Environmental, aesthetic and political pressures continue to push for siting off-shore wind turbines beyond sight of land, where waters tend to be deeper, and use of floating structures is likely to be considered. Savings could potentially be realized by reducing hull size, which would allow more compliance with the wind thrust force in the pitch direction. On the other hand, these structures with large-amplitude motions will make dynamic analysis both more challenging and more critical. Prior to the present work, there were no existing dynamic simulation tools specifically intended for compliant wind turbine design. Development and application of a new computational method underlying a new time-domain simulation tool is presented in this dissertation. The compliant floating wind turbine system is considered as a multibody system including tower, nacelle, rotor and other moving parts. Euler's equations of motion are first applied to the compliant design to investigate the large-amplitude motions. Then, a new formulation of multibody dynamics is developed through application of the conservation of both linear momentum and angular momentum to the entire system directly. A base body is prescribed within the compliant wind turbine system, and the equations of motion (EOMs) of the system are projected into the coordinate system associated with this body. Only six basic EOMs of the system are required to capture 6 unknown degrees of freedom (DOFs) of the base body when mechanical DOFs between contiguous bodies are prescribed. The 6 x 6 mass matrix is actually composed of two decoupled 3 x 3 mass matrices for translation and rotation, respectively. Each element within the matrix includes the inertial effects of all bodies. This condensation decreases the coupling between elements in the mass matrix, and so minimizes the computational demand. The simulation results are verified by critical comparison with those of the popular wind turbine dynamics software FAST. The new formulation is generalized to form the momentum cloud method (M- CM), which is particularly well suited to the serial mechanical N-body systems connected by revolute joints with prescribed relative rotation. The MCM is then expanded to multibody systems with more complicated joints and connection types.

Acetylacetone (AcAc) exists as a mixture of enol and keto tautomers. Besides providing a good example for the study of tautomerization, it is a model system for investigating intramolecular hydrogen bonds in its enol form. Trapping AcAc in the soft para-Hydrogen (pH2 ) environment brings out new opportunities to investigate its properties. Infrared spectra of the samples give a good characterization of the two stable enol and keto tautomers. The keto/enol ratio in solid pH2 is found to be higher than in other matrices. While vibrational bands of keto are narrow, those of enol are broad, reflecting the intrinsic properties of the enol which exhibits three entangled large amplitude motions (two methyl torsions and the intramolecular hydrogen transfer). Surprisingly, narrowing of some of these bands is observed in a slow time evolution. This effect is interpreted as a consequence of nuclear spin conversion in the hydrogen atoms of the methyl groups, giving access to AcAc species differing by their nuclear spin symmetry. This offers new pertinent investigations on the large amplitude motions, especially on the intramolecular hydrogen transfer. AcAc/pH2 samples have been irradiated by UV laser beams. Irradiation at 266 nm induces isomerization from the stable chelated enol form to non chelated conformers, similarly to the case of other matrices. A clear IR signature of the conformers is obtained thanks to the pH2 host. Irradiation at 248 nm induces the enol/keto tautomerization. The kinetics of this interconversion highlights a non-direct process. Fragmentation is clearly observed under irradiation at 193 nm, followed by chemical reaction with the hydrogen host.

L’acétylacétone (AcAc) existe sous deux formes tautomères, énol et kéto. Sous sa forme énol chélaté, c’est une des molécules les plus simples présentant une liaison hydrogène intramoléculaire. Nous l’avons isolée dans la matrice « quantique » de parahydrogène (pH2) pour étudier ses propriétés en bénéficiant des avantages spécifiques de ce solide cryogénique. Les spectres infrarouges apportent une caractérisation claire des formes énol et kéto. Le rapport kéto/énol est plus important en matrice de pH2 que dans les autres matrices. Les bandes du kéto sont fines alors que certaines bandes de l’énol sont très larges à cause de la présence de la liaison hydrogène. Plusieurs bandes s’affinent très lentement avec le temps. Cet effet surprenant a été interprété en terme de conversion nucléaire de spin dans un groupement méthyle d’AcAc, donnant accès aux spectres de niveaux de torsion différents. Les résultats offrent alors un nouveau moyen d’investigation des mouvements de grande amplitude de la molécule (mouvements couplés de torsion des méthyles et du transfert d’hydrogène interne). La photolyse UV des matrices AcAc/pH2 a été étudiée. Une irradiation à 266 nm conduit à l’isomérisation de l’énol sous différentes formes non chélatées ; des spectres très bien résolus de ces formes sont obtenus grâce aux propriétés du pH2 solide. En irradiant à 248 nm, on observe la tautomérisation vers la forme kéto, l’étude cinétique démontrant que le processus n’est pas direct à partir de l’énol chélaté. Enfin, une irradiation à 193 nm provoque la fragmentation de la molécule, processus qui peut être suivi de réactions avec l’hydrogène de la matrice. / Acetylacetone (AcAc) exists as a mixture of enol and keto tautomers. Besides providing a good example for the study of tautomerization, it is a model system for investigating intramolecular hydrogen bonds in its enol form. Trapping AcAc in the soft para-Hydrogen (pH2 ) environment brings out new opportunities to investigate its properties. Infrared spectra of the samples give a good characterization of the two stable enol and keto tautomers. The keto/enol ratio in solid pH2 is found to be higher than in other matrices. While vibrational bands of keto are narrow, those of enol are broad, reflecting the intrinsic properties of the enol which exhibits three entangled large amplitude motions (two methyl torsions and the intramolecular hydrogen transfer). Surprisingly, narrowing of some of these bands is observed in a slow time evolution. This effect is interpreted as a consequence of nuclear spin conversion in the hydrogen atoms of the methyl groups, giving access to AcAc species differing by their nuclear spin symmetry. This offers new pertinent investigations on the large amplitude motions, especially on the intramolecular hydrogen transfer. AcAc/pH2 samples have been irradiated by UV laser beams. Irradiation at 266 nm induces isomerization from the stable chelated enol form to non chelated conformers, similarly to the case of other matrices. A clear IR signature of the conformers is obtained thanks to the pH2 host. Irradiation at 248 nm induces the enol/keto tautomerization. The kinetics of this interconversion highlights a non-direct process. Fragmentation is clearly observed under irradiation at 193 nm, followed by chemical reaction with the hydrogen host.