Structural integrity of a 2.5-MW spar-type floating offshore wind turbine under extreme environmental conditions

The main objective of this study was to establish design guidelines for three key design variables (spar thickness, spar diameter, and total draft) by examining their impact on the stress distribution and resonant frequency of a 2.5-MW spar-type floating offshore wind turbine substructure under extreme marine conditions, such as during Typhoon Bolaven. The current findings revealed that the substructure experienced maximum stress at wave frequencies of either 0.199 Hz or 0.294 Hz, consistent with previously reported experimental findings. These results indicated that the novel simulation method proposed in this study, which simultaneously combines hydrodynamic diffraction analysis, computational dynamics analysis, and structural analysis, was successfully validated. It also demonstrated that our proposed simulation method precisely quantified the stress distribution of the substructure. The novel findings, which reveal that the maximum stress of the substructure increases with an increase in total draft and a decrease in spar thickness and spar diameter, offer valuable insights for optimizing the design of spar-type floating offshore wind turbine substructures operating in various harsh marine environments.