Wave Forces on the Composite Bucket Foundation of Offshore Wind Turbines

Abstract

A three dimensional numerical model to calculate the wave forces on the composite bucket foundation of the offshore wind turbine is established and the analytical method to approximatively calculate wave forces on the structure with the variable cross section is proposed. Based on the validation of numerical results, wave forces on the composite bucket foundation are calculated under different wave conditions. The variable cross-section of the composite bucket foundation is divided into sections with the approximate same diameter. Comparison with the numerical calculations and analytical results, the wave force on each section can be calculated using Morison equation when the relative diameter is less than 0.2 and using diffraction theory when the relative diameter is more than 0.2.