Take me to the farthest shore

A few days ago my interview was published in the European Power and Energy magazine (link on MSC website here). Since then I have been following the news and large amount of media coverage around offshore wind turbines. US just approved its first offshore wind farm off Cape Cod.  Investments have also been made in European countries like UK and Germany. Offshore turbines are gaining traction because of the potential to capture calm wind resources over deep waters.  Offshore turbines also produce more electricity because winds tend to flow at higher speeds than onshore winds. Today just around 600 MW of offshore wind is installed worldwide on shallow waters (depth = 0-30 meters) but the proposed projects worldwide are expected to amount to more than 11,000 MW.

Offshore turbines pose several engineering challenges due to the demanding environmental conditions. Floating platforms for wind turbines must be optimized to achieve the lowest life cycle cost of the entire system.  Offshore wind turbines are subjected to fiercer winds and require larger turbines than land-based wind initiatives.  This necessitates the need for stronger towers to withstand wind-wave interactions. Modeling of soil-structure interaction becomes important. Control systems would be used to limit the response of the turbine system to stochastic wave loading. Several configurations are currently being tested as depicted in this paper that shows Adams being used for testing.

Simulation has helped companies overcome engineering challenges for onshore turbines and has played key role in understanding and solving these complex engineering challenges. Multidisciplinary (MD) simulation solutions from MSC.Software such as MD Adams and MD Nastran help simulate complex physics including mechanical system simulation with control systems, aeroelasticity, composites, material behavior, soil-structure etc. Will simulation take us offshore to the large scale adoption of offshore wind turbines?

May 4th, 2010 | Tags: adams, aeroelsaticity, composites, Controls, Deep Water, materials, MD, MD Nastran, MSC Software, MW, NREL, offshore, simulation, soil-structure interaction, wind energy | Category: CAE, Industries, Wind Energy