A review of slamming load application to offshore wind turbines from an integrated perspective

Abstract

In harsh sea conditions, it is possible for offshore wind turbines (OWTs) to be exposed to slamming loads due to breaking waves, especially plunging breaking waves. These slamming loads lead to significant structural responses and can affect the ultimate limit state (ULS) design and the fatigue limit state (FLS) design of OWTs. However, detailed consideration of slamming loads is not a common practice in the design of primary structures in offshore wind industry. Studies on integrated dynamic analysis of OWTs with consideration of slamming loads are very limited. When applying slamming loads on OWTs, several aspects should be considered, such as the detection of breaking waves, the calculation of slamming loads, and the approaches to integrate the slamming loads in fully coupled analysis, etc. This paper provides an extensive review of key issues concerning these aspects, which can benefit the application of slamming loads on OWTs.