Behavior Of Offshore Wind Turbine Research Articles

Numerical Analysis of Local Scour of the Offshore Wind Turbines in Taiwan

Rapid expansions of the offshore wind industry have stimulated a renewed interest in the behavior of offshore wind turbines. Monopile, tripod, and jack-up wind turbines support most offshore wind turbines. These foundations are sensitive to scour, reducing their ultimate capacity and altering their dynamic response. However, the existing approaches ignore the seabed’s rheological properties in the scour process. This study focuses on the scour development around the wind turbine foundation in the Changhua wind farm in Taiwan. The simulation results explain the influence of different hydrodynamic mechanisms on the local scours in a cohesive fluid, such as regular waves, random waves, and constant currents. A newly non-Newtonian fluid model, the Discontinuous Bi-viscous Model (DBM), reproduces closet mud material nature without many empirical coefficients and an empirical formula. This new rheology model is integrated and coupled into the Splash3D model, which resolves the Navier–Stokes equations with a PLIC-VOF surface-tracking algorithm. The deformation of the scour hole, the backfilling, and the maximum scour depth are exhibited around the wind turbines. Waves, including regular and irregular waves, do not increase the scour depth compared with currents only. In the case of random wave–current coupling, the results present a signal of scour evolution. However, the scour depth is shallow at 0.033≤S/D≤0.046.

Influence of foundation damping on offshore wind turbine monopile design loads

The dynamic behavior of offshore wind turbines (OWTs) must be designed considering stochastic load amplitudes and frequencies from waves and mechanical loads associated with the spinning rotor during power production. The proximity of the OWT natural frequency to excitation frequencies combined with low damping necessitates a thorough analysis of sources of damping; of these sources of damping, least is known about the contributions of damping from soil-structure interaction (foundation damping). This paper studies the influence of foundation damping on cyclic load demand for monopile-supported OWTs considering the design situations of power production, emergency shutdown, and parked conditions. The NREL 5 MW Reference Turbine was modeled using the aero-hydro-elastic software FAST and included equivalent linear foundation stiffness and damping matrices. These matrices were determined using an iterative approach with FAST mudline loads as input to a soil-pile finite element software which calculates hysteretic material damping. Accounting for foundation damping in time history analysis can reduce cyclic foundation moment demand by as much as 30% during parked conditions, 25–33% during emergency shutdown, but only 2–3% reduction during power production without wave and wind misalignment. The calculated foundation damping from the emergency shutdown cases agreed with experimental testing performed in similar site conditions.

Centrifuge Modeling for the Evaluation of the Cyclic Behavior of Offshore Wind Turbine with Tripod Foundation

In this study, the cyclic responses of an offshore wind turbine with a tripod foundation installed on an actual site were evaluated in a centrifuge. To understand the behavior of the turbine at the site, the site soil conditions, environmental loads, and real offshore wind turbine structure installed at the actual site were modeled by considering the centrifuge scaling law. From a series of cyclic loading tests, the cyclic responses of the tripod foundation were evaluated in terms of temporary/permanent displacements and cyclic stiffness. Moreover, the long-term behavior of the tripod foundation was predicted from the experimental results. The test results showed that the initial stiffness of the soil–foundation system decreased as the loading amplitude increased and that the stiffness increased with the number of cycles due to soil densification. The findings revealed that the cyclic behaviors of the tripod were more affected by the load amplitude than the number of cycles. In addition, the permanent rotation increased logarithmically with the number of cycles. A simple method to predict the displacement and change in the foundation stiffness of the actual wind turbine is proposed based on the results of the model tests. The results of this study also provide key insights into the long-term cyclic behavior of tripod foundations for offshore wind turbines.

Dynamic analysis of wind turbine tower structures in complex ocean environment

Studying and analyzing the dynamic behavior of offshore wind turbines are of great importance to ensure the safety and improve the efficiency of such expensive equipments. In this work, a tapered beam model is proposed to investigate the dynamic response of an offshore wind turbine tower on the monopile foundation assembled with rotating blades in the complex ocean environment. Several environment factors like wind, wave, current, and soil resistance are taken into account. The proposed model is analytically solved with the Galerkin method. Based on the numerical results, the effects of various structure parameters including the taper angle, the height and thickness of the tower, the depth, and the diameter and the cement filler of the monopile on the fundamental natural frequency of the wind turbine tower system are investigated in detail. It is found that the fundamental natural frequency decreases with the increase in the taper angle and the height and thickness of the tower, and increases with the increase in the diameter of the monopile. Moreover, filling cement into the monopile can effectively improve the fundamental natural frequency of the wind turbine tower system, but there is a critical value of the amount of cement maximizing the property of the monopile. This research may be helpful in the design and safety evaluation of offshore wind turbines.

