On the estimation of foundation damping of mono pile-supported offshore wind turbines

Abstract

This paper investigates the estimation of foundation damping in a monopile supported offshore wind turbine. The soil-structure interaction is modelled using the commercial geotechnical Finite Element (FE) software, Plaxis 3D. This allows for a more rigorous consideration of the soil response and its effect on the overall dynamic behaviour of the system. A free vibration test is simulated by applying and removing a constant horizontal static load at the top of the tower. The structure starts free vibration when the load is removed. The free decay displacement response is measured at the point of loading. The well-known logarithmic decrement method is used for the estimation of overall damping from the free decay response. The damping is estimated at different time steps along the signal to provide an instantaneous damping. It is shown that the damping varies with the amplitude of the decaying displacement response.