Methodology for wind/wave basin testing of floating offshore wind turbines

Scale-model wave basin testing is often employed in the development and validation of large-scale offshore vessels and structures by the oil and gas, military, and marine indus-tries. A basin-model test requires less time, resources, and risk than a full-scale test, while providing real and accurate data for numerical simulator validation. As the devel-opment of floating wind turbine technology progresses in order to capture the vast deep-water wind energy resource, it is clear that model testing will be essential for the economical and efficient advancement of this technology. However, the scale model test-ing of floating wind turbines requires accurate simulation of the wind and wave environ-ments, structural flexibility, and wind turbine aerodynamics and thus requires a comprehensive scaling methodology. This paper presents a unified methodology for Froude scale model testing of floating wind turbines under combined wind and wave loading. First, an overview of the scaling relationships employed for the environment, floater, and wind turbine are presented. Afterward, a discussion is presented concerning suggested methods for manufacturing a high-quality, low-turbulence Froude scale wind environment in a wave basin to facilitate simultaneous application of wind and waves t