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Behavioural Analysis of Barge-Type Floating Wind Turbines in Wind and Wave-Excited Environments

Eduardo Muñoz-Palomeque(1,2), Segundo Esteban San Román(2), Payam Aboutalebi(2,3), Matilde Santos(4)

1.- Department of Digitalization, University of Burgos, 09006-Burgos, Spain

2.- Department of Computer Architecture and Automatic Control, Faculty of Physics, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040-Madrid, Spain

3.- Automatic Control Group–ACG, Institute of Research and Development of Processes–IIDP, Faculty of Engineering of Bilbao, University of the Basque Country–UPV/EHU, 48013-Bilbao, Spain

4.- Institute of Knowledge Technology, Computers Sciences Faculty, University Complutense of Madrid, 28040-Madrid, Spain

2025-07-25

This article presents the results of various experimental tests conducted on small-scale floating wind turbine prototypes at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) in the Universidad del Pais Vasco (UPV/EHU) wave tank. The study focuses on the forced dynamics of a barge-type Floating Wind Turbine (FWT) anchored to the seabed, analysing its behaviour under both wave and wind conditions, with the final goal of being able to identify the influence of the external perturbation on the system dynamics. The experiments are conducted with aggressive wave conditions as well as scaled waves corresponding to the prototype size. The research highlights issues encountered with the monitoring system, particularly difficulties in accurately recording signals at the small scale, both for the prototype and wave measurements. The experimental results provide valuable insights into the turbine’s dynamic behaviour when subjected to combined wind and wave excitation.

Key words: Floating offshore wind turbine, towing tank, experimental tests, wind and waves excitation.

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