Load and Structural Analysis of an Offshore Wind-Turbine Foundation with Weight Control Functionality

Abstract

Offshore wind turbines are divided into an upper wind turbine and a lower support structure. Offshore wind turbine system is required to secure high reliability for a variety of external environmental conditions compared to ground wind turbines because of additional periodic loads due to ocean wave and current effects. In this study, extreme load analyses have been conducted for the designed offshore wind turbine foundation with weight control functionality using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) then structural analyses have been also conducted to investigate the structural design requirement.