General Electric (GE) Global Research

Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) are currently designed to be large and heavy to replicate more familiar onshore wind turbine dynamics, maintain stability, and survive storms. However, this approach fundamentally limits how inexpensive FOWTs can ever become. Radically new designs that do not require a massive floating platform—applying the control co-design (CCD) approach of substituting mass by control systems—are needed. CCD methodologies integrate all relevant engineering disciplines at the start of the design process, with feedback control and dynamic interaction principles as the primary drivers of the design. To design innovative, economically competitive FOWTs, researchers must overcome several significant technical barriers: insufficient current knowledge of how FOWT subsystem dynamics interact; insufficient computer tools for dynamic simulation; and a dearth of experimental data. ATLANTIS will address these technical barriers while exploring radically new FOWT design concepts that minimize mass and maximize productive rotor area to provide economical offshore wind power

GE Global Research and Glosten will design a new FOWT based on the 12 MW (megawatt) Haliade-X rotor and a lightweight three-legged acutated tension-leg platform. Applying a CCD methodology, the team will use advanced control algorithms to operate the turbine and concurrently design the integrated structure of the FOWT. The proposed turbine designs will have the potential to reduce the mass of the system by more than 35% compared with installed FOWT designs.