Coherence effects on the power and tower loads of a 7 x 2 MW multi-rotor wind turbine system

A multi-rotor system (MRS), in which multiple wind turbines are placed on one tower, is a promising concept for super-large wind turbines at over 10 MW due to the cost and weight advantages. The coherence effects on an MRS were investigated in this study. Although a wide range of coherences were measured so far, a decay constant of C = 12 is recommended in the IEC61400-1 standard. Dynamic simulations were performed for a 14-MW MRS, which consists of seven 2-MW turbines and includes wind models with three different coherences. Although the results show that a larger coherence increases the output power and the collective loads due to tower base fore-aft bending, it reduces the differential loads due to tower-base torque and tower-top nodding. The most significant case is the fatigue damage due to tower base fore-aft bending, which was more than doubled between the decay constants of C = 6 and C = 12. The present results indicate that the coherence should be defined carefully in the design of large-scale MRSs because its effect on them is not straightforward.