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Procedia Environmental Sciences 12 (2012) 856 – 863

2011 International Conference on Environmental Science and Engineering

(ICESE 2011)

Test on the Dynamic Response of the Offshore Wind Turbine

Structure with the Large-Scale Bucket Foundation
Puyang Zhang1,2, Hongyan Ding1,2, Conghuan Le3, Xianqing Liu1
1
School of Civil Engineering, Tianjin University; Tianjin, 300072, China
2
Key Laboratory of Coast Civil Structure Safety (Tianjin University), Ministry of Education, Tianjin, 300072, China
3
State Key Laboratory of Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116023, China

Abstract

The offshore wind turbines with large-scale bucket foundation is installed in sea area of Qidong city, Jiangsu
province of China. Wind tower is high-rise structure, he study on dynamic characteristics of tower structure is very
important. The acceleration time interval curve can be obtained under the condition of artificial excitation and natural
wind through installing accelerometers , charge amplifiers, data acquisition instrument and so on, on bucket
foundation and tower tube. The natural frequency of the tower can be obtained through low-pass filter analysis and
Fourier transformation to the acceleration time interval curves. After analysis, the natural frequency of the tower is
between 0.3~0.4Hz. Through analysis on the acceleration time interval curve under the wind force function whether
under working condition or shut-down condition, import information on the wind-induced response of the structure
can be obtained.

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©2011
2011Published
Publishedby Elsevier B.V. Selection
by Elsevier and/or peer-review
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Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Keywords :Offshore wind turbine, bucket foundation, dynamic characteristics, natural frequency, test on site.

1.Introduction

The integrated wind turbine structure with large-scale bucket foundation was installed on October of
2010 in Qidong city of Jiangsu province. The foundation can be fabricated onshore and self-floating to
the construction site. Wind turbine structure is a high-rise structure, which will be vibrating excited by
wind and wave dynamic loadings. In the paper, the testing data of tower and foundation structures are
analyzed to obtain the natural frequencies and the wind-induced response of the structure, which can

1878-0296 © 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of National University of Singapore.
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. doi:10.1016/j.proenv.2012.01.359
 Puyang Zhang et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 12 (2012) 856 – 863 857

provide basic information for the subsequent structural design and checking.

Fig. 1 the structure of wind turbine with the large-scale foundation

2.Layout of Testing points

The parameters fro tower structure are as follows: tower height of 78 m; the outer diameters at the
bottom of 4.4m; the external diameters on the top of 2.7m; materials is used of steel; weight of 1290kN.
The main measuring instruments are five acceleration sensors, which are set as the top of foundation
(point 1), flange between foundation and tower (point 2), the bottom, middle and top of tower (point 3,
point 4 and point 5). The X and Y directions are horizontal and the Z direction is vertical for tower.

3.Natural frequency of structure

3.1.The Artificial Excitation Method

The primary process of the method of artificial excitation to obtain the natural frequency is as follows:
incentives at a distance of 30m and 90m at the tower from the sea level firstly; data collectives of five
measuring points; fast Fourier transform of data to obtain the first-order natural frequency[1]. The related
figures are shown below.
3

2
Acceleration(m/s )

1
2

-1

-2

-3

2 .2 2 .3 2 .4 2 .5 2 .6 2 .7 2 .8 2 .9 3 .0 3 .1
T im e (s )

Fig. 2 the decay curve of point 5

858 Puyang Zhang et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 12 (2012) 856 – 863

0 .2 0

0 .1 5

Acceleration(m/s2)
0 .1 0

0 .0 5

0 .0 0

-0 .0 5

-0 .1 0
2 .2 2 .4 2 .6 2 .8 3 .0 3 .2 3 .4 3 .6
tim e (s )

Fig. 3 the low-pass filter curve of point 5

F re q u e n c y (H z )
-4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10
500
0
-5 0 0
Angle(deg)

