A Study on the Sensitivity of Dynamic Behavior of

Jacket Type Offshore Structure

Choong-Yul Son, Kang-Su Lee, Jung-Tak Lee, Keon-Hoon Kim

(INHA UNIVERSITY Department of Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering Inchon 402-751, Korea)

Abstract : Unlike strucutres in the air, the vibration analysis of a submerged or floating
structure such as offshore structures is possibly only when the fluid-structures is understood,
as the whole or part of the structure is in contact with water. Through the comparision between
the experimental result and the finite element analysis result for a simple cylindrical model, it
was verified that an added mass effects on the structure. Using the commercial FEA program
ANSYS(v.11.0), the stress matrix considering an load and underwater added mass was
superposed on the stiffness matrix of the structure. A frequency response analysis of forced
vibration in the frequency considered the dynamic load was also performed. It was proposed to
find the several important modes of resonance peak for these fixed type structures.
Furthermore, it is expected that the analysis method and the data in this study can be applied
to a dynamic design and dynamic performance evaluation for the ground and marine purpose
of power generator by wind.
Key words: Natural Frequency, Wind Turbine Jacket, Finite Element Method, Beam Theory, The static
analysis
(email : soncy@inha.ac.kr)

1. INTRODUCTION

Because of unlimited resources, cleanness of energy
and advantage of technical commonness, Wind
Turbine System is one of the future oriented
techniques as spotlighted alternative energy technique
converting wind energy into electrical energy.
Modal test which is one of the examination
assessments is the method to analyze the dynamic
characteristics. . Its purpose is to avoid the resonance
which, finding the natural frequency of the wind tower
and forecasting the vibration phenomenon for mode
shape. In case of domestic, study for Wind Turbine
System has been preceded actively in some big
corporation, small-medium enterprises and national
researcher. But it was impossible to obtain systematic
data. Today, the research field is very numerous
unlike an advanced country oversea. Therefore, it is
necessary to study the Wind Turbine System as stated
above.
Based on this design we calculated the complex
load on the tower off- and onshore. The onshore load
is calculated using aerodynamic load(caused by wind)
and gravity load(caused by the upper structure).
Calculations in the offshore case have to take into
account aerodynamic load, wave load(caused by
waves) and current load(caused by the current).
However, since current load is insignificant compared
to wave load, it can be ignored

2. ENVIRONMENTAL LOADS
The external loads include hydrostatic pressure, wind,
wave, current, tide, ice, earthquake, temperature,
fouling, marine growth and scouring.

2-1. The load calculation in on shore
We calculated the gravity load of the upper structure,
which consists of the wind turbine system (i.e. blade,
nacelle and generator). In order to carry out the
structural analysis of the tower we first divided it into
sections of height 3m each. Then the feasibility of the
load was determined and the resulting stress and
deflection analysed. For the purpose of calculating the
section loads in the tower the tower can be viewed as
a cantilever beam as shown in figure 1.

Fig. 1 Cantilever beam model of Tubular tower

When the tower is analysed structurally, the
following three main loads have to be
considered:

2-1-1. Impellent force
The impellent force caused by a rotating blade can be
calculated using the dynamic pressure of a rotating
blade or the drag force affecting the tower.

2-1-2. Distribution force
The tower is of a cylindrical shell type. Assuming a
maximum wind speed of 23m/s and the tower being
divided into 3m spacing sections, the load that affects
the tower can be obtained by evaluating each section
area.

2-1-3. Gravity force
The gravity force can be calculated as follows.
(The weight of nacelle + blade + generator) ! 9.8m/s
2


2-2 The load calculation in off shore.
To calculate wave load we assume the water to be on
average 5m deep, maximum wave height of 10m and
maximum wind speed 23m/s. Because the ratio of
horizontal dimension (D) to wave length (L) is smaller
than 0.05, we can calculate the wave load with
Morrisons Formula.
Wave load depends on the form of the structure (here :
the tower), the form of the current, Inertia force due to
wave particle velocity, the roughness of the surface
and Drag force depending on Reynolds number.
Wave load per unit length is as follows:

F = 0.5"CDAu
2
+ "CmVdu/dt

C
m
and C
d
are a coefficients determined by
shape, condition of the surface and Reynolds
number. They are calculated using the ABS
rule;
C
d
is 0.5 and C
m
is 1.5

