• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.382-392
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• 2021

In recent years, floating offshore wind turbines have attracted more attention as a new renewable energy resource while bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines reach their limit of water depth. Various projects have been proposed with the rapid increase in installed floating wind power capacity, but the economic aspect remains as a biggest issue. To figure out sensible approaches for saving costs, a comparison analysis of the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) between floating and bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines was carried out. The LCOE was reviewed from a social perspective and a cost breakdown and a literature review analysis were used to itemize the costs into its various components in each level of power plant and system integration. The results show that the highest proportion in capital expenditure of a floating offshore wind turbine results in the substructure part, which is the main difference from a bottom-fixed wind turbine. A floating offshore wind turbine was found to have several advantages over a bottom-fixed wind turbine. Although a similarity in operation and maintenance cost structure is revealed, a floating wind turbine still has the benefit of being able to be maintained at a seaport. After emphasizing the cost-reduction advantages of a floating wind turbine, its LCOE outlook is provided to give a brief overview in the following years. Finally, some estimated cost drivers, such as economics of scale, wind turbine rating, a floater with mooring system, and grid connection cost, are outlined as proposals for floating wind LCOE reduction.

• Journal of Wind Energy
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.14-20
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• 2023

In this study, using the commercial software Bladed developed by DNV for integrated load calculation of wind turbines, the generation of seismic waves according to soil type based on Korea's domestic regulations, and load calculation considering earthquake conditions were performed according to the IEC standard, and load in the main coordinate system of the fixed offshore wind turbine was calculated. By comparing the calculated load with the design load of the fixed offshore wind turbine, the effect of earthquake loads according to soil type on the main components of fixed offshore wind turbines was evaluated. As a result of the evaluation, when an earthquake load on a wind turbine is considered, the effect of the earthquake load is related to the natural frequency of the major components and the magnitude of the adjacent acceleration in the earthquake response spectrum, and the earthquake load differs according to soil type and may exceed the design load.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.78-87
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• 2014

Recently the offshore wind turbine development is requested to be installed off south-west coast and Jeju island in Korea. Reliable and robust support structures are required to meet the demand on the offshore wind turbine in harsh and rapidly varying environmental conditions. Monopile is the most preferred substructure in shallow water with long term experiences from the offshore gas and oil industries. This paper presents an optimum design of a monopile connection with grouted transition piece (TP) for the reliable and cost-effective design purposes. First, design loads are simulated for a 5 MW offshore wind turbine in site conditions off the southwest coast of Korea. Second, sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the design sensitivity of geometry and material parameters of monopile connection based on the ultimate and fatigue capacities according to DNV standards. Next, optimization is conducted to minimize the total mass and resulted in 30% weight reduction and the optimum geometry and material properties of the monopile substructure of the fixed offshore wind turbine.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.333-350
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• 2017

Differing from the fixed-type, the dynamic motion of floating-type offshore wind turbines is very sensitive to wind and wave excitations. Thus, the sensing and monitoring of its motion is important to evaluate the dynamic responses to the external excitation. In this context, a monitoring system for sensing and processing the wind-induced dynamic motion of spar-type floating offshore wind turbine is developed in this study. It is developed by integrating a 1/00 scale model of 2.5MW spar-type floating offshore wind turbine, water basin equipped with the wind generator, sensing and data acquisition systems, real-time CompactRIO controller and monitoring program. The scale model with the upper rotatable blades is installed within the basin by means of three mooring lines, and its translational and rotational motions are detected by 3-axis inclinometer and accelerometers and gyroscope. The detected motion signals are processed using a real-time controller CompactRIO to calculate the acceleration and tilting angle of nacelle and the attitude of floating platform. The developed monitoring system is demonstrated and validated by measuring and evaluating the time histories and trajectories of nacelle and platform motions for three different wind velocities and for eight different fairlead positions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.416-422
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• 2009

Offshore wind turbine are subjected to more various loads than general land structures and the stability of structures is supported by the piles driven deeply in the subsoil. So it is more important for offshore structures to consider seabed soil-structure interaction than land structures. And the response of a fixed offshore structure supported by pile foundations is affected by resist dynamics lateral loading due to wave forces and ocean environmental loads. In this study, offshore wind tower response are calculated in the time domain using a finite element package(ANSYS 11.0). Several parameters affecting the vibration characteristics of the natural frequency and mode shape and the tower response have been investigated.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.171-179
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• 2015

Usually, in case of wind turbines on land, there are a lot of constraints for installation such as the insufficient installation space and noise pollution. On March 11, 2011, a nuclear leakage accident occurred due to the tsunami caused by the earthquake in Japan and then there have been a rapidly growing interest in floating offshore wind turbines. In this study, an optimization of the substructure of a semi-submersible type floating offshore wind turbine was made. Design variables were set and design alternatives were fixed. UOU-FAST was used for motion analysis in combined environmental conditions of waves and wind. Response Amplitude Operators(RAOs) were compared between the design alternatives.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.38.2-38.2
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• 2011

A large number of offshore wind turbines with fixed foundations have been installed in water depths up to 30 meters supporting 3-5MW wind turbines. Some floating platform concepts of offshore wind turbines were designed to be suitable for deployment in water depths greater than 60 meters. However the optimal design of this system in water depth 50 meters remains unknown. In this paper, a 5-MW wind turbine located on a TLP type platform was suggested for installation in this water depth. It is moored by a taut mooring line. For controlling the wind turbine always be operated at the upwind direction, one yaw controlling was attached at the tower. To study motion characteristics of this platform, a model was built with a 1/128 scale ratio. The model test was carried out in various conditions, including waves, winds and rotating rotor effect in the Ocean Engineering Wide Tank of the University Of Ulsan (UOU). The characteristic motions of the TLP platform were captured and the effective RAOs were obtained.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.347-359
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• 2021

This study aims to evaluate the dynamic responses of the jacket-type offshore wind turbine using FAST software (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence). A systematic series of simulation cases of a 5 MW jacket-type offshore wind turbine, including wind-only, wave-only, wind & wave load cases are conducted. The dynamic responses of the wind turbine structure are obtained, including the structure displacement, rotor speed, thrust force, nacelle acceleration, bending moment at the tower bottom, and shear force on the jacket leg. The calculated time-domain results are transformed to frequency domain results using FFT and the environmental load with more impact on each dynamic response is identified. It is confirmed that the dynamic displacements of the wind turbine are dominant in the wave frequency under the incident wave alone condition, and the rotor thrust, nacelle acceleration, and bending moment at the bottom of the tower exhibit high responses in the natural frequency band of the wind turbine. In the wind only condition, all responses except the vertical displacement of the wind turbine are dominant at three times the rotor rotation frequency (considering the number of blades) generated by the wind. In a combined external force with wind and waves, it was observed that the horizontal displacement is dominant by the wind load. Additionally, the bending moment on the tower base is highly affected by the wind. The shear force of the jacket leg is basically influenced by the wave loads, but it can be affected by both the wind and wave loads especially under the turbulent wind and irregular wave conditions.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.59-66
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• 2013

The foundation of offshore wind energy system is generally assumed to be fixed-ended in system analysis for the convenience of calculation and, correspondingly, it might lead a conservative design. If soil-foundation interaction get involved with the analysis, the system characteristics such as natural frequency, shear force, moment and displacement are expected to differ from those of fixed-ended case. In this study, the analysis have been conducted to identify how the response of offshore wind turbine varies upon considering the foundation flexibility with soil-foundation interaction. The model taking account of the flexibility of foundation was compared with fixed-ended model at the seabed. The flexibilities of foundation were obtained by coupled spring model at the seabed and Winkler Spring Model with soil depth. As a result, the first mode of the whole system with the Winkler Spring Model was decreased relative to that with the fixed-ended model. The results showed that the effect of foundation flexibility should be considered when designing the offshore wind energy system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.81-87
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• 2018

The seismic response, the natural frequencies and the mode shapes of an offshore wind turbine with twisted tripod substructure subject to various pile-ground interactions are discussed in this paper. The acceleration responses of the tower head by four historical earthquakes are presented as the seismic response, while the other loads are assumed as ambient loads. For the pile-ground interactions, the fixed, linear and nonlinear models are employed to simulate the interactions and the p-y, t-z and Q-z curves are utilized for the linear and nonlinear models. The curves are designed for stiff, medium and soft clays, and thus, the seven types of the pile-ground interactions are used to compare the seismic response, the acceleration of the tower head. The mode shapes are similar to each other for all types of pile-ground interactions. The natural frequencies, however, are almost same for the three clay types of the linear model, while the natural frequency of the fixed support model is quite different from that of the linear interaction model. The wind turbine with the fixed support model has the biggest magnitude of acceleration. In addition, the nonlinear model is more sensitive to the stiffness of clay than the linear pile-ground interaction model.