Experimental comparison of a dual-spar floating wind farm with shared mooring against a single floating wind turbine under wave conditions

Shared mooring can potentially be a cost-reduction factor for future floating wind farms. To assess the effect of shared mooring on the response dynamics of floating wind turbines (FWTs), experiments have been conducted for two spar FWTs with a shared mooring configuration and for a single spar FWT with catenary mooring, both at a scale of 1:47. Various regular and irregular wave conditions were tested and only one wave heading was considered. From the test results, the response amplitude operators and response spectra of platform motions and statistics of mooring tensions are compared for the two configurations. In the extreme wave condition, the shared mooring configuration leads to a 40% increase in the platform surge motion compared with the single spar FWT. Still, the absolute offset is within allowable limits prescribed by power cables. The fairlead tensions of the anchor lines are not significantly increased in the shared mooring configurations, but the shared line shows extreme tension peak events that are seldom present in the anchor lines. This study demonstrates the technological promises and challenges of a shared mooring system from an experimental perspective. Results and videos are made available and can be used to validate numerical models.