration
in the WindStar TLP system under extreme conditions.
(3) Wind and current loads added to the wave load sta-
bilize the surge and pitch motions. The pitch motion thus
dampened by the extra loads had a high-frequency tension
response greatly different from the wave-only case.
(4) Under the combined-load case, the wind and current
governed the low-frequency tension response, and the fluc-
 ZHAO Yong-sheng et al. China Ocean Eng., 2018, Vol. 32, No. 2, P. 123–131
tuations of the tendon tension were mainly induced by the
wave load.
(5) The upwind tendon was more dangerous than the
downwind tendon under collinear wind and wave condi-
tions. A sufficient safety factor was maintained, and the
minimum tendon tensions remained positive under all the
selected DLCs.
(6) In general, the proposed WindStar TLP system
showed relatively small dynamic motion responses to envir-
onmental loads owing to its natural frequencies being kept
well away from the dominant wave frequencies.
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