Numerical Analysis of a Gravity Substructure for 5MW Offshore Wind Turbines due to Soil Conditions

In order to increase the gross generation of wind turbines, the size of a tower and a rotor-nacelle becomes larger. In other words, the substructure for offshore wind turbines is strongly influenced by the effect of wave forces as the size of substructure increases. In addition, since a large offshore wind turbine has a heavy dead load, the reaction forces on the substructure become severe, thus very firm foundations should be required. Therefore, the dynamic soil-structure interaction has to be fully considered and the wave acting on substructure accurately calculated. In the present study ANSYS AQWA is used to evaluate the wave forces. The wave forces and wave run up on the substructure are presented for various wave conditions. Moreover, the substructure method is applied to evaluate the effect of soil-structure interaction. Using the wave forces and stiffness and damping matrices obtained from this study, the structural analysis of the gravity substructure is carried out through ANSYS mechanical. The structural behaviors of the strength and deformation are evaluated to investigate an ultimate structural safety and serviceability of gravity substructure for various soil conditions. Also, the modal analysis is carried out to investigate the resonance between the wind turbine and the gravity substructure.