Extended Environmental Contour Methods for Long-Term Extreme Response Analysis of Offshore Wind Turbines1

AbstractEnvironmental contour method is an efficient method for predicting the long-term extreme response of offshore structures. The traditional environmental contour is obtained using the joint distribution of mean wind speed, significant wave height, and spectral peak period. To improve the accuracy of traditional environmental contour method, a modified method was proposed considering the non-monotonic aerodynamic behavior of offshore wind turbines. Still, the modified method assumes constant wind turbulence intensity. In this paper, we extend the existing environmental contour methods by considering the wind turbulence intensity as a stochastic variable. The 50-year extreme responses of a monopile-based offshore wind turbine are compared using the extended environmental contour methods and the full long-term method. It is found that both the environmental contour method and the modified environmental contour method, with the wind turbulence intensity included as an individual variable, give more accurate predictions compared with those without. Using the full long-term method as a benchmark, this extended approach could reduce the nonconservatism of the environmental contour method and conservatism of the modified environmental contour method. This approach is effective under wind-dominated or combined wind-wave loading conditions, but may not be as important for wave-dominated conditions.

A study of modal damping for offshore wind turbines considering soil properties and foundation types

AbstractThe modal damping ratio for each mode is crucial to characterize the dynamic behavior of offshore wind turbines and widely used by simulation software in wind turbine engineering, such as Bladed and FAST. In this study, modal damping ratios of offshore wind turbines are systematically studied for different soil properties and foundation types. Firstly, the modal damping ratios and modal frequencies for the first and second modes of a gravity foundation–supported offshore wind turbine are studied. An offshore wind turbine supported by a monopile foundation is then investigated to clarify the characteristics of modal damping ratios and modal frequencies for the monopile foundation. The soil parameters are identified by means of genetic algorithm (GA). Predicted modal damping ratios and modal frequencies as well as modal shapes show good agreement with the field measurements for both foundations. Finally, a sensitivity analysis study is carried out to investigate the effects of soil properties and foundation types on modal damping ratios. For the gravity foundation–supported offshore wind turbine, soil properties affect the modal damping ratio of the second mode largely, but affect that of the first mode little, while for the monopile‐supported offshore wind turbine, soil properties affect the modal damping ratios of the first and second modes significantly. Predicted natural periods and modal damping ratios of the first mode for both foundations by a pair of simple models agree well with those by numerical models.

Semi Analytical Model for the Dynamic Behavior of Offshore Wind Turbine with Flexible Foundation

A new semi analytical formulation is developed which models the dynamic behavior of offshore wind turbine with variable cross section and flexible foundation. The wind turbine tower is modeled using Euler-Bernoulli beam model while the soil-tower interaction is modeled by rotational and lateral springs at the lower end of the tower. Recursive differential method is used to calculate natural frequencies which is found to be efficient in terms of accuracy as well as the computational cost. The predicted natural frequencies of the current proposed mathematical technique were validated and compared with those of two other analytical and experimental techniques, for four selected offshore wind turbines, and results were found to be in very good agreement. Furthermore, the results of the current model, which accurately models the variation of the cross section properties, were found to be in a better agreement with the experimental results compared to those of the constant cross-section approximation.

Evaluation of Turbulence on the Dynamics of Monopile Offshore Wind Turbine under the Wave and Wind Excitations

In recent years, the use of offshore wind turbines has been considered on the agenda of the countries which have a significant maritime boundary due to more speed and stability of wind at sea. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of wind turbulence on the aero-hydrodynamic behavior of offshore wind turbines with a monopile platform. Since in the sea, the wind turbine structures are under water and structures interactions, the dynamic analysis has been conducted under combined wind and wave loadings. The offshore wind turbines have been investigated under two models of normal and severe wind turbulence, and the results of this study show that the amplitude of fluctuation of dynamic response is increased with increasing amount of wind turbulence, and this increase is not necessarily observed in the mean values of responses. Therefore, conducting the dynamic analysis is inevitable in order to observe the effect of wind turbulence on the structures response.