2-3. Wind Load
Since the wind acts as an external force to the upper
structure, above sea level, the wind velocity is
determined to estimate the wind generated force (Lee,
1989). The sustained wind speed is the average
velocity during 1 min and that is used to determine the
wind force acting on the whole structure. The gust
wind speed is the average velocity during 3 sec and is
applied on planning deck facilities.
The wind force, acting on the structure, is largely
divided into drag force and lift force. The drag force is
a force that is created in the flow direction by pressure
difference and lift force created in the vertical flow
direction by shape or orientation of object. Total drag
force from seabed to height z above the surface is

(1)

Total life force from sea bottom to height z
above the surface of ocean is

(2)

The wind force can be applied to upper structure
above M.W.L. The length of a pile for wind force
calculation can be determined by considering the
maximum wave elevation and the clearance under the
super structure. Therefore, the buoyancy uplift and
direct wave force that could occur on the deck
structure can be avoided. The air gap is also
considered in determining fixed platform height.
Commonly 1.5m of air gap and 1/10 wave height is
applied.

2-4. Wave Load
A number of wave theories such as Airy, Stoke,
Stream Function, Cnoidal and Solitary Wave Theory,
enable a suitable wave theory to be applied for the
estimation of wave load. The appropriate wave theory
can be determined by water depth, wave length and
wave period. Stoke wave theories are valid for
d/L>0.039, and Cnoidal or Solitary wave theories for
shallow sea of d/L>0.04. After selecting the
approximate wave theory, the wave force can be
calculated by the Morrison equation (Sarpkaya and
Issacson, 1981). Considering the energy conservation
law, boundary conditions, initial conditions and
Bernoulli equation, the following expressing for wave
elevation, can be obtained.

(3)

From the above equation, the following relationship
can be obtained

+
(4)
Representing wave and potential as power series:

(5)

(6)
Each potential has to satisfy Laplaces
equation and the boundary conditions. If the potential
is represented as a Taylor-series of still water surface
in the free surface then,

(7)

The wave force is approximated by using stokes wave
theory which can resolve the non-linear wave
motion(Dawson, 1983). To simulated the actual ocean
wave, this theory is applied in the study. Wave celerity,
can be calculated as

(8)

Surface elevation, is

(9)

Horizontal particle velocity, is

(10)

Vertical particle velocity, is

(11)

Horizontal particle acceleration, is

(12)

Vertical particle acceleration, is

(13)

Wave force in the horizontal direction on the vertical
pile can be classified as an inertia force by
acceleration and drag force caused by the boundary
layer effect (Clasuss,et. Al., 1988). The inertia force
can be expressed as

(14)
Where, = Mass Coefficient, determinated by
experiment.
The maximum inertia force is

(15)

The inertia force is generated between the boundary
layer and the fluid layer with the assumption that an
infinitely thin fluid layer is stuck on the cylinder side
and the velocity is exponential is increased by the
distance from the cylinder. Fig. 2 shows the schematic
diagram of the wave force on a pile.

Fig. 2
Wave
load
for pile

The
drag
force
can be
expres
sed as

(16)

Where, = Drag Coefficient, determined by
experiment.
The unit area of a member is dA which is projected on
the vertical plane of force direction. Therefore the
maximum drag force is

(17)
The total wave force on a pile can be represented as


+ (18)

The calculation of the wave force on a cylindrical
object can differ by the ratio of member diameter/wave
length, D/L. When this value is lower than 0.05, the
pile does not effect the wave property, thus Morrison
equation can be applied. However, The Morrison
equation can be utilized up to ratio of 0.2. For a large
body in the calculation of the wave force. The
and vary as the pile roughness, degree of fouling,
aspect ration(the ratio of width length), cross-sectional
shape, body orientation, relative flow velocity, and
Reynolds number etc.. In offshore steel structures
= 0.1 and = 2.0 are recommended. These
values consider marine roughness.

