Expected Life Evaluation of Offshore Wind Turbine Support Structure under Variable Ocean Environment

Abstract

Because offshore structures are affected by various environmental loads, the risk of damage is high. As a result of ever-changing ocean environmental loads, damage to offshore structures is expected to differ from year to year. However, in previous studies, it was assumed that a relatively short period of load acts repeatedly during the design life of a structure. In this study, the residual life of an offshore wind turbine support structure was evaluated in consideration of the timing uncertainty of the ocean environmental load. Sampling points for the wind velocity, wave height, and wave period were generated using a central composites design, and a transfer function was constructed from the numerical analysis results. A simulation was performed using the joint probability model of ocean environmental loads. The stress time history was calculated by entering the load samples generated by the simulation into the transfer function. The damage to the structure was calculated using the rain-flow counting method, Goodman equation, Miner’s rule, and S-N curve. The results confirmed that the wind speed generated at a specific time could not represent the wind speed that could occur during the design life of the structure.