Windpower Engineering & Development

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Most recent posts
    • News
    • Featured
  • Resources
    • Digital issues
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
    • Webinars
    • Events
  • Videos
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
  • Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Finding a best rotor for a floating vertical axis turbine

By Paul Dvorak | April 18, 2016

There are still many advantages to Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) over the conventional three-blade designs, especially when considering offshore duty. Engineers at Sandia National Labs are working on models for an offshore VAWT and offered this mid-project report.

VAWTs in deep-water have inherent advantages over HAWTs in deep-water.

VAWTs in deep-water have several inherent advantages over HAWTs in deep-water.

“The goal of the project is to advance the rotor technology of large offshore vertical axis wind turbine from concept to lab-scale prototype stage through four major research thrusts,” says project supervisor D. Todd Griffith. The steps include:

  1. Innovative aeroelastic rotor conceptual design
  2. Deep-water system design and cost analysis
  3. Rotor material and manufacturing strategies, and
  4. Subscale rotor prototype design and testing.

The project aims to capitalize on the VAWT advantages for offshore cost reductions while addressing the key VAWT technical, design, and manufacturing challenges.

The overarching project objective, says Griffith, is to investigate the feasibility of the VAWT architecture for very large-scale deployment in the offshore environment. “The most critical barrier to offshore wind, its high cost of energy (COE), is specifically targeted with the overall goal of achieving a 20% reduction in COE by applying VAWT rotor technology,” he says. His team will achieve this goal by

  • Developing innovative VAWT rotor designs that enable reliable, cost-effective, and easily manufactured rotors for deep-water offshore machines at the 10 to 20-MW scale;
  • Demonstrating the potential for greater than 20% reduction in COE for a deep-water, floating VAWT system compared to current shallow-water horizontal-axis wind turbine (HAWT) systems;
  • Developing manufacturing techniques, certification test methods, and a commercialization plan for offshore VAWT rotors to accelerate deployment; and
  • Testing in a wind tunnel and combined wind-wave tank, a proof-of-concept subscale, deep-water floating offshore wind turbine employing a VAWT rotor.

 

An initial research focus has been VAWT code development and code coupling, and design studies for VAWT rotor and floating platform. The figure above shows several rotor configurations that Griffith’s team has analyzed. In addition, we have performed structural dynamics and resonance impact analyses to investigate the effect different support structures and number of blades on VAWT vibratory response and vibratory loading, which are key design drivers. Future work includes plans for detailed system design studies and subscale testing.

These are a few of the VAWT rotor designs under analysis.

An initial research focus has been VAWT code development and code coupling, and design studies for VAWT rotor and floating platform. The figure above shows several rotor configurations that Griffith’s team has analyzed. In addition, we have performed structural dynamics and resonance impact analyses to investigate the effect different support structures and number of blades on VAWT vibratory response and vibratory loading, which are key design drivers. Future work includes plans for detailed system design studies and subscale testing.


Filed Under: Featured, News, Offshore wind
Tagged With: sandia national labs
 

About The Author

Paul Dvorak

Related Articles Read More >

US government allows Empire Wind offshore project to resume construction
Atlantic Offshore lease sale opens millions of acres to wind development
Walney Extension Offshore Wind Farm
Construction starts on New York’s 924-MW Sunrise Wind offshore project
First monopile installed in Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project

Podcasts

Wind Spotlight: Looking back at a year of Thrive with ZF Wind Power
See More >

Windpower Engineering & Development Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Browse the most current issue of Windpower Engineering & Development and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading wind power engineering magazine today.

Windpower Engineering & Development
  • Wind Articles
  • Solar Power World
  • Subscribe to Windpower Engineering
  • About Us/Contact Us

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising

Search Windpower Engineering & Development

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Most recent posts
    • News
    • Featured
  • Resources
    • Digital issues
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
    • Webinars
    • Events
  • Videos
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
  • Magazine
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe