• Wind and Structures
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.625-639
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• 2015

Monopiles have been most widely used for supporting offshore wind turbines (OWTs) in shallow water areas. However, multi-member lattice-type structures such as jackets and tripods are also considered good alternatives to monopile foundations for relatively deep water areas with depth ranging from 25-50 m owing to their technical and economic feasibility. Moreover, jacket structures have been popular in the oil and gas industry for a long time. However, several unsolved technical issues still persist in the utilization of multi-member lattice-type supporting structures for OWTs; these problems include pile-soil-interaction (PSI) effects, realization of dynamically stable designs to avoid resonances, and quick and safe installation in remote areas. In this study, the effects of PSI on the dynamic properties of bottom-fixed OWTs, including monopile-, tripod- and jacket-supported OWTs, were investigated intensively. The tower and substructure were modeled using conventional beam elements with added mass, and pile foundations were modeled with beam and nonlinear spring elements. The effects of PSI on the dynamic properties of the structure were evaluated using Monte Carlo simulation considering the load amplitude, scouring depth, and the uncertainties in soil properties.

• 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.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.609-623
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• 2015

Seismic reliability analysis of a jacket-type support structure for an offshore wind turbine was performed. When defining the limit state function by using the dynamic response of the support structure, a number of dynamic calculations must be performed in a First-Order Reliability Method (FORM). That means analysis costs become too high. In this paper, a new reliability analysis approach using a static response is used. The dynamic effect of the response is considered by introducing a new parameter called the Peak Response Factor (PRF). The probability distribution of PRF can be estimated by using the peak value in the dynamic response. The probability distribution of the PRF was obtained by analyzing dynamic responses during a set of ground motions. A numerical example is presented to compare the proposed approach with the conventional static response-based approach.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.2A
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• pp.97-108
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• 2012

Dynamic responses were measured using long-term monitoring system for Uldolmok tidal current pilot power plant which is one of jacket-type offshore structures. Among the dynamic quantities, the tilt angle was chosen because the low frequency response components can be precisely measured by dynamic tiltmeter, and the natural frequencies and modal damping ratio were successfully identified using proposed LS-FDD (least squared frequency domain decomposition) method. And the effects of tidal height and tidal current velocity on the variation of natural frequencies and modal damping ratios were investigated in time and frequency domain. Also the non-parametric models were tested to model the relationship between tidal conditions and modal properties such as natural frequencies and damping ratios.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.32 no.6A
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• pp.389-398
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• 2012

In this study, structural strain responses of the jacket-type Uldolmok tidal current power plant structure under severe tidal environments were measured and analyzed using long-term measurement system during construction and also operation. It was observed that there were significant changes in strain responses at the steps of jacket lifting, block loading, pile ejection and insertion. Strains due to dead loads and tidal loads were analyzed before and after removal of a jacket leg, and it was also found that the strains due to dead load were much significantly changed after jacket leg removal. From the measurement data during operation, it was found that strain responses were fluctuated with M2 and M4 tidal periods and also relatively short period of about 10 min due to the peculiar tidal characteristics in the Uldolmok strait. Finally, the neural network-based non-parametric estimation models were investigated to build up the signal-based structural damage monitoring system.

• 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 Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.60-65
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• 2014

A meteorological(met) tower is the first structure installed during the planning stages of offshore wind farm. The purpose of this paper is to design the met tower with tripod bucket type support structure and to install the sensors. The support structure consist of a central steel shaft connected to three cylindrical steel suction buckets which is more cheaper than monopile or jacket type. And the remote wind condition sensors and marine monitoring equipment, including adcp, pressure type tide gauge, wave height sensors, and scour sensors, remote power supply are installed. The manufactured met tower constructed on sea area which is in front of Gasa island. All of functions of met tower showed normal operation conditions and the wind data got by remote data collection system successfully.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.3 s.29
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• pp.9-18
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• 1998

An improved evaluation method of load-carrying capacity for the large-scaled offshore structures, which subjected to the axial force and bending moments simultaneously at the piles, was suggested with reliability analysis and advanced working stress method. Reliability analysis requires the fracture probability and safety factor(${beta}$) for each of forces and the load-carrying capacity due to combined action of axial force and bending moments from $P_n - {beta}$ Curve. The combined equation due to those forces, which suggested by the Korean Specification for the marine structure, was derived for the advanced working stress method and applied to evaluate the load-carrying capacity of jacket-type dolphin piers.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.57-66
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• 2023

In order to understand the economic feasibility of an offshore wind farm, this paper analyzed the differences in LCOE (levelized cost of energy) according to the support type and construction method of the substructure in terms of LCOE and sensitivity analysis was conducted according to the main components of LCOE. As for the site to be studied, the Southwest Offshore Wind Farm was selected, and the capital expenditures were calculated according to the size of the offshore wind farm and the installation unit. As a result of the sensitivity analysis, major components showed high sensitivity to availability, turbine related cost, weighted average cost of capital and balance of system related cost. Moreover, the post-piling jacket method, which was representatively applied to the substructure of the offshore wind farm in Korea, was selected as a basic plan to calculate the capital expenditures, and then the capital expenditures of the pre-piling jacket method and the tripod method were calculated and compared. As a result of analyzing the LCOE, it was confirmed that the pre-piling jacket method of the supporting structure lowers the LCOE and improves economic feasibility as the installation number of turbines increases.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.291-309
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• 2020

To study oceanic and meteorological problems related to climate change, Korea has been operating several ocean research stations (ORSs). In 2011, the Gageocho ORS was attacked by Typhoon Muifa, and its structural members and several observation devices were severely damaged. After this event, the Gageocho ORS was rehabilitated with 5 m height to account for 100-yr extreme wave height, and the vibration measurement system was equipped to monitor the structural vibrational characteristics including natural frequencies and modal damping ratios. In this study, a mass reallocation method is presented for structural model updating of the Gageocho ORS based on the experimentally identified natural frequencies. A preliminary finite element (FE) model was constructed based on design drawings, and several of the candidate baseline FE models were manually built, taking into account the different structural conditions such as corroded thickness. Among these candidate baseline FE models, the most reasonable baseline FE model was selected by comparing the differences between the identified and calculated natural frequencies; the most suitable baseline FE model was updated based on the identified modal properties, and by using the pattern search method, which is one of direct search optimization methods. The mass reallocation method is newly proposed as a means to determine the equivalent mass quantities along the height and in a floor. It was found that the natural frequencies calculated based on the updated FE model was very close to the identified natural frequencies. In conclusion, it is expected that these results, which were obtained by updating a baseline FE model, can be useful for establishing the reference database for jacket-type offshore structures, and assessing the structural integrity of the Gageocho ORS.