Extreme structural response prediction and fatigue damage evaluation for large-scale monopile offshore wind turbines subject to typhoon conditions

• Published in: Renewable energy Vol. 208; pp. 450 - 464
• Main Authors: Qin, Mengfei, Shi, Wei, Chai, Wei, Fu, Xing, Li, Lin, Li, Xin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.05.2023
• Subjects: Aerodynamic damping; aerodynamics; China; Coupled numerical analysis; Dynamic characteristics; Monopile-type offshore wind turbine; North America; prediction; Typhoon; typhoons; wind farms; wind power; wind speed; wind turbines; North America; China; Typhoon; Dynamic characteristics; Aerodynamic damping; Monopile-type offshore wind turbine; Coupled numerical analysis
• ISSN: 0960-1481; 1879-0682
• DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2023.03.066

Offshore wind is becoming the way forward for green energy harnessing worldwide. However, frequent typhoons are a major constraint for the development of offshore wind power for some regions in Asia and North America. Typhoons may pose a huge challenge to offshore wind farm development in southern China. In this paper, a fully-coupled analysis was carried out for a 10 MW large-scale monopile offshore wind turbine (OWT) using SIMO-Riflex-Aerodyn (SRA) code. The response characteristics of the OWTs in different typhoon regions are investigated based on the measured typhoon conditions in China. The effect of aerodynamic damping on the response and the load effect is analyzed in detail. Two different distribution methods are used to statistically extrapolate the response value and get the short-term extreme response. Cumulative linear fatigue damage is evaluated by the rain-flow counting method to explore the possible failure modes of large wind turbines during typhoons. The results show that aerodynamic loads play an important role in large monopile OWTs during high wind speeds in parked conditions. The extreme response and fatigue analyses from this study indicate that fatigue is a dominant failure mode for the large OWT tower during typhoons, while buckling is unlikely. •The wind field at the wind turbine was analyzed when the typhoon passed by.•The response of large monopile wind turbine in each typhoon region of is analyzed.•Aerodynamic damping play an important role for the structural response of parked monopile OWT.•The extreme moments at the tower base follows the Gumbel distribution and lognormal distribution.•The cumulative fatigue damage during different typhoon stages is evaluated.