Structural Analysis of the Gripper Connection during Monopile Installation

Abstract

Offshore wind energy market is increasing rapidly due to the very high demand for the green energy worldwide. At present, the most dominated structure for the offshore wind turbine is a monopile structure which is getting bigger in diameter and length day by day to support larger turbine. As a result, the new challenges like installation, maintenance and risks issues are arising during the installation of the monopile. In this thesis, MP initial hammering (shallow penetration) procedure with a heavy Lifting Vessel(HLV) and dynamic response of the coupled HLV-MP system has been presented. Modelling of the soil-pile system is also discussed elaborately. Later from the dynamic response of the gripper, local analysis of the gripper system is done by Abaqus. A simplified model of the gripper system is established and the effects of MP welding seam parameter, MP speed, roller size, boundary condition, spring stiffness on the critical component of the gripper system have been presented.