WT-1. Top head mass reduction for floating wind turbines

Two imaginary companies, OffshoreWinds Ltd and WindFloaters Inc develop offshore floating wind turbines of 1 and 2 MW size, respectively. Help them to design power drive trains for their turbines. You are free to place converter and transformer in the tower if you like. Available tower diameter is 4 m for the 1 MW turbine and 7 m for the 2 MW turbine (remember space for the elevator!).

Parameters of the turbines:

  • Turbine by OffshoreWinds Ltd: Power 1 MW, rated speed 17 rpm.
  • Turbine by WindFloaters Inc: Power 2 MW, rated speed 15 rpm.

Inter-park voltage is 11 kV.

What cables will you use? How about cable connection terminals? Bending of the cable? Do you get some advantage if tower and nacelle are air-conditioned (no salty air penetration)? What if clean cooling water is made available in the nacelle/tower? What are other/additional design steps which cannot be tried in DriveConstructor would you try? Input from the company: “we need lowest possible top head mass as it would simplify design of the floating tower”

Note: We did not include direct drive option here as it is known to be the heaviest.

Hints:

  • Low-voltage electric machines in DriveConstructor are available up to 2000 kW, medium-voltage – up to 5 MW

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