• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.31-36
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• 2021

Estimation of accumulated rotational angles and settlements are critical in design of wind turbine foundation. However, there have been few exploring the response of bucket foundation to long-term cyclic loading. We performed a series of three-dimensional finite element analyses of bucket foundations installed in sands. An empirical formulation which captures the stiffness degradation observed in cyclic triaxial tests implemented into the finite element analysis in the form of a user subroutine. Using the stiffness degradation model the accumulated rotation and displacement of bucket foundation were calculated. Additionally, important factors affecting the response under cyclic loading were assessed.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.31-36
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• 2022

This paper presents the measuring process of dynamic properties of offshore wind power foundation and provides consideration of each step. This Guideline enables to maintain consistent measuring procedure and therefore increase the reliability of test results. Small scaled suction bucket foundation was fabricated to represent the commercial support structure installation mechanism and two cases(free-free, free-fixed) of dynamic tests were performed at workshop. From the tests, the importance of dynamic properties of connection part between suction bucket and tower was figured out. More over, types and configuration of measuring devices are recommended which can help find the natural frequency of wind turbine foundation correctly. In field test, it was found that the natural frequency of suction bucket foundation was increased linearly with the penetration depth due to the confining effect of ambient soil. Meanwhile, it was not easy to get an enough excitation force with normal impact hammer because the N.F of suction bucket model was in the lower range of 0 Hz ~ 5 Hz. Therefore, new excitation method which has enough force and can excite lower frequency range was devised. This study will help develop safety check procedure of suction bucket foundation in field at each installation stage using the N.F measurement.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.585-598
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• 2022

The monopile-friction wheel hybrid foundation is an innovative solution for offshore structures which are mainly subjected to large lateral eccentric load induced by winds, waves, and currents during their service life. This paper presents an extensive numerical analysis to investigate the lateral load and moment bearing performances of hybrid foundation, considering various potential influencing factors in sand-overlaying-clay soil deposits, with the complex lateral loads being simplified into a resultant lateral load acting at a certain height above the mudline. Finite element models are generated and validated against experimental data where very good agreements are obtained. The failure mechanisms of hybrid foundations under lateral loading are illustrated to demonstrate the effect of the friction wheel in the hybrid system. Parametric study shows that the load bearing performances of the hybrid foundation is significantly dependent of wheel diameter, pile embedment depth, internal friction angle of sand, loading eccentricity (distance from the load application point to the ground level), and the thickness of upper sandy layer. Simplified empirical formulae is proposed based on the numerical results to predict the corresponding lateral load and moment bearing capacities of the hybrid foundation for design application.

• Advances in Computational Design
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.191-217
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• 2023

The objective of this study was to evaluate the foundation structure of a 3.6-MW wind turbine generator (WTG) installed offshore in Western Korea. The ultimate limit state (ULS) and fatigue limit state (FLS) of the multi-pile steel foundation (MSF) installed at the Saemangeum offshore wind farm were structurally investigated using the finite element (FE) software, ANSYS Workbench 19.0. According to the ULS analysis, no plastic deformation was found in any of the components constituting the substructure. At the same time, the maximal stress value reached the calculation limit of 335 MPa. According to the FLS results, the stress concentration factor (SCF) ranged from 1.00 to 1.88 in all components. The results of this study can be applied to determine the optimal design for MSFs.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.281-287
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• 2017

In the case of fixed offshore wind turbines, scouring phenomena have been reported around sub-structures as a result of currents, which seriously damage the structural stability. A parametric study of the various sub-structures of a fixed offshore wind turbine was performed to investigate their effects on the scouring phenomena. For a suction bucket foundation and monopile, the effects of the stick-up heights and water depth were studied, respectively. The open source libraries, called OpenFOAM, were used to simulate a violent flow around a foundation. The numerical methods were selected based on a two-dimensional analysis of a suction bucket. Based on the results for various stick-up heights, a larger scouring region was observed with an increase in the stick-up height because of the down-wash flow around a foundation. Based on the results for various monopile water depths, the water depth had an insignificant effect on the scouring.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.18 no.8
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• pp.5-15
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• 2017

