Development of Combined Load Spectra for Offshore Structures Subjected to Wind, Wave, and Ice Loading

Moritz Braun*, Alfons Dörner, Kane F. ter Veer, Tom Willems, Marc Seidel, Hayo Hendrikse, Knut V. Høyland, Claas Fischer, Sören Ehlers

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
83 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Fixed offshore wind turbines continue to be developed for high latitude areas where not only wind and wave loads need to be considered but also moving sea ice. Current rules and regulations for the design of fixed offshore structures in ice-covered waters do not adequately consider the effects of ice loading and its stochastic nature on the fatigue life of the structure. Ice crushing on such structures results in ice-induced vibrations, which can be represented by loading the structure using a variable-amplitude loading (VAL) sequence. Typical offshore load spectra are developed for wave and wind loading. Thus, a combined VAL spectrum is developed for wind, wave, and ice action. To this goal, numerical models are used to simulate the dynamic ice-, wind-, and wave-structure interaction. The stress time-history at an exemplarily selected critical point in an offshore wind energy monopile support structure is extracted from the model and translated into a VAL sequence, which can then be used as a loading sequence for the fatigue assessment or fatigue testing of welded joints of offshore wind turbine support structures. This study presents the approach to determine combined load spectra and standardized time series for wind, wave, and ice action.

Original languageEnglish
Article number559
Pages (from-to)1-17
Number of pages17
JournalEnergies
Volume15
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Keywords

  • Arctic conditions
  • Damage model
  • Ice-induced vibrations
  • Low-temperature fatigue
  • Markov chain method
  • Offshore wind turbine support structures
  • Omission level
  • Rainflow counting
  • Stress-time sequence

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Development of Combined Load Spectra for Offshore Structures Subjected to Wind, Wave, and Ice Loading'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this