Proceedings of the Twenty-second (2012) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference
org
Rhodes, Greece, June 17–22, 2012
Copyright © 2012 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-94–4 (Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set)
Natural Frequency and Damping Estimation of
an Offshore Wind Turbine Structure
Mads Damgaard, Jacob K. F. Andersen
Offshore Foundation, Vestas Technology R&D
Aarhus, Denmark
ABSTRACT
During the last years, offshore wind turbines have increased signi-
ficantly in size with larger rotors and more powerful generators. The
costs are kept as low as possible by reducing the overall weight, which
leads to very slender and flexible structures. An improper design may
cause resonance due to the excitation from wind and waves, leading to
immature failure in the fatigue limit state. This in turn necessitates a
correct estimate of the basic dynamic properties of the entire wind
turbine structure. The paper presents experimental investigations of the
first natural bending frequency and damping ratio of an offshore wind
turbine located in the North Sea. Simple Fourier Transformation and
least square fitting to the vibration decay of ten “rotor stop” tests make
it possible to evaluate the dynamic properties of the wind turbine
structure. Based on the traditionally p-y curve method (Winkler type
approach), a numerical modal analysis of the wind turbine structure is
conducted in order to compare the computational first natural bending
frequency of the structure and the contribution of soil damping with
experimental results.
KEY WORDS: Fourier Transformation; natural frequency; offshore
wind energy structures; p-y curve method; soil damping ratio; Winkler
approach
INTRODUCTION
In order to meet the European Union’s commitment to reduce the con-
sumption of fossil fuels, offshore wind energy is proving its potential as
an important part of the solution. However, correlation between water
depth and cost of energy is observed for offshore wind turbine struc-
tures. Significant research and development are needed in order to
avoid an increase in the cost per MW power when the turbines are
installed at greater water depths. For offshore wind turbines, monopile
foundations with diameters of 4-6 m are often employed. In order to
stay competitive, the overall weight of the monopile foundation and
turbine is kept at a minimum resulting in a flexible structure. Thus, the
resonance frequency of the structural system is close to the excitation
frequencies related to waves and turbine blades passing the tower,
which means that a small change in the total system stiffness may result
300
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Lars Bo Ibsen, Lars V. Andersen
Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University
Aalborg, Denmark
in a great change in the response. Sufficient damping provided in the
entire structure is in that connection crucial in order to counteract
strong amplifications when the structure is dynamically loaded near the
resonance frequency. For wind-wave misalignment, where almost no
aerodynamic damping occurs, the required damping must be found
from structural material damping, hydrodynamic damping, tower
oscillation dampers and soil damping. While most of these parts are
determined with a high reliability level, this is not the case for soil due
to its complex material behaviour. Consequently, in order to verify the
amount of soil stiffness and soil damping, full scale testing can be
conducted which is the main objective of the present work.
In this paper, the first natural bending frequency f1 and the cor-
responding damping ratio ζ1 of an offshore wind turbine structure
supported by a monopile foundation is determined from ten “rotor
stop” tests. Based on theoretical estimations of each individual contri-
butor to the total system damping ratio, the soil damping contribution is
determined.
When designing offshore wind turbines supported by a pile founda-
tion, the design regulations, e.g. API (2000) and DNV (2011) recom-
mend the use of the Winkler model approach. The pile is modelled as
an elastic beam and the soil is considered to consist of a series of in-
dependent soil layers with smooth horizontal boundaries, i.e. no shear-
ing can be transmitted across the boundaries. For a natural frequency
analysis, it is common to perform a linear modal analysis where the soil
resistance of each of the layers is represented by a number of linear
springs. The spring stiffness is normally determined from the initial
stiffness of the non-linear p-y curve formulation suggested by the
design regulations. Based on a Piezocone Penetration Test (PCPT) for
the considered offshore wind turbine structure, the present paper docu-
ments to what extent the recommended Winkler model approach is able
to predict the measured first natural bending frequency f1. Further, by
use of the recommended p-y curves a simple numerical method of
determining the amount of soil damping of the first bending mode ζsoil
is presented.
WIND TURBINE STRUCTURE AND SITE CONDITIONS
The wind turbine structure is part of a wind park with a total of 100
wind turbine structures located in the North Sea. The total area of the
 Table 1. Soil stratification and characteristic soil properties based on
5% and 50% quantiles. An empirical cone factor Nk equal to 15 and 20
is used for the determination of the characteristic undrained cohesion
cuk.
5% quantile 50% quantile
Depth φ cuk,15 cuk,20 φ cuk,15 cuk,20
[m] [º] [kPa] [kPa] [º] [kPa] [kPa]
Loose
Sand -2.5 31.8 - - 33.8 - -
Very
Stiff

