Assessing seismic mitigation schemes of tuned mass dampers for monopile offshore wind turbine including pile–soil–structure interaction

Abstract

The study of a monopile offshore wind turbine with the soil–structure interaction effect is most challenging in structural design under multiple hazards, i.e., the combined wind, sea wave, and earthquake excitations. Different arrangements of passive tuned mass dampers (TMDs) were used to mitigate the service and seismic loads affecting an offshore wind turbine (OWT) including the pile–soil–structure interaction (PSSI) effect. Different schemes of passive TMDs, placed at the top of the OWT tower or also at the center of gravity (CG) of the OWT tower or at the connection between the OWT tower and monopile, were tested. Various arrangements of TMDs including the proposed herein top radial TMDs arrangements have been investigated to determine their validity in resisting vibrations resulting from service and earthquake loads. The lateral displacements, shear forces and bending moments in both horizontal directions and the axial forces all over the OWT tower and monopile heights were recorded to compare the performance of each mitigation scheme of TMDs. The comparison results showed that the TMDs placement should be at the top of the OWT tower and the top radial 6 TMDs arrangement was found to be the most effective mitigation scheme for all straining actions in the tower and the monopile of the OWT subjected to service and earthquake loads.