Reliability analysis of laterally loaded piles for an offshore wind turbine support structure using response surface methodology

With an increasing demand of a renewable energy, new offshore wind turbine farms are being planned in some parts of the world. Foundation installation asks a significant cost of the total budget of offshore wind turbine (OWT) projects. Hence, a cost reduction from foundation parts is a key element when a cost-efficient designing of OWT budget. Mono-piles have been largely used, accounting about 78% of existing OWT foundations, because they are considered as a most economical alternative with a relatively shallow-water, less than 30 m of seawater depth. OWT design standards such as IEC, GL, DNV, API, and Eurocode are being developed in a form of reliability based limit state design method. In this paper, reliability analysis using the response surface method (RSM) and numerical simulation technique for an OWT mono-pile foundation were performed to investigate the sensitivities of mono-pile design parameters, and to find practical implications of RSM reliability analysis.