Author : Erica Angelyn Bush
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (444 download)
Book Synopsis A Comparison of Alternative Foundation Models for Offshore Wind Turbines and Resulting Long-term Loads by : Erica Angelyn Bush
Download or read book A Comparison of Alternative Foundation Models for Offshore Wind Turbines and Resulting Long-term Loads written by Erica Angelyn Bush and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Accurate estimation of structural design loads for wind turbines can help improve cost-effectiveness of wind energy. This study concentrates on predicting long-term characteristic loads for a single design load case for offshore wind turbines associated with an ultimate limit state. Specifically, we study how alternative foundation modeling assumptions and load variability can influence characteristic tower and blade load estimates needed in design. Six foundation models with varying degrees of complexity are compared for a utility-scale 5MW offshore wind turbine. The fixed base model does not account for soil-pile interaction. The apparent fixity model, the modified apparent fixity model, the coupled springs model, and the distributed springs model account for soil-pile interaction by linearizing the lateral stiffness, while the p-y curves model accounts for soil-pile interaction by incorporating the nonlinear response. Accounting for soil-pile flexibility allows the wind turbine model to have similar dynamic characteristics as the true structure. This study shows that accurate structural dynamics is required to produce accurate long-term tower loads, but not necessarily accurate long-term blade loads. All foundation models, including the fixed base model, are shown sufficient for predicting long-term blade load estimates, but flexible foundation models are needed to predict long-term tower loads. We show that linear and nonlinear flexible foundation models are fairly interchangeable for predicting long-term loads for our environmental conditions, wind turbine, and sand profiles because deflections generally stay in the initial quasi-linear range of the p-y curves. In this study, we extrapolate long-term loads using 2D inverse first-order reliability method (FORM) and 3D inverse FORM. The 3D inverse FORM approach accounts for the variability in the load, while the 2D inverse FORM approach does not. We show that characteristic tower and blade loads are strongly influenced by load variability and suggest that it be considered in any effort to predict characteristic long-term loads for design of offshore wind turbines.