Passive Control of a Pentapod Offshore Wind Turbine under Earthquakes by Using Tuned Mass Damper

Abstract

The finite element model (FEM) of a pentapod offshore wind turbine (OWT) is established in the newly compiled FAST. The dynamic responses of the OWT are analyzed in detail. Further, a tuned mass damper as a passive control strategy is applied in order to reduce the OWT responses under seismic loads. The influence of the tuned mass damper (TMD) locations, mass and control frequencies on the reduction of OWT responses are investigated. A general configuration of TMD can effectively reduce the local and global responses to some degree, but due to the complexity of characteristics of the OWT structure and seismic waves, the single TMD can not obtain consistent controlling effects.