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Bladed-OrcaFlex Link

Overview

The Bladed-OrcaFlex Link is an example Bladed external loads DLL that couples OrcaFlex (Orcina, 2024) and Bladed for dynamic simulation. OrcaFlex is a generic marine simulation tool used by floating wind platform and mooring designers. Figure 1 has an overview of the link. This link enables Bladed users to simulate the tower and rotor nacelle assembly in Bladed, and platform and mooring lines in OrcaFlex. This allows different stakeholders in a floating wind project to use a consistent coupled analysis model, reducing the need for verification between different simulation codes in a project. The turbine and platform designer can use outputs from the same simulations.

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Figure 1: Bladed-OrcaFlex Link overview.

The link can be used for a co-simulation where OrcaFlex computes all the hydrodynamic and moorings loads on the platform, or just the mooring loads and Bladed will compute the hydrodynamic load on the platform. For the latter option, the mooring loads can be applied to the appropriate Bladed structure node, allowing for a realistic load distribution within the platform. The example link to OrcaFlex uses a loose-coupling strategy, relying on exchange of loads and kinematics between Bladed and OrcaFlex at each time step. The Bladed external loads DLL is responsible for the simulation governance and updates and launches the OrcaFlex simulation. The basic data flows and coupling functionality is illustrated in Figure 2.

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Figure 2: Bladed-OrcaFlex Link workflow.

Sensitivity studies run by the Bladed team indicate that the Bladed-OrcaFlex link and the Bladed internal dynamic mooring model result in similar tension and platform kinematics. More details on the link and some sensitivity studies on publicly available floating wind turbine models can be found in the publication Alexandre, 2024.

The following materials are provided in the Bladed installation location within a directory named Code Samples\BladedOrcaFlexLink

  • C++ source code of the OrcaFlex Link.

  • Embedded JSON validation schema in the BladedOrcaFlexLinkDllAdditionalParametersSchema.h file for the link input file.

  • Visual Studio project file to compile the link.

  • Example of 15MW VolturnUS-S Bladed model ready to be used with the working link located in the DemoModels folder within the Bladed installation location.

Note

The users will need to have a licence of OrcaFlex to run a simulation with the link.

Note

DNV has tested this link with the OrcaFlex version 11.4a and Bladed 4.16 using the 15MW VolturnUS-S tower. DNV is not responsible for the support of OrcaFlex.

Warning

The Bladed-OrcaFlex link is only expected to work for time domain simulations.

Article last updated on 09-08-2024