Adaptive bidirectional dynamic response control of offshore wind turbines with time‐varying structural properties

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Wind, wave and seismic loading induced excessive vibration of offshore wind turbines (OWTs) impairs the wind turbine energy output and escalates its fatigue damage. The present study proposes a three-dimensional adaptive pendulum tuned mass damper (3D-APTMD) to control the bidirectional dynamic responses of monopile OWTs exposed to combined wind, wave, seismic loading, and time-varying structural properties. In terms of the proposed adaptive tuning algorithm, the natural frequency and damping property of the 3D-APTMD are tuned in real time to match the wind turbine time-varying dominant frequency caused by environmental and/or structural property variations. Performance of the developed adaptive damper is examined on a monopile 5-MW (megawatt) baseline wind turbine subjected to representative wind, wave, and seismic loading. Time-varying stiffness of the tower and foundation is introduced to simulate damage evolution during service life. A three-dimensional pendulum tuned mass damper (3D-PTMD) and dual linear TMDs (2TMD) are used for comparison. Research results show that when damage occurs, 3D-PTMD and 2TMD become partially off-tuned and less effective. In comparison, the 3D-APTMD which is tuned in real time maintains its effectiveness. It can improve the reduction effect by around 25% and 30% when compared with the 3D-PTMD and 2TMD, respectively. Therefore, the proposed 3D-APTMD is promising for real application to protect OWTs, high-rise buildings, chimneys, and other types of slender structures suffering from excessive bidirectional vibration, and environmental, operational, and/or structural property variations.