• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.93-100
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• 2022

The collision behaviors of the tripod and jacket structures, which are considered as support structures for offshore wind towers at the Southwest sea of Korea, were compared by nonlinear dynamic analysis. These structures, designed for the 3 MW capacity of the wind towers, were modeled using shell elements with nonlinear behaviors, and the tower structure including the nacelle, was modeled by beam and mass elements with elastic materials. The mass of the tripod structure was approximately 1.66 times that of the jacket structure. A barge and commercial ship were modeled as the collision vessel. To consider the tidal conditions in the region, the collision levels were varied from -3.5 m to 3.5 m of the mean sea level. In addition, the collision behaviors were evaluated as increasing the minimum collision energy at the collision speed (=2.6 m/s) of each vessel by four times, respectively. Accordingly, the plastic energy dissipation ratios of the vessel were increased as the stiffness of collision region. The deformations in the wind tower occurred from vibration to collapse of conditions. The tripod structure demonstrated more collision resistance than the jacket structure. This is considered to be due to the concentrated centralized rigidity and amount of steel utilized.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.375-384
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• 2015

Recently, construction sites of offshore wind power tend to move from shallow water to deep water. From this tendency, the research on the support structure of offshore wind power in deep water will be a key issue. In this study, precast concrete block and suction pile are applied to existing jacket structure. In order to reduce the vibration of this structure, the tuned liquid damper is also applied in the precast concrete block. The applicability of the suggested jacket structure is evaluated by finite element analysis. And the vibration tends to decrease about 5%, when the tuned liquid damper is applied.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.218-226
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• 2014

Since the support structure of an offshore wind turbine has to withstand severe environmental loads such as wind, wave, and seismic loads during its entire service life, the need for a robust and reliable design increases, along with the need for a cost effective design. In addition, a robust and reliable support structure contributes to the high availability of a wind turbine and low maintenance costs. From this point of view, this paper presents a design process that includes design optimization and reliability analysis. First, the jacket structure of the NREL 5-MW offshore wind turbine is optimized to minimize the weight and stresses, while satisfying the design requirements. Second, the reliability of the optimum design is evaluated and compared with that of the initial design. Although the present study results in a new optimum shape for a jacket support structure with reduced weight and increased reliability, the authors suggest that the optimum design has to be accompanied by a reliability analysis during the design process, as well as reliability based design optimization if needed.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.263-270
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• 2021

In this study, a reliability-based design optimization of a 130-m class fixed-type offshore platform, to be installed in the North Sea, was carried out, while considering environmental, material, and manufacturing uncertainties to enhance its structural safety and economic aspects. For the reliability analysis, and reliability-based design optimization of the structural integrity, unity check values (defined as the ratio between working and allowable stress, for axial, bending, and shear stresses), of the members of the offshore platform were considered as constraints. Weight of the supporting jacket structure was minimized to reduce the manufacturing cost of the offshore platform. Statistical characteristics of uncertainties were defined based on observed and measured data references. Reliability analysis and reliability-based design optimization of a jacket-type offshore structure were computationally burdensome due to the large number of members; therefore, we suggested a method for variable screening, based on the importance of their output responses, to reduce the dimension of the problem. Furthermore, a deterministic design optimization was carried out prior to the reliability-based design optimization, to improve overall computational efficiency. Finally, the optimal design obtained was compared with the conventional rule-based offshore platform design in terms of safety and cost.