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

Abstract

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.