Floating Support Damping Plate With Apertures
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Solution Overview
Problem
Offshore wind turbines face suboptimal damping with existing floating support configurations, leading to inadequate stability and movement limitation, particularly due to sensitivity to swell and wind forces.
Innovation Solution
A floating support system featuring a damping plate with a horizontal section surface greater than the main float's, incorporating a row of regularly distributed orifices parallel to the periphery, and varying thickness, which is fixed to the main float and made of materials like steel or concrete, enhancing stability and damping efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If a damping plate is added to the floating support, then damping and stability are improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The damping plate is segmented with a row of apertures that divide the plate into multiple sections. This segmentation allows water to pass through while maintaining the overall damping function, reducing the complexity of the structure while preserving stability enhancement.
Solution Approach 2:
The damping plate incorporates apertures creating a porous structure that allows controlled water flow through the plate. This porous design provides damping functionality without requiring a solid, complex structure, thereby improving stability while managing device complexity.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the surface area of the damping plate is increased, then hydrodynamic damping is enhanced, but water mass increases
Solution Approach 1:
The damping plate uses a porous structure with apertures that allow water to pass through while maintaining an effective surface area for damping. This enables enhanced hydrodynamic damping without proportionally increasing the water mass, as the apertures reduce the actual volume of material.
Solution Approach 2:
By segmenting the damping plate with apertures, the design achieves a large effective surface area for damping while reducing the actual material volume and associated water mass. The segmented structure allows water flow through the plate, optimizing the damping-to-mass ratio.
3Strength
If the damping plate has variable thickness, then structural strength is optimized, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The damping plate features variable thickness with different sections having different thicknesses optimized for their specific functional requirements. This local quality optimization provides enhanced structural strength where needed while maintaining simplicity in other areas, balancing manufacturing complexity with structural performance.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides improved damping and stability by optimizing the surface area and porosity of the damping plate, reducing water mass and enhancing hydrodynamic damping, while maintaining structural strength and simplicity in design.
Implementation Method 1
The shock absorber plate protrudes from the float to dampen, in particular, the heave, but also the pitch and roll movements of the floating support
Implementation Method 2
The purpose of the floating support is to provide buoyancy and stability to the wind turbine, so as to absorb the forces exerted on it
Data Source
Figure 1~3b
Figure 4
AI summary
The present invention relates to a floating support structure (1) having a main floater (2) and a damping plate (3). The damping plate (3) has a single row of apertures (4), substantially parallel to the periphery of the damping plate.