Design Monopile Foundation of Offshore Wind Turbines

Design optimization is crucial to the development of the offshore wind turbine industry. This time consuming process is better to be done with a number of input parameters that is as short as possible. Whether the foundation pile part can be neglected in the design optimization process of an offshore wind turbine structure is a question need to be answer. In order to see the importance of the presence of the foundation pile in dynamic behavior of the whole structure, dimensions of the foundation pile must be determined basing on requirements in ultimate limit state and serviceability limit state in current design standards. Afterward, the differences in dynamic behavior between a fixed- at-seabed tower model and a tower with foundation model must be observed. Beam nonlinear Winkler Foundation model in addition to gapping and non-gapping behavior in pile-soil interface were used to model the foundation. With the chosen offshore wind turbine project of 7MW and 115m high to seabed, a foundation pile with a penetration length of 26m, diameter of 6m and wall thickness of 8cm had been found. The dynamic behavior of the two models showed that it was not on the safe side if the foundation was neglected in design optimization process. And that the internal damping of the soil was the most important factor in behavior of the structure. These results will be useful for reconsidering parameters in design optimization process of monopile offshore wind turbines as well as choosing suitable methods to solve dynamic equations in the optimization procedure.