Influence of wave load variations on offshore wind turbine structures

Abstract

Nowadays, much attention is payed to the development of renewable energy resources. Wind energy plays a major role in this issue. That is why there is a growing interest for improving the design process of wind turbines at many aspects. This study compares two types of offshore wind turbines structures, the monopile and the jacket structure, in their dependency on wave load characteristics’ variations. The examined wave characteristics are significant wave height and wave peak period. The jacket structure showed lower influence of increase of wave height to stresses in the cross section at the bottom of the structure compared to the monopile structure. The monopile structure showed slight dependency of stresses on increasing wave frequency, while the jacket structure showed nearly no dependency, due to its more complex geometry and higher stiffness.