This paper deals with the conceptual design of a floating support structure and mooring system for a 5MW vertical axis offshore wind turbine. The work is carried out as part of the DeepWind project, where the main objective is to investigate the feasibility of a floating vertical axis offshore wind turbine. The DeepWind concept consists of a Darrieus rotor mounted on a spar buoy support structure. The conceptual design is carried out in an iterative process, involving the different subcomponents. The present work is part of the first design iteration and the objective is to find a feasible floating support structure and mooring system for the DeepWind concept.
The conceptual design is formulated as an optimization problem: Starting with an initial configuration, the optimization procedure tries to find a cheaper solution while satisfying a set of design requirements. This approach utilizes available response analysis programs for mooring system forces and vessel motions, and combines this with a gradient search method for solution of nonlinear optimization problems with arbitrary constraints. Two different mooring system configurations are considered: Chain systems with 3 and 6 lines, respectively.