To perform an integrated load analysis carried out to evaluate the stability evaluation of wind turbine generators, the six degree-of-freedom stiffness matrix of foundation, which describes relationships between loads and displacement, is needed. Since the foundation stiffness should accurately reflect the shape of foundation and the condition of soil, it is necessary to calculate the stiffness of the bucket foundation that considers the elasto-plastic behavior of the soil. In this study, finite element analyses were performed for a range of soils and shapes of bucket foundations to estimate the foundation stiffness. Normalized stiffness curves are developed from respective numerical simulations. Proposed results are considered to be useful because they can be directly applied in the design.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.236-243
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• 2013

Offshore wind turbines has to be proved against accidental events such as ship collision. In this study, ship collision fragility analysis of offshore wind turbine is done. Dynamic collision analysis is accomplished by considering soil foundation interaction and fluid structure interaction. Uncertainties due to ship weight and speed, angle are also considered. By analyzing dynamic response of offshore wind turbine, fragility curves are obtained for different damage levels. They can be used for restricting boat speed around the wind turbine and allowable size of the boat for inspection and for other purposes. Results of the fragility, it was confirmed fragility of collision speed of bulk ship of 30,000DWT and 850ton barge ship.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.63 no.3
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• pp.303-315
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• 2017

This paper presents a review on getting a Weighted Multi-Objective Optimization (WMO) of Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) parameters based on Response Surface Methodology (RSM) coupled central composite design and Weighted Desirability Function (WDF) to attenuate the earthquake vibration of a jacket supported Offshore Wind Turbine (OWT). To optimize the parameters (stiffness and damping coefficient) of damper, the frequency ratio and damping ratio were considered as a design variable and the top displacement and frequency response were considered as objective functions. The optimization has been carried out under only El Centro earthquake results and after obtained the optimal parameters, more two earthquakes (California and Northridge) has been performed to investigate the performance of optimal damper. The obtained results also compared with the different conventional TMD's designed by Den Hartog's, Sadek et al.'s and Warburton's method. From the results, it was found that the optimal TMD based on RSM shows better response than the conventional damper. It is concluded that the proposed response model offers an efficient approach regarding the TMD optimization.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.737-745
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• 2013

Offshore wind farms are rapidly growing owing to their comparatively more stable wind conditions than onshore and land-based wind farms. The power capacity of offshore wind turbines has been increased to 5MW in order to capture a larger amount of wind energy, which results in an increase of each component's size. Furthermore, the weight of the marine turbine components installed in the nacelle directly influences the total mechanical design, as well as the operation and maintenance (O&M) costs. A reduction in the weight of the nacelle allows for cost-effective tower and foundation structures. On the other hand, longer transmission distances from an offshore wind turbine to the load leads to higher energy losses. In this regard, DC transmission is more useful than AC transmission in terms of efficiency because no reactive power is generated/consumed by DC transmission cables. This paper describes some of the challenges and difficulties faced in designing high-power-density power conversion systems (HPDPCSs) for offshore wind turbines. A new approach for high gain/high voltage systems is introduced using transformerless power conversion technologies. Finally, the proposed converter is evaluated in terms of step-up conversion ratio, device number, modulation, and costs.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.207-223
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• 2018

In this inquisition, a passive damper namely Stockbridge Damper (SBD) has been introduced to the field of vibration control of Offshore Wind Turbine (OWT) to reduce the earthquake excitations. The dynamic responses of the structure have been analyzed for three recorded earthquakes and the responses have been assessed. To find an optimum SBD, the parameters of damper have been optimized using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) based on Box-Behnken Design (BBD) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The influence of the design variables of SBD such as the diameter of messenger cable, the length of messenger cable and logarithmic decrement of the damping has been investigated through response variables such as maximum displacement, RMS displacement and frequency amplitude of structure under an artificially generated white noise. After that, the structure with optimized and non-optimized damper has been analyzed with under the same earthquakes. Moreover, the comparative results show that the structure with optimized damper is 11.78%, 18.71%, 11.6% and 7.77%, 7.01%, 10.23% more effective than the structure with non-optimized damper with respect to the displacement and frequency response under the earthquakes. The results show that the SBD can obviously affect the characteristics of the vibration of the OWT and RSM based on BBD and PSO approach can provide an optimum damper.