Wind turbines constitute a sustainable and effective solution to produce energy using wind power. Offshore wind turbines are becoming of special interest and more demanding with continuously increased diameters. However, their design poses great challenges, since the installation and fabrication tolerances in combination with high cyclic loading play an important role on the fatigue assessment of the wind turbine structure.One part of specific interest for the fatigue assessment of a wind turbine is the way that the transition piece is connected to monopile. Since now, grouted and bolted connections are commonly used, but they have many drawbacks. These disadvantages regarding their performance inspired by C1 Connections BV to invent a new type of connection to connect large diameter tubulars, the C1 Wedge Connection. This innovation allows to increase the fatigue life of the wind turbine structures and decrease simultaneously their construction and installation cost. The work that will be presented here deals with the fatigue assessment of the C1 Wedge Connection, and how the presence of imperfections may affect the fatigue life of it.After analysis of the load path and the innovative preload mechanism, a reference wind turbine has been selected and the 3D CAD software of Solid Edge is used to design all the components of the wedge connection and assemble them to their final position. The stiffness of the main components of the wedge connection (TP-flange, TP-shell and MP) is calculated analytically, based on the method proposed by Seidel and adapted for the C1 Wedge Connection. An analytical model using Timoshenko beam theory has been developed for TP-flange stiffness calculation. This model and all analytical calculations were verified against FEM results built on ANSYS Workbench and mechanical for that purpose.Once the components’ stiffnesses have been calculated based on analytical formulas, an approximation of the maximum closeable gap is plotted for different gap sizes for this specific geometry of the connection and friction coefficient μ=0.15 which was proved being conservative after calibration using results from tests taken place at TU Delft lab.Secondly different scenarios have been investigated using FE models regarding the position of the gap among the different components of the connection. From this analysis, in terms of magnitude of the remaining gap and the reaction force at the interface of both flanges, was concluded that the worst scenario is the presence of imperfection only at MP side.This worst scenario (only imperfect MP flange) is selected and examined for compression to tension under ULS overturning moment. The fatigue damage of the imperfect structure is calculated and compared with a perfect one. For the purpose of this thesis, preloading has been applied by once at all connections of the ring. Peak stresses are calculated and based on selected S-N curve from DNV-GL codes and by making use of the Miner’s rule, the fatigue damage at the critical positions of both perfect and imperfect connection is calculated. For the same imperfect structure, the fatigue damage is calculated again based on nominal stresses measured underneath each hole of imperfect MP segment. In that case the specific for the C1 Wedge Connection S-N curve is used, based on fatigue single segment test results taken place at TU Delft lab, in 2018.From this research, it is concluded that based on peak stress method the selected imperfect structure is not able to withstand the fatigue damage loads. On the other hand, the same cannot be stated using nominal stress method which is more realistic based on test results and not sensitive to mesh details. In that case the fatigue damage for every hole is <<1.

More offshore wind projects are being developed. Shallow locations are more occupied and a tendency to deeper water and to larger wind turbines is seen. These create more bending moment which can be more easily resisted by jacket substructures. The state of the art installation process of a jacket is as follows. The foundation piles are driven into the seabed. The jacket leg is installed by sticking a stabbing cone into the stick-up length of the foundation pile and fill the space between the cone and the pile with grout. In this situation a lot of grout, steel and installation time are used. An alternative connection could be a wedge connection which is considered in this thesis. A wedge connection consists of four parts: jacket leg, connector element, wedges and foundation pile. The challenge to apply this connection to jackets is to overcome the installation tolerances. Due to the inaccuracy of the driving of the foundation piles, the holes in the jacket legs and the foundation piles do not align and the wedges cannot be installed. The installation tolerances consist mainly of center-to-center distance, pile verticality and a vertical tolerance. The maximum translational tolerances are 75 millimeter while the maximum rotational tolerance is maximum 0.83 degrees. 23 different concepts have been developed to deal with the installation tolerances. All the concepts have some drawbacks and do not fully solve the problem without downsides. The magnitude of the installation tolerances is therefore reduced and from a multi-criteria analysis a screw thread connection is proposed. The advantages of the screw thread connection are: a reduced amount of material, no grout is required and the installation time of the jacket to foundation pile connection can be reduced up to 75 percent. The screw thread connection overcomes the vertical tolerance and the tolerance around the longitudinal axis of the foundation pile by rotation of the connector element. In case of an pile inclination, the connector element and the foundation pile do not fully align and a gap remains in between them. By applying a preloading force to the connection it is still not possible to close this gap. The space between the connector element and the foundation pile has to be filled with an epoxy resin. The screw thread connection does fulfill the requirements for the ultimate limit state based upon hand calculations for net stresses, bending stresses and contact stresses. The fatigue limit state of the wedge connection meets the requirements. Only the fatigue limit state of the screw thread does not fulfill the requirements based upon a hand calculation. The three largest issues of the screw thread connection are the fabrication of the screw thread profile, the fatigue in the screw thread and the installation of the epoxy resin between the connector and the foundation pile. The first step to develop the screw thread connection further is an more extensive investigation to these three issues.

Wind turbines constitute a sustainable and effective solution for the production of energy using wind power. Offshore wind turbines are becoming of special interest. However, their design poses great challenges, since an offshore structure is subjected to combined wind and wave dynamic loading that is characteristic of the installation site and play an important role on the fatigue failure of the wind turbine structure.

One part of specific interest for the fatigue assessment of a wind turbine is the way that the transition piece is connected to monopile. Since now, grouted and bolted connections are commonly used, but their many drawbacks regarding their performance inspired Fistuca BV to invent a new type of connection, the wedge connection, in order to increase the fatigue life of the wind turbine structures and decrease simultaneously their construction and installation cost. More specifically, a basic flange with inclined planes is attached on the top of the
monopile and a more complex one (fork-shaped flange) is fitted to the bottom of the transition piece. Inclined dowels are used to connect the two flanges and secure the structure. The final positioning of the dowels is achieved by applying external pressure on the back side of them, which is converted to a vertical reaction force between the two flanges through the inclined planes, acting as preload.

The work that will be presented here deals with the fatigue assessment of the wedge connection, and how the presence of the preloading force may affect the fatigue life of it.

A reference wind turbine and a reference location have been selected first, in order to calculate all the fatigue loads resulted on the structure due to wind and wave at the level where the wedge connection has been selected to be located (+4m above the MSL). The concept of damage equivalent loads has been applied. Damage loads due to waves have been calculated in the frequency domain, while damage loads due to wind have been handled in the time domain due to strongest non-linearities in the rotor aerodynamics. The process of damage
loads’ calculation was carried out using MATLAB.

Once the loads have been calculated, the 3D CAD design software of SOLIDWORKS is used to design all the components of the wedge connection and assemble them to their final position. To facilitate the design process and reduce the computational time, the flange connection is reduced to a single wedge segment, on which the highest stresses are developed. Two load cases are examined for each one of the above resulted damage loads: one with preload and another one without preload. For the purpose of this thesis, xx MPa external pressure has been applied for the final positioning of dowels in case of preload. ANSYS Workbench has been used for the finite element analysis. Nominal stresses are calculated and based on selected S-N curves for both DNV-GL codes and Eurocode 3 and by making use of the Miner’s rule, the damage and the fatigue life of the connection is calculated. The selection of the appropriate
S-N curve for each load case and for each component of the connection, has been based on results from test specimens.

A parametric study has been carried out as well, in order to check several parameters that may affect both the accuracy of the finite element analysis and the stress development on the connection, and as a result the damage and the fatigue life of it.