Fatigue damage mitigation of offshore wind turbines under real wind and wave conditions

Abstract

Offshore wind turbines (OWTs) subjected to combined wind and wave loadings experience excessive vibrations which will increase fatigue loadings on the structure and reduce the fatigue life. In this paper, a three-dimensional pendulum tuned mass damper (3d-PTMD) is attached to the OWT to mitigate the bi-directional vibrations resulting from wind-wave misalignment so as to increase the fatigue life. An analytical model of the offshore wind turbine coupled with the 3d-PTMD is established using the Euler-Lagrangian equation. To predict long-term metocean condition, a statistical analysis for different properties of wind and wave loading such as, wind-wave misalignment, significant wave height and wind velocity is carried out. The aerodynamic wind loading is calculated using the blade element method and the wave loading is computed using the JONSWAP wave spectrum and Morison equation. Dual linear tuned mass dampers (TMDs) deployed in the side-side and fore-aft directions are used for comparison. The NREL monopile 5 MW baseline wind turbine is used to examine the performance of 3d-PTMD in a realistic metocean condition. The fatigue damage is estimated based on the rain-flow cycle counting method and Miner’s rule. Results indicate that the 3d-PTMD can increase the wind turbine tower fatigue life by more than 50% in comparison with the dual TMDs.