Brief communication: a novel wake mixing phenomenon and key parameters for wake recovery of floating wind turbines subjected to surge motions

This letter clarifies the key parameters governing the wake recovery of a floating wind turbine undergoing surge motion. A dedicated wind-tunnel campaign covering reduced frequencies (Stp) well beyond current literature is presented. This enabled a full characterisation of the wake recovery and the discovery of a previously unreported wake mixing phenomenon. We highlight three main findings: (i) enhanced wake recovery of the surging turbine is highly sensitive to thrust; (ii) wake recovery is characterised by the ratio of motion velocity amplitude to wind speed and Stp; and (iii) a previously unreported flow phenomenon improves wake recovery when the motion frequency is slightly lower than the blade passing frequency.

DDC Class

620: Engineering

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Brief communication: a novel wake mixing phenomenon and key parameters for wake recovery of floating wind turbines subjected to surge motions