The SOFTWIND project, run by Centrale Nantes, and more specifically its LHEEA and LS2N laboratories, and the company D-ICE, allows for small-scale wave-tank testing of wind turbines by overcoming the incompatibility between hydrodynamic and aerodynamic scaling.
We take a look back at this project with some footage of the testing in the Centrale Nantes hydrodynamic and ocean engineering tank and interviews:
on December 9, 2020
This new set-up establishes Centrale Nantes at the forefront of research institutes capable of testing small-scale floating wind turbines with a high degree of physical realism, and of studying new control systems that disrupt existing technology. D-ICE can also use this tool to develop its innovative systems to control the hydrodynamic movement of the wind turbine in the waves by aerodynamic adjustment of the blades.
SOFTWINDis a WEAMEC project with funding from the Pays de la Loire Region.
Published on December 8, 2020
Updated on March 19, 2021