Structure design and assessment of a floating foundation for offshore wind turbines

Abstract

This paper summarizes the assessment of the structural analysis and design of a floating foundation for offshore floating wind turbine (FWT) based on DNVGL standard and Eurocode in terms of economy and reliability. The wind loads are calculated using empirical equations. The wave loads are obtained and verified using various methods including hand calculation, AQWA and Flow-3D. It is found that the shell thickness could be reduced significantly by introducing the stiffeners (stringer or ring), which can decrease the weight of the hull and lower the cost. While DNVGL and Eurocode yield similar design solutions if using plane shell structures, Eurocode significantly underestimates the buckling resistance of stiffened cylindrical shells.