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 ana-lytically 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 funda-mental 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 im-prove 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.

A Practical Decision Making on Design of Fixed Offshore Wind Turbine Support Structure Considering Socio-economic Impact

Wind energy is considered one of the most promising alternative energy sources against the conventional fossil fuels.However,the deployment of these structures in deep-water for better power production is considered as a complex task.This also has raised the issue regarding selection of appropriate support structures for various sea conditions by considering environmental impact and carbon footprint.This paper considers a jacket like support structure as a case study for an intermediate water depth(50m).The jacket is considered to be located in North of Dutch Sea,and 100-extreme wave is applied as load condition.Here,the presented methodology provides an insight towards environmental/social impact made by the optimized designs in comparison with reference design.

Structural optimization of uniaxial symmetry non-circular bolt clearance hole on turbine disk

This study proposes a parameterized model of a uniaxial symmetry non-circular hole, to improve conventional circular bolt clearance holes on turbine disks. The profile of the model consists of eight smoothly connected arcs, the radiuses of which are determined by 5 design variables.By changing the design variables, the profile of the non-circular hole can be transformed to accommodate different load ratios, thereby improving the stress concentration of the area near the hole and that of the turbine disk. The uniaxial symmetry non-circular hole is optimized based on finite element method（FEM）, in which the maximum first principal stress is taken as the objective function. After optimization, the stress concentration is evidently relieved; the maximum first principal stress and the maximum von Mises stress on the critical area are reduced by 30.39% and 25.34%respectively, showing that the uniaxial symmetry non-circular hole is capable of reducing the stress level of bolt clearance holes on the turbine disk.