Scientific advances and innovation

Nowadays, Offshore Wind Farms are designed using simplified models based on empirical formulations to take into account wakening and turbulence effects.

  • Development of a direct model, without simplifications.
  • Multiphase CFD massively parallel code, very scalable and associated to Pays de la Loire supercomputing facilities.
  • Simulation platform which may be edited, diffused and valorized by a regional PME specialized in marine activities.

The main scientific advances concern the establishment of a full CFD approach: no simplifications, no hypothesis, good precision and interactions (like wakes) are implicitly taken into account.

To reduce the computational cost, techniques like automatic anisotropic mesh adaptation and massively parallel computing are implemented. It involves also the treatment of difficult topics like: the development of an aero-hydro coupled solver in an FSI context (floating and moving rigid body), the study of water/air/wind turbine interactions in the one and two wind turbine cases; the introduction far-field conditions and boundary conditions in the near-field domain.

In terms of innovation, a multiphase CFD massively parallel code, very scalable and associated to Pays de la Loire supercomputing facilities will arise.

Expected technical and economic impact

  • Advanced knowledge of the behavior of individual floating wind turbines in a wind farm.
  • Show an unique expertise in 3D accurate simulation of offshore floating wind turbines.

Key project milestones

  • November 2016 - Kick-off
  • January 2018 - Aerodynamic simulations and coupling
  • January 2019 - Hydrodynamics simulations and coupling.
  • November 2020 - Simulation platform for offshore wind farm dynamics

Demonstrator

Simulation platform for offshore wind farm dynamics.

The simulator will be based on the ICI-tech library, developed by the High Performance Computing Institute (ICI-ECN) at the Ecole Centrale de Nantes and dedicated to high-performance scientific computing. The application of the developments carried out previously and the implementation in EOS for the simulation of one or more floating wind turbines will be guided by the Ocean and Marine Energy team at the Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energy and Environment Atmospheric (LHEEA-ECN), also at the Ecole Centrale de Nantes, and which will also participate in the fine validation of the simulator, in comparison with experimental results or other models from the literature and also through the participation to the IAEWind project.

Results

  • First CFD simulations with the existing solver
  • Acceleration of computation of the phase functions to represent different domains in the simulation
  • Parallel meshing of models up to 100 wind turbines
  • Development of a wind simulator and FSI. Study of the main limitations.
  • Development of a wave simulator and HOS coupling. Study of the main limitations.
  • Starting of the software prototype development.
First CFD simulations with the existing solver Acceleration of computation of the phase functions to
represent different domains in the simulation
Parallel meshing of models up to 100 wind turbines
Software prototype development Wave simulator and HOS coupling Wind simulator and FSI

Publications and papers published

Oral communications
Publications
  • L. Douteau, L Silva, H Digonnet, T Coupez, D. Le Touzé, JC Gilloteaux, Towards Numerical Simulation of Offshore Wind  Turbines Using Anisotropic Mesh Adaptation, in CFD for Wind and Tidal Offshore Turbines, pp.95-104, Springer (2019)
  • L. Douteau, L Silva, H Digonnet, N. Aissa, A fast and parallel octree based method for multiphase flows (International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications, 2020)
  • L. Douteau, L Silva, H Digonnet, T Coupez, D. Le Touzé, JC Gilloteaux, A monolithic finite element approach for IFS: application to floating structures (à soumettre, 2020)
Participation to
  • Douteau L., Ecole Thématique du GDR EMR, Nantes (Octobre 2017).
  • Silva L., Journée EERA JP Wind, Ecole Centrale de Nantes (Mai 2018)

 

Prospects

FSI for fluid / deformable structures; floating bodies (on-going); more accurate treatment of wake and boundary conditions.

Optimization: co-simulation with AI and ROM.