Performance assessment and wake characteristics of floating offshore wind turbine arrays under dynamic yaw control

Dynamic yaw control (DYC) is an effective wake management strategy that accelerates wake velocity recovery by actively inducing wake meandering. However, its application to floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) arrays warrants further investigation. In this study, an aero-hydro-elastic-servo coupled numerical simulation framework is employed, and the Dynamic Wake Meandering (DWM) model is incorporated to investigate the power production, platform motion, wake characteristics, and load effects of an FOWT array, with DYC applied to the leading turbine. The results reveal that DYC can effectively increase the total power production when the yaw Strouhal number lies in the range of 0.18∼0.27, with a maximum gain of 7.1%. When the DYC frequency approaches the natural frequency of the platform yaw motion, the resonance-induced motion amplification enhances the wake meandering characteristics, especially in the far wake, while simultaneously maximizing the power capture. Although the fatigue loads at the blade root and tower tend to increase to varying degrees under DYC, a comparison with the load cases specified by the IEC standard confirms that the resulting fatigue loads remain within acceptable limits.