Seismic evaluation of offshore wind turbine by geotechnical centrifuge test

AbstractAs offshore wind turbines are now planned to be installed at seismic activity areas around Asia in large numbers, understanding of the seismic behavior of offshore wind turbine has become essential to evade structural hazards due to earthquake. Although the seismic behavior of the structure is largely affected by soil‐foundation‐structure interaction (SFSI), there is only a few experimental data about this subject as conventional offshore wind turbines are mostly located in the area where earthquakes are scarce. Geotechnical centrifuge experiment can provide reliable experimental data for this subject as it can reproduce field stress condition of the soil and simulate earthquake motion in a scaled model test. In this research, three case studies using centrifuge model test were performed to evaluate the seismic behavior of offshore wind turbine during the earthquake and permanent deformation after the earthquake. The results were compared with conventional seismic evaluation methods. Monopile, Monopod, and Tripod foundations were chosen for the experiment. Peak acceleration and rotational displacement of the wind turbine for three cases were evaluated under various intensities of seismic loading applied by centrifuge‐mounted shaking table. Results were compared with conventional evaluation method for design acceleration and conventional rotational displacement criteria suggested in DNV‐OS‐J101.

Assessment of the offshore wind turbine support structure integrity and management of multivariate hybrid probability frameworks

A method is proposed to evaluate, maintain and manage the long-term structural integrity and degradation behavior of offshore wind turbines: the multivariate or copula probability density function with an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system, which completes the assessment and management in three steps. First, the proposed method calculates the statistical population maximum likelihood estimation of the objective probability degradation characteristics and cycling patterns observed for historical precursors. Then, the method uses the Markov chain Monte Carlo method to generate hypothetical probability estimations of the objective features and synthesizes these probability density functions to build multivariate copula probability framework approximations of the features. The proposed method is applied to the integrity assessment and management of in-service offshore wind turbine support structures. Finally, the proposed method uses principal component analysis with a heat map to provide a helpful visualization for integrity assessment and integrity management tools. This method is expected to be embedded in existing supervisory control and data acquisition systems and to be used to construct a global integrity assessment model and management framework. This research shows the multivariate probability pattern of the integrity of an offshore structure under multielement coupling load conditions. A multivariate stochastic simulation is proposed for the goal-oriented integrity assessment, and an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system is used to manage the associated copula probability to quantify the coupling of risk because it uses comprehensive principal component analysis quantification models to describe the multivariate dynamic excitation behaviors of offshore wind turbine support structures. Meanwhile, multivariate hybrid probability frameworks are also shown to have high generalization ability and strong robustness. The proposed methodology also has great potential to be applied to other types of offshore systems for the characterization, assessment, and management of their integrity.

Experimental and Numerical Studies on the Dynamic and Long-Term Behavior of Offshore Wind Turbines in Clay

Monopile foundations for offshore wind turbines (OWTs) are exposed to long-term dynamic loads from wind and waves. Hence, the long-term dynamic behavior of a monopile supported OWT is necessary for the sake of stability during the serviceable period. To assess the safety of the system, the serviceability limit state regarding the allowable tilt of the monopile at mudline is satisfied, and the fundamental frequency of the system is kept away from the rotor and blade passing frequencies. The present study investigates the long-term performance of monopile supported OWT in clay using a series of scaled model tests. The fundamental frequency and damping of an OWT system and the rotation and lateral deflection of a monopile head are examined for various load cycles with different amplitudes. The effect of long-term loading cycles and amplitude on the soil-pile stiffness is evaluated. It is observed that the fundamental frequency of the system decreases with the number of load cycles, whereas damping of the whole system is increased. The responses regarding accumulated rotation and deflection at monopile head are found to be increasing with the number of load cycles. For the numerical simulation, soil is modeled as viscoelastic material with a stiffness degradation function in three-dimensional finite element analysis. Finally, the fundamental frequency and response of the OWT obtained from the model test are validated with numerical results. A good agreement is observed between experimental and numerical results.

Feasibility study of offshore wind turbines with hybrid monopile foundation based on centrifuge modeling

The support structure of an offshore wind turbine (OWT) accounts for up to 25% of the capital cost; therefore, investigations into reliable and efficient foundations are critical for the offshore wind turbine industry. This paper describes an innovative hybrid monopile foundation for OWTs, which is an optimization of the original monopile foundation with broader applications. The behavior of OWTs with the hybrid monopile foundation in service conditions are investigated under lateral cyclic loadings, by considering the effects of wind, waves, and ice. A series of centrifuge tests are conducted in order to analyze these behaviors in detail, and OWT models with the original single-pile as well as wheel-only foundations are tested for comparison. Based on these tests, the accumulated lateral displacement and stiffness during cyclic loadings are presented, and the results indicate that the hybrid foundation exhibits a larger cyclic capacity than the other foundations. The influence of the cycle numbers, cyclic loading characteristics, and soil properties is examined during the tests; furthermore, the effects of these factors on the model deformation responses are illustrated. This study proposes the first analytical method for quantitatively estimating the cyclic lateral displacement of the new hybrid foundation in service conditions, and a degradation coefficient is recommended based on the test results. This method aims to provide a simple approach to predicting responses of OWTs with hybrid monopile foundations in service conditions.

