Bidirectional tuned liquid dampers for stabilizing floating offshore wind turbine substructures

Tuned sloshing dampers have long been used to stabilize tall and thin buildings and are now being applied to marine structures. In this study, the effectiveness of two new passive control devices at stabilizing floating offshore wind turbine substructures was investigated: the bidirectional tuned liquid damper and bidirectional tuned liquid column damper. Numerical simulations were performed to consider the sloshing effect on the passive control devices and the pitch-induced external moment brought about by wave action. The effects of adding baffles and orifices to the passive control devices were explored to optimize the geometric design. The results showed that the optimal combination of substructure geometry and passive control device type could reduce the pitch motion by 20%–40%.