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Clay -5.5 - 226.9 170.2 - 319.3 239.5
Very
Stiff
Clay -12.5 - 220.9 165.3 - 247.1 185.3
Very
Hard
Clay -39.0 - 992.1 744.1 - 1036.4 777.3

proposed by Robertson (1990), the soil unit weight γ is determined for

Fig. 1. Geometry of the offshore wind turbine structure decomposed
into: (a) Monopile foundation, (b) Transition piece, (c) Tower. All di-
mensions are in millimetres.
each soil layer. The internal peak angle of friction φ is found accord-
ing to the procedure proposed by Bolton (1986) with the relative
density ID determined by the expression given by Jamiolkowski et al.
(2003). The undrained cohesion cu is estimated using the total cone re-
sistance qc as suggested by Robertson et al (1997). Because no boring
profiles have been available, an empirical cone factor Nk equal to 15
and 20 has been used to determine the undrained cohesion cu. The soil
profile consists primarily of cohesive soils with the stratification and
properties summarized in Table 1. Often, characteristic soil strengths
are determined with a 5% quantile by use of a Student’s t distribution,
which may seem conservative when comparing full scale measure-
ments with numerical approaches. In this paper, it is shown to what
extent the calculated first natural bending frequency f1 and soil damp-
ing ratio ζsoil vary when the soil strengths are determined with a 50%
quantile instead of a 5% quantile.

park is approximately 35 square kilometres and the turbines are ar-
ranged with approximately 500 m between each other.
Pile and Tower Conditions
The foundation concept for the considered wind turbine is the well-
proven monopile concept. The concept consists of a tubular steel pile
section with a grouted transition piece. The outer pile diameter OD is
4.5 m, the pile length L is 51.2 m and the pile wall thickness t varies
from 60 mm to 75 mm as shown in Fig. 1a. The pile toe is located 49.7
m below the mean sea level leading to an embedded depth of 24.2 m. A
nominal 80 mm grout annulus between the pile and the transition piece
is utilised with an 8.6 m long overlap zone between the outside of the
pile and the inside of the transition piece. An illustration of the tran-
sition piece is shown in Fig. 1b. The tower is a tubular steel tower
which consists of two sections that are bolted together through internal
flange-bolt connections. Similarly, the tubular tower is connected to the
transition piece through an internal flange-bolt connection. The geo-
metry of the tower is shown in Fig. 1c. The hub height is 70.201 m
above the mean sea level where a rotor mass and nacelle mass of
42,653 kg and 70,000 kg are placed, respectively. An oscillation dam-
per is built into the top of the tower just beneath the nacelle. It consists
of a pendulum partly immersed in high viscous oil able to oscillate in
the two horizontal directions. The mass of the damper is 6000 kg.
Soil Conditions
In order to assess the soil conditions at the location, a Piezocone Pene-
tration Test has been performed. By use of the classification method
EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION
In the period 8th September 2010 to 14th November 2011, a total of ten
“rotor stop” tests have been performed on an offshore wind turbine
located in the North Sea. By use of two accelerometers placed in the
nacelle, the tower acceleration in the thrust-wise direction y and the
sideway direction x has been measured. The experimental tests make it
possible to evaluate the first natural bending frequency f1 and the corre-
sponding damping ratio ζ1 of the structure. Fig. 2 shows the raw output
time domain signal of test No 6. The acceleration in the thrust-wise di-
rection ay and the blade pitch angle θb as function of the time t are illu-
strated in Fig. 2a and Fig. 2b, respectively. A sampling frequency fs of
10 Hz has been used.
Procedure of Natural Frequency Estimation
Instead of representing the measured damped tower acceleration decay
in the time domain, each signal is represented by how much infor-
mation it contains at different frequencies by use of a Fast Fourier
Transformation (FFT). To obtain the power in the signal at each fre-
quency, the square of the absolute value of the FFT coefficients is con-
sidered. Nyquist sampling theorem is used in order to avoid the aliasing
phenomenon. In Fig. 3a, the power spectrum of the tower acceleration
ay for test No 6 is shown. The dominant frequency peak in Fig. 3a cor-
responds to the first natural bending frequency f1 of the wind turbine
structure in the thrust-wise direction. In addition, the first natural bend-
ing frequency f1 has been determined as the average distance between
the peaks in the time domain. The two procedures of estimating the first
natural bending frequency f1 of the wind turbine structure provide al-

