Analytical developments to assess the crashworthiness of an offshore wind turbine jacket impacted by a ship

As the number of offshore wind farms is constantly increasing, impacts between ships and wind turbines is becoming a major concern. Nowadays, design offices use finite elements simulations to assess the crashworthiness of offshore supporting structures, which give accurate results but is time demanding. There is therefore a need for a faster method, especially during the pre-design stage. The purpose of this research is to develop analytical formulations, based on the so-called continuous elements method in order to compute the resistance of offshore wind turbine jackets when submitted to an impact.