A New Structural-Dynamics Module for Offshore Multimember Substructures Within the Wind Turbine Computer-Aided Engineering Tool FAST

Abstract

FAST, developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), is a computer-aided engineering (CAE) tool for aero-hydro-servo-elastic analysis of land-based and offshore wind turbines. This paper discusses recent upgrades made to FAST to enable loads simulations of offshore wind turbines with fixed-bottom, multimember support structures (e.g., jackets and tripods, which are commonly used in transitional-depth waters). The main theory and strategies for the implementation of the multimember substructure dynamics module (SubDyn) within the new FAST modularization framework are introduced. SubDyn relies on two main engineering schematizations: 1) a linear frame finite-element beam (LFEB) model and 2) a dynamics system reduction via Craig-Bampton's method. A jacket support structure and an offshore system consisting of a turbine atop a jacket substructure were simulated to test the SubDyn module and to preliminarily assess results against results from a commercial finite-element code.