Proceedings of the Twenty-sixth (2016) International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference
org
Rhodes, Greece, June 26-July 1, 2016
Copyright © 2016 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-88-3; ISSN 1098-6189
Numerical analysis of a hybrid substructure for 3MW offshore wind turbines due to soil conditions
Min-Su Park1), Youn-Ju Jeong1), Young-Jun You1)
1) Structural engineering research institute, Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology
Goyang-Si, Gyeonggi-Do, Korea
ABSTRACT
The offshore wind energy has gained attention from many countries to
find alternative and reliable energy sources. Therefore, many offshore
wind farms are in the planning phase. In order to increase the gross
generation of wind turbines, the size of a tower and a rotor-nacelle
becomes larger. In other words, the substructure for offshore wind
turbines is strongly influenced by the effect of wave forces as the size
of substructure increases. In the present study the hybrid substructure,
which is composed of a multi-cylinder having different radius near free
surface and a gravity substructure at the bottom of multi-cylinder, is
suggested to reduce the wave forces. In addition, since a large offshore
wind turbine has a heavy dead load, the reaction forces on the
substructure become severe, thus very firm foundations should be
required. Therefore, the dynamic pile-soil interaction has to be fully
considered. In the present study the ENSOFT Group V7.0 is used to
calculate the stiffness matrices on the pile-soil interaction conditions.
Using the stiffness matrices and the loads at TP, which is obtained from
GH-Bladed, the structural analysis of the hybrid substructure is carried
out through ANSYS ASAS. The structural strength and deformation is
evaluated to investigate an ultimate structural safety and serviceability
of hybrid substructure for various soil conditions. The first few natural
frequencies of substructure are heavily influenced by the wind turbine.
Therefore, the modal analysis is carried out through GH-Bladed to
investigate the resonance between the wind turbine and the hybrid
substructure.
KEY WORDS: offshore wind energy, hybrid substructure,
ANSYS ASAS, modal analysis, structural analysis
INTRODUCTION
The offshore wind energy has gained attention from many countries to
find alternative and reliable energy sources since the potential of
offshore wind energy has been recognized for long and mostly
associated with a nondestructive renewable energy. Therefore, many
offshore wind farms are in the planning phase. Particularly in Europe,
wind farms are planned to be established at a greater water depth with
larger turbines. In order to increase the gross generation of wind
turbines, the size of a tower and a rotor-nacelle becomes larger. In other
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words, the substructure for offshore wind turbines is strongly
influenced by the effect of wave forces as the size of substructure
increases. This new criteria will require new concepts of foundation. So
far, less than twenty tripods have been installed in Europe. Thirty more
jacket foundations are being installed at the Ormonde wind farms.
Various studies have been conducted on wind energy (Jan et al, 2009,
Jonkman, 2009, Lozano-Minguez et al, 2011). FØreland et al.(2012)
designed mono-pile, gravity based structure, jacket and three piles fixed
support structures for 2.5, 5 and 10MW wind turbines for different
water depths in order to quantify economic differences of wind turbine
foundation systems for the North Sea environmental condition.
In the present study the hybrid substructure, which is composed of a
multi-cylinder having different radius near free surface and a gravity
substructure at the bottom of multi-cylinder, is suggested to reduce the
wave forces (Park et al., 2014). In addition, since a large offshore wind
turbine has a heavy dead load, the reaction forces on the substructure
become severe, thus very firm foundations should be required.
Therefore, pile-soil interaction model should be cleverly chosen
according to analysis type with performing a sensitivity analysis. Some
guidelines such as DNV, API and GL are recommended that the full
nonlinear model must be used for extreme load cases and foundation
design. In the present study the ENSOFT Group V7.0 is used to
calculate the stiffness matrices on the pile-soil interaction conditions.
Using the stiffness matrices and the loads at TP, which is obtained from
GH-Bladed, the structural analysis of the hybrid substructure is carried
out through ANSYS ASAS. The structural strength and deformation is
evaluated to investigate an ultimate structural safety and serviceability
of hybrid substructure for various soil conditions. The first few natural
frequencies of substructure are heavily influenced by the wind turbine.
Therefore, the first natural frequency of substructure is to be within the
soft-stiff range in between the rotor frequency (1P) and the blade
passing frequency (3P) ranges. Therefore, the modal analysis is carried
out through GH-Bladed to investigate the resonance between the wind
turbine and the hybrid substructure. It is found that the suggested
hybrid substructure can be an effective substructure for reducing
hydrodynamic effects and construction costs in the southern-western
sea of South Korea
NUMERICAL MODEL AND ENVIRONMENTAL
CONDITION