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Probabilistic modelling of geotechnical conditions for offshore wind turbine support structures

The geotechnical conditions of the soil can fluctuate greatly across the wind
farm. This is an issue since geotechnical modelling is the base of the structural
design of an offshore wind farm, and the efficient installation of the wind
turbines depends on its accuracy. This paper deals with the characterization of
the seabed, predicting the soil properties over the total affected area by a wind
farm, with the challenge to reduce the required data samples in the site
investigation under the number of installed wind turbines, to reduce its cost.
It is compared the prediction outcome from two different interpolation methods,
kriging and radial basis function, assessing their accuracy by the Mean-Squared
Error and the Goodness-of-Prediction Estimate, as well as with a visual
examination of their mapping; obtaining higher accuracy for radial basis function
and reducing to half the required sample points, from the initial value of installed
wind turbines.
In a second stage it is studied the soil effect over the foundation, analyzing the
results from a FEA, where different geometries of the structure are compared
submitted to different load cases to check its limit states. Those results show
that the foundation cost can increase four times due to the soil conditions,
taking into account only the steel volume, and demonstrating how important is
the soil characterization in the foundation design, as it gives the chance to
relocate those wind turbines that require more expensive foundations.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:CRANFIELD1/oai:dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk:1826/9205
Date05 1900
CreatorsMondrago Quevedo, Monica
ContributorsKolios, Athanasios
PublisherCranfield University
Source SetsCRANFIELD1
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or dissertation, Masters, MSc by Research
Rights© Cranfield University 2014. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the copyright owner.

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