Role of advanced soil modelling in the dynamic analysis of offshore wind turbines

Conference paper (2017)

Authors

F. Pisano Geo-engineering - CEG
S. Corciulo D' Appalonia S.p.A. - Marine & Offshore Engineering
Omar Zanoli D' Appalonia S.p.A. - Marine & Offshore Engineering
Research Group
Geo-engineering (CEG) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2017 F. Pisano, S. Corciulo, Omar Zanoli
Dynamic analysis Sand Offshore wind turbine Monopile Hydro-mechanical coupling Cyclic plasticity modelling
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Published Date

2017

Language

English

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Faculty

Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Department

Geoscience and Engineering

Research Group

Geo-engineering

Abstract

The increasing relevance of offshore wind in the energy mix motivates continual research efforts for the optimisation of foundation systems. Currently, monopiles are still the most common foundations for offshore wind turbines (OWTs), due to their simplicity and the low costs for production/assembly. However, the modern trends towards larger OWTs and water depths pose new
geotechnical challenges in the design of more cumbersome and expensive monopiles. In this work, the potential of 3D finite element (FE) modelling for OWT applications is illustrated. The dynamic response of a soil-monopile-OWT system is numerically simulated by accounting for (i) dynamic hydro-mechanical (HM) coupling in the soil and (ii) cyclic plasticity modelling. In particular, the UCSD08 sand model developed by Yang and Elgamal (2008) has been adopted and calibrated against laboratory test results on medium dense sand. FE results are presented to highlight the combined influence of wind/wave loading and soil non-linearity on the dynamic OWT performance (and specifically on the main natural frequency). The results presented support the beneficial role that 3D
FE modelling may play in the improvement of existing design methods.