Aerodynamic modeling of floating vertical axis wind turbines using the actuator cylinder flow method

Recently the interest in developing vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) for offshore application has been increasing. Among the aerodynamic models of VAWTs, double multi-streamtube (DMST) and actuator cylinder (AC) models are two favorable methods for fully coupled modeling and dynamic analysis of floating VAWTs in view of accuracy and computational cost. This paper deals with the development of an aerodynamic code to model floating VAWTs using the AC method developed by Madsen. It includes the tangential load term when calculating induced velocities, addresses two different approaches to calculate the normal and tangential loads acting on the rotor, and proposes a new modified linear solution to correct the linear solution.