-1 0 0 0
-1 5 0 0
-2 0 0 0
-2 5 0 0
-3 0 0 0
-3 5 0 0

0 .0 2 5 75 5 .4 6 8 7 5
-0 .7 8 1 2 5 1 .5 6 2 5
0 .0 2 0 8 .5 9 3 7 5

0
Amplitude

0 .0 1 5

0 .0 1 0
-3 .1 2 5 3 .1 2 5
7 .0 3 1 2 5
0 .0 0 5

0 .0 0 0
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
F re q u e n c y (H z )

Fig. 4 the amplitude and phase angle curve of point 5

It can be seen from Figure 4, the first natural frequency is 0.78125Hz at point 5. By the same method,
the first natural frequencies are 0.78125Hz, 0.75684Hz, 0.75684Hz at point 2,3 and 4, respectively. So,
the first natural frequency is between 0.75Hz to 0.79Hz.

3.2.Natural Frequency with Non-Working State

When the fan is in a non-working condition, according to the five-point acceleration time curves, the
natural frequencies are also obtained. First, curves of acceleration versus time are low-pass filtered, and
then the amplitude and phase angle curve is plot by the Fourier transform. At last, the first order natural
frequency is obtained from the amplification effect spectrum of the structure, which is shown as the
following figures.
0 .6

0 .4
Acceleration(m/s )
2

0 .2

0 .0

- 0 .2

- 0 .4

0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0
T im e ( s )

Fig. 5 the low-pass filter curve

 Puyang Zhang et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 12 (2012) 856 – 863 859

F re q u e n c y (H z )
0 .0 0 .2 0 .4 0 .6 0 .8 1 .0 1 .2 1 .4 1 .6 1 .8
200
0
-2 0 0

Angle(deg)
-4 0 0
-6 0 0
-8 0 0
-1 0 0 0
-1 2 0 0
-1 4 0 0
-1 6 0 0

0 .1 0

0 .0 8

Amplitude
0 .0 6

0 .0 4

0 .0 2

0 .0 0
0 .0 0 .2 0 .4 0 .6 0 .8 1 .0 1 .2 1 .4 1 .6 1 .8
F re q u e n c y (H z )

Fig. 6 the amplitude and phase angle curve

2 0 0 0 0 0 0
A fa c to r

1 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 .7 5 6 8 4

1 0 0 0 0 0 0
A factor

5 0 0 0 0 0 0 .7 8 1 2 5
0 .4 7 6 0 7
0 .3 9 0 6 3 0 .5 3 7 1 1

0 .0 0 .2 0 .4 0 .6 0 .8 1
F re q u e n c y (H z )

Fig. 7 amplification effect spectrum curve

It can been seen from figure 7, that the first natural frequency is 0.39063Hz.

3.3.Natural Frequency with Working State

Similarly, according to measuring the acceleration curve, the natural frequency is obtained. With the
same method for data processing, the corresponding curves are as follows:
12

10

8
Veloctity(m/s)

0 50 100 150 200

T im e (s )

Fig. 8 wind velocity verse time

2.0

1.5
A factor

1.0

0.5 0.79834
0.30273

0.0

0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Frequency(Hz)
860 Puyang Zhang et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 12 (2012) 856 – 863

Fig. 9 amplification effect spectrum curve

From the figure 9 of amplification of the spectrum, the structure of the first-order natural frequency is
0.30273Hz.

4.The dynamic properties of wind tower structures by test analysis

4.1.Non-working State

In shutdown state of the fan, the natural wind speed time curves can be applied to the tower structural
analysis. In general, a wind speed time curve is simulated by using Davenport spectrum [2]. The
corresponding acceleration curves of measuring points are as follows:
1 0

6
Velocity(m/s)

0 5 0 1 0 0 1 5 0 2 0 0
T im e ( s )

