Multi-material 3D inkjet printing for functional structures: using UV sintering and photopolymerisation

Multi­-material 3D inkjet printing has great potential for rapid prototyping and manufacturing of functional mesoscale structures when novel inks are combined into a fully integrated AM-process. This process can be faster and cheaper than conventional methods to produce functional structures. Research is conducted on a large range of potentially...

The climate change potential of steel support structures for offshore wind turbines: An assessment of monopile and jacket support structure steel mass and greenhouse gas emission development for offshore wind turbines in the North Sea

Offshore wind electricity generation will play a key role in the transition to a sustainable energy sector. In 2020, the European Commission presented their Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy which includes 300 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050 (European Commission, 2020). This research focusses on the steel mass development of OWT structural...

Frequency Domain Fatigue Analysis of Offshore Wind Monopile Support Structure: For the Purpose of Offshore Wind Farm Optimization

The preliminary design of wind turbine support structures within an offshore wind farm plays a significant role in decreasing the costs involved and is pivotal in establishing the wind sector as a leading contributor towards a sustainable future. During the early design stages, the optimization of structural dimensions, which involves a large...

Analytical model to assess bending moments in wind turbine support structures subjected to ship collisions

The number of offshore wind farms is growing rapidly, which increases the likelihood of ship collisions with offshore wind turbines. Additionally, the cost of energy reduction for wind turbines is achieved due to radical design optimizations. Therefore, simple methods should be obtained to determine the offshore wind turbine response during ship...

Support structure for offshore solar: The proposal of a new concept

This thesis presents the potential of solar energy to answer the increasing demand for sustainable energy. Multiple floating solar parks are installed on inland water bodies. This trend is a result of the lack of surface for PV systems and a result of legislation on national and international governmental levels, for the reduction of greenhouse...

Floating Jacket Installation: A parametrized motion prediction model for jacket installation

Contrary to a one-off jacket installation where a contractor can wait for favourable weather conditions, the installation of support structures for offshore wind turbines is of repetitive nature. This repetitive nature leads to a need for a better understanding of the behaviour during installation of various jacket geometries. This need brings...

Current and future trends in topology optimization for additive manufacturing

Manufacturing-oriented topology optimization has been extensively studied the past two decades, in particular for the conventional manufacturing methods, for example, machining and injection molding or casting. Both design and manufacturing engineers have benefited from these efforts because of the close-to-optimal and friendly-to-manufacture...

Definition and Response Validation of a Simplified Aero-Servo-Elastic Wind Turbine Model

Currently, the foundation design of offshore wind turbines is based on a simple cantilever beam model with a mass representing the rotor and nacelle, or by making use of wind turbine simulation software such as Bladed, which are built for rotor design. The simple models are unrealistic since the dynamic interaction between the aerodynamic loads,...