Experimentally supported consideration of operating point dependent soil properties in coupled dynamics of offshore wind turbines

The consideration of soil properties is necessary to predict the time domain dynamic behavior of offshore wind turbines. Accurate soil-structure interaction models are in essence very expensive in terms of computing time and therefore, not directly applicable to transient calculations of wind energy converters. In this work, the incorporation of dynamic soil properties is addressed. The basic model, previously developed by the authors, is based on a linearized approach using stiffness and mass matrices representing the soil-structure interaction. This approach already leads to significant reductions of the eigenfrequencies compared to clamped boundary conditions which are still commonly used. Here, the basic approach is enhanced by two aspects. Firstly, different numerical soil models, based on nonlinear springs, to calculate the matrices are compared to experimental results for embedded piles at conditions similar to the North Sea. Comparisons of numerically and experimentally determined eigenfrequencies of the piles show that nonlinear spring models are only suitable for dynamic analyses to a limited extent. Secondly, a piecewise defined response surface, which enables a linearization of the nonlinear soil behavior at different approximated operating points, is introduced. This approximation proves to be sufficiently accurate in the current setting. By analyzing two full offshore wind turbine examples in time domain, a monopile substructure and a jacket substructure anchored by piles, further shifts of the eigenfrequencies, being caused by the load-dependent mechanical properties of the soil, are determined by considering the operating point.

Centrifuge modeling to evaluate natural frequency and seismic behavior of offshore wind turbine consideringSFSI

AbstractUnderstanding of dynamic response of offshore wind turbine is important to reduce vibration of offshore wind turbine induced by structural and environmental loadings. Although dynamic characteristics of the offshore wind turbine such as natural frequency and seismic behavior are affected by foundation and soil conditions, there are little experimental studies about the dynamic behavior of offshore wind turbine with consideration of proper soil–foundation–structure interaction (SFSI). The goal of this research is to evaluate the natural frequency and seismic behavior of offshore wind turbine with a monopod foundation considering SFSI. Scaled model of offshore wind turbine and monopod foundation is produced for this research. Geotechnical centrifuge tests in fixed‐based and SFSI condition were performed to measure natural frequency in each case. Also, a series of seismic loadings with different intensities are applied to observe seismic behaviors of the offshore wind turbine during the earthquake and permanent changes after the earthquake. Experimental results show apparent natural frequency reduction in SFSI condition compared with the fixed‐based condition, non‐linear changes in dynamic response during a series of earthquakes and permanent changes occurred in natural frequency and rotational displacement after earthquakes. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Centrifuge modeling of lateral bearing behavior of offshore wind turbine with suction bucket foundation in sand

Suction bucket foundation is a promising alternative for offshore wind turbine foundations. The lateral bearing behavior and failure mechanism are significant topics for optimizing its design criteria. In this study, a group of centrifuge tests were performed to investigate the lateral bearing capacity of suction bucket foundation with three aspect ratios. Force-controlled lateral static and cyclic tests were performed at a centrifuge acceleration of 50g. Four soil conditions were considered in centrifuge tests with a combination of loose/dense and dry/saturated sand. The load-displacement and the stiffness-displacement relationships are presented in the paper, and it is concluded that the lateral bearing capacity can be reached when the normalized lateral displacement (displacement divided by the bucket diameter) reached 3% as the first method. Displacement rates are plotted against the lateral load to give the second method for defining the ultimate lateral capacity. In cyclic tests, the lateral displacement and stiffness are correlated to the cycle numbers in the first 5 cycles, but the change is less apparent in the rest. The results demonstrated the behavior of bucket foundation in service conditions. Finally, a simplified calculation method is used as the third method and checked with tests results.

Impact of climate change on dynamic behavior of offshore wind turbine

ABSTRACTGlobal warming is expected to change the wind and wave patterns at a significant level, which may lead to conditions outside current design criteria of monopile supported offshore wind turbine (OWT). This study examines the impact of climate change on the dynamic behavior and future safety of an OWT founded in clay incorporating dynamic soil–structure interaction. A statistical downscaling model is used to generate the time series of future wind speed and wave height at local level. The responses and fatigue life of OWT are estimated for present and future periods and extent of change in design is investigated at offshore location along the west coast of India. Wind speed, wave height, and wave period data are collected from the buoy deployed by Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services and the future climate for the next 30 years is simulated using the general circulation model corresponding to Special Report on Emission Scenarios A1B scenario. The OWT is modeled as Euler–Bernoulli beam and soil–structure interaction is incorporated using nonlinear p-y springs. This study shows that changes in design of OWT are needed due to increased responses owing to the effect of climate change. Fatigue life is found to be decreased because of climate change.

