Study on aerodynamic and structural performance of floating offshore wind turbine with fusion winglets

The surge motion of the platform affects the aerodynamic and structural performance of the floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) with tip-fusion winglets. Hence, this paper aims to study the aerodynamic and structural performance of the wind turbine with and without tip-fusion winglets under the surge motion by ANSYS software. Comparison of the differences in the pressure distribution, flow fields, modal analysis, and stress of the wind turbines under surge motions. The results show that the tip-fusion winglets have an obvious influence on the pressure distribution and flow fields, and the influence mainly concentrates on the tip of the blade. In addition, the frequency of the wind turbine with fusion winglets is less than without winglets from the first mode to the third mode. The main vibration type of wind turbines with and without winglets is flapping. Besides, the maximum stress of the wind turbine with fusion winglets is increased by 19.91%, and there is a stress concentration phenomenon at the connection between the blade tip and the winglet, which is easy to cause fatigue damage. The location of the maximum stress appears in the transition section between the Cylinder airfoil and the DU airfoil.