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Application of the New IEC International Design Standard for Offshore Wind Turbines to a Reference Site in the Massachusetts Offshore Wind Energy Area

This thesis summarizes the simulation and analysis performed for the MassCEC project described herein. The intent was to perform a “dry run” of the new IEC offshore wind turbine design standard, IEC 61400-3-1 and to illustrate the use of that standard in the Massachusetts Offshore Wind Energy Area. IEC 61400-3-1 is a design standard used to ensure wind turbine structural performance over the design life of the machine. Each installed wind turbine must be certified by a Certified Verification Agent using this standard before installation. The certification process typically uses a structural dynamics model to predict a turbine’s structural response in the presence of a range of operational conditions and meteorological oceanographic conditions, which are codified into Design Load Cases. The area in question is located approximately 24 km of south of Martha’s Vineyard with an assumed water depth of 40 m. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s FAST software (V8.12) was used to perform simulations of a large subset of the DLCs. Wind data files were generated using NREL’s TurbSim and IECWind.
This thesis discusses the instructions of the standard, preparation for simulation of Design Load Cases, and analysis of results. Results from simulations show the application of the standard in detail as applied to a reference turbine. Limitations and ambiguities of the standard in the simulation of control failure cases are analyzed. The application of the standard to hurricane loading is also analyzed alongside an example case for a Category 5 hurricane. The standard is found to be fundamentally reasonable in application to a reference turbine in the Massachusetts Offshore Wind Energy Area.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:masters_theses_2-2212
Date21 March 2022
CreatorsRoach, Samuel C
PublisherScholarWorks@UMass Amherst
Source SetsUniversity of Massachusetts, Amherst
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceMasters Theses

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