Structural health monitoring of offshore wind turbines using automated operational modal analysis

This article will present and discuss the approach and the first results of a long-term dynamic monitoring campaign on an offshore wind turbine in the Belgian North Sea. It focuses on the vibration levels and modal parameters of the fundamental modes of the support structure. These parameters are crucial to minimize the operation and maintenance costs and to extend the lifetime of offshore wind turbine structure and mechanical systems. In order to perform a proper continuous monitoring during operation, a fast and reliable solution, applicable on an industrial scale, has been developed. It will be shown that the use of appropriate vibration measurement equipment together with state-of-the art operational modal analysis techniques can provide accurate estimates of natural frequencies, damping ratios, and mode shapes of offshore wind turbines. The identification methods have been automated and their reliability has been improved, so that the system can track small changes in the dynamic behavior of offshore wind turbines. The advanced modal analysis tools used in this application include the poly-reference least squares complex frequency-domain estimator, commercially known as PolyMAX, and the covariance-driven stochastic subspace identification method. The implemented processing strategy will be demonstrated on data continuously collected during 2 weeks, while the wind turbine was idling or parked.

Dynamic analysis of offshore wind turbine in clay considering soil–monopile–tower interaction

A comprehensive study is performed on the dynamic behavior of offshore wind turbine (OWT) structure supported on monopile foundation in clay. The system is modeled using a beam on nonlinear Winkler foundation model. Soil resistance is modeled using American Petroleum Institute based cyclic p–y and t–z curves. Dynamic analysis is carried out in time domain using finite element method considering wind and wave loads. Several parameters, such as soil–monopile–tower interaction, rotor and wave frequencies, wind and wave loading parameters, and length, diameter and thickness of monopile affecting the dynamic characteristics of OWT system and the responses are investigated. The study shows soil–monopile–tower interaction increases response of tower and monopile. Soil nonlinearity increases the system response at higher wind speed. Rotor frequency is found to have dominant role than blade passing frequency and wave frequency. Magnitude of wave load is important for design rather than resonance from wave frequency.

Seismic Behavior of Offshore Wind Turbine with Gravity Foundation

The development of offshore wind energy becomes very fast in recent years due to its clean, safe, and high efficiency. However, the issue that quite a few offshore wind farms have been built in seismic active areas raises a great engineering challenge for the selection, design, and seismic evaluation of offshore wind turbine foundations. Earthquake is one of the most critical hazards for offshore wind turbines. The softening of soil due to pore water pressure buildup can sharply reduce the bearing capacity of the foundation, and consequently result in stability failure. The induced strong structural vibration has adverse impact on the normal operation of wind turbine as well as on the efficiency of power generation. In this study, a group of earthquake centrifuge tests was performed on a physical model of a wind turbine with gravity foundation. The seismic behavior of both the structure and the foundation soil was analyzed based on the recorded accelerations, pore water pressures, lateral displacements and settlements. The emphasis was on the interaction between foundation and soil. The results showed that gravity foundation can effectively resist the overturning moment induced by the superstructure. However, it was quite sensitive to the subsoil conditions. The large settlement and tilt in the offshore foundation might affect the performance of a wind turbine.

Challenges in the reliability and maintainability data collection for offshore wind turbines

Wind energy is abundantly available both onshore and offshore. As a response to the present climate crisis focus on wind energy is increasing due to its renewable and environmentally friendly characteristics. Due to social and political reasons the trend has been shifted largely from onshore to offshore wind farms. Offshore wind energy production faces a wide range of new challenges in design, development, manufacturing, installation, and maintenance and operation. The need, objectives, method, benefits, and application of a proposed reliability and maintainability database are identified in this paper. In the offshore oil and gas industry the OREDA concept for data collection has been running for more than 25 years. Therefore it will be briefly described what is considered to be the state of the art in this industry when it comes to data collection. Potential challenges and issues pertaining to the reliability and maintainability data collection of offshore wind turbines are outlined and categorized. The architecture of the proposed database is illustrated. The main building blocks of the database are briefly described and their possible effects on the reliability and maintainability of offshore wind turbines are highlighted. It is expected that the realization of the proposed database will open a new vista of knowledge in understanding the real behavior of offshore wind turbines in the marine environment. Another expectation is the benefits it will bring to the technological areas ranging from design to operation.