Experimental study on the sailing performance of a VLMOS for wind power plant

Accuracy on the estimation of maneuverability performance of a VLMOS has been greatly improved through this study. Experiment with a 1/100 scale model of the structure has been carried out to measure the maneuverability coefficient of the twin-hull VLMOS, and it is found that the interaction effect among struts and between the strut and the lower-hull are not negligible. Another experiment to test the stability of course keeping in the rated wind speed has also been carried out, and it is found that VLMOS is stable in maneuver motion. Using these results, new navigation simulations are performed. The result shows that the twin-hull VLMOS achieves capacity factor of more than 40% very easily. However, the model experiment suggests that the twin-hull type is not efficient for inducing the lift force and, thus the twin-hull type is not the best concept. A mono-hull type VLMOS is proposed, and static stability and structural strength of the mono-hull type are investigated. The numerical result shows that the mono-hull type VLMOS has enough stability and structural strength.