In the beginning of 2011 the BSH (Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie – Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency) established a new standard for analysis of the foundations of offshore wind turbine (OWT) support structures.
In his presentation at EWEA Offshore 2011 in Amsterdam, Marc Mittelstaedt, GL Renewables Certification presents the research contribution to this new standard, which is a result of the work of the scientific advisory board to the BSH.
According to the new BSH standard the degradation of foundations as a result of cyclic loads must be taken into consideration in pile design. One possible method for examining these effects is the use of interaction diagrams. The interaction diagram developed by GL Renewables Certification can be used in combination with a damage accumulation law to analyse the effects of cyclic loads in the design and certification process. The presentation shows the application of this approach and compared it to other analysis methods for axial-cyclic loaded piles.
Cyclic loading from wind and waves is set to become a design-driving influence on support structure and foundations for OWT. This presentation will show the consequences of the analysis for offshore wind turbine foundations, the effects on the pile design process which emerge from this new analysis method, and the influence of cyclic degradation on the dimensions of pile design.
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Offshore WIND staff, November 29, 2011; Image: gl-group