Floating Wind Turbine Motion Suppression Using an Active Wave Energy Converter

Abstract

This paper proposes a new concept of an actively-controlled wave energy converter for suppressing the pitch and roll motions of floating offshore wind turbines. The wave energy converter consists of several floating bodies that receive the wave energy, actuators that convert the wave energy into electrical energy and generate the mechanical forces, and rigid bars that connect the floating bodies and the wind turbine platform and deliver the actuator forces to the platform. The rotational torques that are required to minimize the platform pitch and roll motions are determined using a linear quadratic regulator. The torques determined in this manner are realized through the actuator forces that maximize the wave power capture as well. The performance of the proposed wave energy converter in simultaneously suppressing the platform pitch and roll motions and extracting the wave energy is validated through simulations.