Fig. 10 wind velocity time curve

C h a n n e l 3 -Z
0 .0 0 6 C h a n n e l 2 -Y
C h a n n e l 1 -X
0 .0 0 4

0 .0 0 2

0 .0 0 0
Acceleration(m/s )
2

-0 .0 0 2

-0 .0 0 4

-0 .0 0 6

-0 .0 0 8

-0 .0 1 0

-0 .0 1 2

-0 .0 1 4

-0 .0 1 6
-5 0 5 1 0 1 5 2 0 2 5 3 0 3 5 4 0 4 5 5 0 5 5
T im e ( s )

Fig.11 the acceleration time curve of point 1

0 .0 6 5
C h a n n e l 6 -Z
0 .0 6 0 C h a n n e l 5 -Y
0 .0 5 5 C h a n n e l 4 -X
0 .0 5 0
0 .0 4 5
0 .0 4 0
0 .0 3 5
Acceleration(m/s )
2

0 .0 3 0
0 .0 2 5
0 .0 2 0
0 .0 1 5
0 .0 1 0
0 .0 0 5
0 .0 0 0
- 0 .0 0 5
- 0 .0 1 0
- 0 .0 1 5
- 0 .0 2 0
- 0 .0 2 5
- 0 .0 3 0
-5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55
T im e ( s )

Fig.12 the acceleration time curve of point 2

 Puyang Zhang et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 12 (2012) 856 – 863 861
( )
C h a n n e l 9 -Z
0 .0 5 C h a n n e l 8 -Y
C h a n n e l 7 -X

0 .0 0

Acceleration(m/s )
2
-0 .0 5

-0 .1 0

-0 .1 5

-0 .2 0
-5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55
T im e ( s )

Fig.13 the acceleration time curve of point 3

0 .0 4
C h a n n e l 1 2 -Z
C h a n n e l 1 1 -Y
C h a n n e l 1 0 -X
0 .0 3

0 .0 2
Acceleration(m/s )
2

0 .0 1

0 .0 0

-0 .0 1

-0 .0 2

-5 0 5 1 0 1 5 2 0 2 5 3 0 3 5 4 0 4 5 5 0 5 5
T im e ( s )

Fig.14 the acceleration time curve of point 4

C h a n n e l 1 5 -Z
0 .0 1 5 C h a n n e l 1 4 -Y
C h a n n e l 1 3 -X
0 .0 1 0

0 .0 0 5
Acceleration(m/s )
2

0 .0 0 0

-0 .0 0 5

-0 .0 1 0

-0 .0 1 5

-0 .0 2 0

-0 .0 2 5

-0 .0 3 0
-5 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55
T im e ( s )

Fig.15 the acceleration time curve of point 5

4.2.Working State

Under working state, the measured wind speed time curves, acceleration curves and the corresponding
active power grid are as follows (data monitoring time: December 2010):
862 Puyang Zhang et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 12 (2012) 856 – 863

Fig.16 wind time curve

Fig. 17 acceleration time curve

Fig.18 wind power time curve

5.Conclusion

By the acceleration sensor placed on the tower, the acceleration versus time of wind turbine structure
can be obtained in artificial and natural wind excitation. The first natural frequency of the structure can
be obtained by low-pass filtering and Fourier transform of the measured acceleration versus time. With
the analysis method, the structure's first natural frequency is between 0.3Hz to 0.4Hz. From the natural
acceleration versus time of structure, the wind-induced vibration accelerations are relatively small, but
there will be sudden increasing phenomenon of the acceleration during the working condition, which
should be paid more attention in design processing of the foundation.
 Puyang Zhang et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 12 (2012) 856 – 863 863

References

[1] TAN Dong mei, YAO San, QU Wei Lian. “State of Modal Parameter Identification”. Journal of Wuhan Urban
Construction Institute, 2002, 19(3):73~78
[2] XU Xu, LIU Yu, ZHOU Xiao Juan. “Finite Element Analysis for Wind Induced Responses of A High-rising Structure
Based on Wind Load Histories Simulation”. Chinese Quarterly of Mechanics, 2009, 30(2):304~310.