Structural design methodology for lightweight supporting structure of a multi-rotor wind turbine

Although mostly used in wind turbine market, single rotor wind turbines have problems with transportation and installation costs due to their large size. In order to solve such problems, multi-rotor wind turbine is being proposed; however, light weight design of multi-rotor wind turbine is required considering the installation at offshore or deep sea. This study proposes the systematic design process of the multi-rotor wind turbine focused on its supporting structure with simultaneous consideration of static and dynamic behaviors in an ideal situation. 2D and successive 3D topology optimization process based on the density method were applied to minimize the compliance of supporting structure. To realize the conceptual design obtained by topology optimization for manufacturing feasibility, the derived 3D structure was modified to have shell structures and optimized again through parametric design using the design of experiments and the response surface method for detail design of their thicknesses and radii. The resultant structure was determined to satisfy the stress and the buckling load constraint as well as to minimize the weight and the resultant supporting structure were verified numerically.