Impact of Sea Ice Loads on Global Dynamics of Offshore Wind Turbines

A proper understanding of sea ice impact on the global dynamics of offshore wind turbines (OWTs) is necessary within the offshore wind research community, industry, and certification authorities. This work extends the current knowledge by including new aspects that were not covered before, including a detailed investigation of ice-OWT interaction at distinct design situations and different ice-structure interaction regimes.

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Support structures for offshore wind turbines (OWTs) are designed and certified site-specific based on the calculated load effects. These load effects originate from static, cyclic, stochastic, and transient loads from the met-ocean environment and rotating components of the wind turbine. The met-ocean environment of the Baltic Sea accounts for variable wind and marine conditions. Sea ice is part of marine conditions - which among others - should be included in the design process of OWT support structures. The load analysis and design of OWTs, including its components, rely on the time-domain based, coupled aero-hydro-servo-elastic simulation tools. Only this approach can provide an accurate prediction of the OWT dynamic response. Dynamic interaction between an OWT and external loads - including ice loads - cannot be disregarded as it may result in considerable loss of accuracy. A proper understanding of sea ice impact on the global dynamics of OWTs - involving the fully-integrated simulation approach - is necessary within the offshore wind research community, industry, and certification authorities.