2-5. Current load
Because the actual current is composed of the various
sums of currents coming from multi-directions, it is
common to measure the current speeds at several
depths of the region (Lee, 1989). Should this data be
unavailable, the following equations are used to
estimate the current speed;

(19)
and for 0 ! z ! h
for 0 ! z !
for and z

2-6. The load calculation in off shore.
To calculate wave load we assume the water to be on
average 5m deep, maximum wave height of 10m and
maximum wind speed 23m/s. Because the ratio of
horizontal dimension (D) to wave length (L) is smaller
than 0.05, we can calculate the wave load with
Morrisons Formula.
Wave load depends on the form of the structure (here :
the tower), the form of the current, Inertia force due to
wave particle velocity, the roughness of the surface
and Drag force depending on Reynolds number.
Wave load per unit length is as follows:
(20)
and are a coefficients determined by shape,
condition of the surface and Reynolds number. They
are calculated using the ABS rule;
= 1.5 and = 0.5

3. The analysis of Finite Element
In this paper the finite element method (ANSYS) was
used for the purpose of modal analysis.
The 4-leg steel jacket is numerically modeled with the
fixed boundary condition at the sea bottom. The
principal specification of the model is described below:

3-1. Principal characteristics of analyzed
model

Table 1. Jacket Type Tower of Analysis Model
Top diameter [m] 0.5
Thickness [m] 0.05
Water Depth [m] 10
Jacket Type Tower total length
[m]
58.665
Number of leg [pieces] 4
Top dimension [m] 10 " 10
Bottom dimension [m] 21.36 " 21.36

Table 2. Jacket Type Tower Property of leg
Out diameter [cm] 50
Wall thickness [cm] 5
Shear area modulus 0.5
E(Young's modulus) [Kg/sq cm] 2100"1000
G(Shear modulus) [Kg/sq cm] 840"1000
Yield strength [Kg/sq cm] 2450
Density [ton/] 7.85
K factor 1.0
Tower wall thickness[cm] 2.5

3-2. The analysis of Finite Element
In this paper the finite element method(ANSYS) was
used for the purpose of modal analysis.

Fig. 3 1st Modal analysis of Jacket Type Tower


Fig. 4 2nd modal analysis Jacket Type Tower

Fig. 5 3rd modal analysis Jacket Type Tower


Fig. 6 4th modal analysis of Jacket Type Tower

3-3. The result of Finite Element Method

Table 4. Natural frequency of
Jacket Type Tower
Mode
2MW
(Added
Mass :
20m)
2MW
(Added
Mass :
30m)
3.5MW
(Added
Mass :
20m)
3.5MW
(Added
Mass :
30m)
1 0.2833 0.2833 0.2793 0.2793
2 0.2840 0.2840 0.2800 0.2800
3 1.8596 1.8596 1.8596 1.8596
4 1.8625 1.8625 1.8625 1.8625






Fig. 7 Natural frequency of Jacket Type Tower

3-4. Result of Forced Vibration
The Forced Vibration Analysis is executed using
harmonic analysis function of ANSYS(harmonic
force # exciting force) The responced sympathetic
vibrations modes are 4,8,9,10th form

Table 3. Result Comparison of Frequency
response & Natural Frequency
Mode Natural Frequency Response frequency
1 3.108 -
2 4.491 -
3 5.570 -
4 8.720 8.500
5 9.644 -
6 10.076 -
7 11.055 -
8 14.543 13.250
9 17.431 17.250
10 19.051 19.000

You can check the Peak Point after forced vibration
analysis at Fig. 8, and Fig. 9 is the result of transformation
to log scale through Fig. 8

Fig. 8 Forced vibration of Jacket Type Tower


Fig. 9 Forced vibration of Jacket Type Tower

First of all, in case of Tubular Type Tower, Peak
frequency is occurred at 2,3,4th when forced vibration.
It express that sympathetic vibrations will be occurred
at 2,3,4th mode as like Table. 2. Next, in case of
Jacket Type Tower, If you watch to 10th mode shape,
you will find that sympathetic vibrations will be
occurred at 4,8,9,10th mode.
To restrict vibration controls, size of vibration
response added-vibration stress below allowance, We
must execute protection way of design process,
analysis of measurement result.

4. CONCLUSION

This research compared the result of forced vibration
analysis that applied the periodic load to exciting force
expressed by natural frequency result and rotating
blades. We design the structure that avoids
sympathetic vibration through reinforcing the materials
or installation the damper between blade and tower.
Also, when we design the control-part, consider that
Tubular Type Tower does not be operated at 2,3,4th
response frequency, Jacket Type Tower does not be
operated at 4,8,9,10th response frequency. This
control is able to restrict the blade velocity through
generator control.
This research can show you the concept of dynamic
design about two type wind energy generator.
Therefore, considering the annual wind map and other
data, must design sympathetic vibration frequency
band of generator and research using the real
response through exciting signal data acquired by
impellent[driving] force.


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