Visible Light Communication System for Offshore Wind Turbine Foundation Scour Early Warning Monitoring

Yung-Bin Lin,Tzu-Kang Lin,Ben-Ting Chen,Cheng-Chun Chang,Chang-Wei Huang,Jihn-Sung Lai,Kuo-Chun Chang

doi:10.3390/w11071486

Abstract

Offshore wind farms have a superior wind source to terrestrial wind farms, but they also face more severe environmental conditions such as severe storms, typhoons, and sea waves. Scour leads to the excavation of sediments around the foundations of structures, reducing the safe capacity of the structures. The phenomenon of pier scour is extremely complex because of the combined effects of the vortex system involving time-dependent flow patterns and sediment transport mechanisms. A real-time scour monitoring system can improve the safety of structures and afford cost-effective operations by preventing premature or unnecessary maintenance. This paper proposes an on-site scour monitoring system using visible light communication (VLC) modules for offshore wind turbine installations. A flume experiment revealed that the system was highly sensitive and accurate in monitoring seabed scour processes. This arrayed-VLC sensory system, proposed in this paper, has considerable potential for safety monitoring and also can contribute to improving the accuracy of empirical scour formulas for sustainable maintenance in the life cycle of offshore structures.

Highlights

Wind energy, in particular, offshore wind power, has been recognized as one of the highest growing and the most important future renewable energy source [1,2]
The x-axis represents the time history measured and the energy density is illustrated at frequencies between 0 and 5 Hz, which contains the most energy in seconds, and the energy density is illustrated at frequencies between 0 and 5 Hz, which contains of the vibration
Scour leads to the excavation of sediments, reducing the safe capacity of the structures

Summary

Introduction

In particular, offshore wind power, has been recognized as one of the highest growing and the most important future renewable energy source [1,2]. Due to severe environmental conditions—such as severe storms, typhoons, ocean currents, and waves—offshore wind farms face more challenges in the issues of structure safety. The scour mechanism of offshore wind turbine foundation caused by waves and currents is quite similar to bridge scour. From the studies of the past 30 years, flooding and foundation scouring was the primary cause of 600 bridges failed or collapse in the United States [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. Average damage repair on highways cost of flooding in the United States is estimated to be $50 million per year [11]

Methods

Results

Conclusion