Dynamic Response of Offshore Wind Turbine with a New Monopile Foundation under Different Lateral and Seismic Loadings

Using a monopile foundation due to a reliable and simple technology has a wide application in engineering structures. This paper investigates numerically the performance of an offshore wind turbine with a monopile foundation equipped with a restriction plate at a middle inside height of the monopile under the wind, wave, and seismic loadings. Different parameters, including wind velocity, wave period, wave height, soil characteristics, and combination of loadings, are considered in nonlinear finite element dynamic analyses. Results are given in terms of the distribution of displacement and bending moment over the turbine height and frequencies. The results reveal that by increasing the wind velocity, the responses of the tower increase, and the wind load acting on the hub has the most important effect on the turbine behavior rather than the wind load acting on the tower body. Furthermore, the values of maximum displacement and bending moment under wind and wave loading decrease with the increase of the shear strength of the soil, whereas the responses of the tower under earthquake loading increase. Generally, it is necessary to consider the effect of a combination of wind, wave, and earthquake loadings on the design of the turbine tower.