3 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Offshore wind turbines (OWTs) experience a range of two-way and partial one-way cyclic load conditions during their operational lifetime. Cyclic loading with a non-zero mean can lead to ratcheting in the soil, which causes the structure to accumulate displacement and rotation over repeated loading, which can compromise the design limit requirements. In this paper a novel ratcheting model is proposed using a Winkler approach with Masing rules and controlled with just one parameter. The model is validated against 5 experimental setups and 17 long term load tests up to 10 5 cycles, and predicts very well the experimental response, performing comparably with other existing ratcheting models. An OWT from North Hoyle wind farm is also modelled and it is found that the closer the driving frequency is to the resonant frequency, the greater the ratcheting response. This means that for soft-stiff type OWTs, where there is little tolerance between the resonant frequency and driving frequencies, it is crucial to consider the potential of ratcheting during the design phase. The model presented here provides a simple and effective method of predicting future ratcheting with a focus on ease of calibration and implementation into existing numerical analysis tools.

Original languageEnglish
Article number112625
JournalOcean Engineering
Volume266
Issue numberPart 1
Early online date11 Oct 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Dec 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the University Research Studentship Award ( EPSRC, UK URSA, grant code BE-AR1XST) which has supported the work presented in this paper. No data or codes are supplied with the paper, as supporting equations are given.

Keywords

  • Cyclic loading
  • Offshore wind turbines
  • Piles
  • Ratcheting
  • p–y model

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Ocean Engineering

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