The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult says it is creating a digital clone of the Levenmouth turbine, which will use sensor instrumentation to advance understanding of how large-scale turbines behave and identify cost-reduction opportunities through design optimization.
The project, which totals 450,000 British pounds, with 215,000 British pounds in funding support from the Scottish government, will enable Catapult to instrument its Levenmouth Offshore Wind Demonstration Turbine’s blades, tower and substructure to monitor its behavior in real-world conditions.
Catapult will then use the outputs to validate the current design methodologies and tools available for building large-scale offshore wind turbines, reducing design inefficiencies and flaws.
According to ORE Catapult, validated design modeling will benefit the industry’s researchers and supply chain, as design optimization and the ability to develop advanced simulations can support a significant number of Scottish engineering and manufacturing companies.
One of the first potential outputs from the project is expected to be the Experimental Verification of Aeroelastic Models in collaboration with the University of Strathclyde, which will verify the accuracy of existing industry design tools, reducing the modeling uncertainty associated with these simulations.
“With the rapid scale in growth of offshore wind turbines, with 8 MW machines now being readily deployed and the industry looking to develop 10 MW turbines, industry needs to rethink and revalidate assumptions associated with offshore wind turbine design,” says Cian Conroy, ORE Catapult’s sector lead on wind.
“Deploying sensors on the Levenmouth turbine gives us a unique opportunity to understand the behavior of a large turbine in real-world conditions and benefit the industry, its supply chain and academia,” Conroy adds. “Having a validated model is crucial for understanding the impact of design decisions in the weight and cost of different components of the turbine.”
