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Physical Modelling of Offshore Wind Turbine Foundations for TRL (Technology Readiness Level) Studies
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, Volume: 9, Issue: 6, Start page: 589
Swansea University Author: Sondipon Adhikari
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DOI (Published version): 10.3390/jmse9060589
Abstract
Offshore wind turbines are a complex, dynamically sensitive structure due to their irregular mass and stiffness distribution, and complexity of the loading conditions they need to withstand. There are other challenges in particular locations such as typhoons, hurricanes, earthquakes, sea-bed current...
| Published in: | Journal of Marine Science and Engineering |
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| ISSN: | 2077-1312 |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2021
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| Online Access: |
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa57177 |
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| Abstract: |
Offshore wind turbines are a complex, dynamically sensitive structure due to their irregular mass and stiffness distribution, and complexity of the loading conditions they need to withstand. There are other challenges in particular locations such as typhoons, hurricanes, earthquakes, sea-bed currents, and tsunami. Because offshore wind turbines have stringent Serviceability Limit State (SLS) requirements and need to be installed in variable and often complex ground conditions, their foundation design is challenging. Foundation design must be robust due to the enormous cost of retrofitting in a challenging environment should any problem occur during the design lifetime. Traditionally, engineers use conventional types of foundation systems, such as shallow gravity-based foundations (GBF), suction caissons, or slender piles or monopiles, based on prior experience with designing such foundations for the oil and gas industry. For offshore wind turbines, however, new types of foundations are being considered for which neither prior experience nor guidelines exist. One of the major challenges is to develop a method to de-risk the life cycle of offshore wind turbines in diverse metocean and geological conditions. The paper, therefore, has the following aims: (a) provide an overview of the complexities and the common SLS performance requirements for offshore wind turbine; (b) discuss the use of physical modelling for verification and validation of innovative design concepts, taking into account all possible angles to de-risk the project; and (c) provide examples of applications in scaled model tests. |
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| Keywords: |
TRL (Technology Readiness Level); offshore wind turbines; scaling laws; monopile; proof of concept |
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Funders: |
S. Bhattacharya would like to record appreciation for generous funding and insights into wind turbine foundation issues from the following organisations: University of Bristol and Surrey, developers Innogy, RWE, TEPSCO, Mott Macdonald, Atkins, EPSRC EP/H015345/1 EP/H015345/2. S. Bhattacharya also acknowledges the contribution of Nick Nikitas (University of Leeds) for his help during the experiments of scaled model testing using the Bristol shaking table. S. Adhikari acknowledges the support from the Marie Skodowska-Curie Actions—European Commission: MSCA-IF-2019-890419, (SMART-UP). Vikram Pakrashi would like to acknowledge that this publication has emanated from research Science Foundation Ireland under Grant number RC2302_2 and acknowledges the UCD Energy Institute and UCD Centre for Mechanics. |
| Issue: |
6 |
| Start Page: |
589 |