Effect of Ice Sheet on Stochastic Response of Offshore Wind Turbine-Seawater Interaction Systems Subjected to Random Seismic Excitation

Abstract

To investigate the effect of the presence of surrounding ice sheet on the stochastic response of offshore wind turbines subjected to random seismic excitation, this research uses a three-dimensional, numerical, finite-element model that includes viscous boundaries. The model of the ice-seawater-offshore wind turbine-soil interaction system uses the Lagrangian fluid (displacement-based) and solid-quadrilateral-isoparametric finite elements. Random seismic excitation from a filtered white-noise model and applied to each support point of the three-dimensional finite-element model of the coupled interaction system provides the experimental environment. A parametric study examines the effects of both the presence of and variation in mechanical and geometric properties of the surrounding ice sheet on the stochastic response of offshore wind turbines. The investigation also includes the effect of the wind turbine's wall thickness in relation to the ice sheet on the stochastic seismic response of the coupled interaction system. © 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.