301
most identical results.
Fig. 2. Raw output signal for test No 6: (a) Tower acceleration ay as
function of time t, (b) Blade pitch angle θb as function of time t.
Fig. 3. Frequency and damping estimation of test No 6: (a) Power
spectrum of the tower acceleration ay, (b) Total damped acceleration
decay ar.
302
Procedure of Damping Estimation
By considering the resultant acceleration decay of the measured thrust-
wise direction y and the sideway direction x, the total system damping
of the first bending mode ζ1 can be determined.
ar = a x2 + a y2 (1)
Different methods of determining the damping of the first bending
mode shape exist. In the present paper, the theory for standard linear
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damping of single degree of freedom (SDOF) system is used in terms
of the logarithmic decrement δ1 defined by
1 ⎛ A0 ⎞
δ1 = ln⎜ ⎟, (2)
n ⎜⎝ An ⎟
⎠
where A0 and An are two upcrossings in the response placed with the
time interval nTd. Each upcrossing of the vibration decay is identified.
By use of least square techniques, an exponential function is fitted to
the upcrossings. The damping ratio ζ1 is then easily determined from
the logarithmic decrement δ1.
δ1 δ1
ζ1 = ≈ , for δ 1 << 1 (3)
4π + 2
δ 12 2π
In order to avoid aerodynamic affects from the rotor blades when they
pitch out of the wind, the first 15 s after the “rotor stop” sequence are
neglected. In Fig. 3b, the damped acceleration decay for test No 6 is
shown. The exponential function that specifies the decrease of the vi-
bration amplitude with the time t is included.
COMPUTATIONAL MODEL
A numerical model of the considered offshore wind turbine is de-
veloped in order to compare the computational and measured first
natural bending frequency f1. Laterally loaded monopiles are traditio-
nally designed based on a Winkler approach. The governing differential
equation is given by
d4 y
Es I s − Epy y = 0, (4)
dx 4
where y is the lateral deflection of the structure at a point x along the
pile, EsIs is the bending stiffness of the structure where Es is the mo-
dulus of elasticity and Is is the moment of inertia around the horizontal
axis perpendicular to the structural axis. Epy is the modulus of subgrade
reaction which depends on both y and x. In Eq. (4), it is assumed that
the soil has no shear stiffness, but only lateral stiffness represented by
non-linear elastic springs based on semi-empirical relations between
the soil pressure p acting against the monopile wall and the lateral
deflection y of the structure, see Fig. 4.
For modal analysis of offshore wind turbines, it is common to es-
timate the spring stiffness Epy by linearizing the nonlinear p-y curves
suggested by DNV (2011). Theoretically, the linearizing can be done
by use of either the initial soil stiffness from the non-linear uncoupled
soil springs or from the secant and tangent soil stiffness when the tur-
bine is producing power at the nominally rated output level. However,
studies regarding cyclic loading of piles made by Klinkvort, et al.
(2011) and Rosen et al. (2012) indicate that the unloading-reloading
path almost follows the initial stiffness of the virgin curve. Despite
decreasing secant stiffness during cyclic loading, it then seems sensible

Fig. 4. Numerical representation of the considered offshore wind
turbine for a modal analysis.
for a modal analysis of offshore wind turbines to determine the spring
stiffness from the initial stiffness of the non-linear p-y curve for-
mulation, cf. Fig. 4.
The pile and tower are modelled as Bernoulli-Euler beams. By dif-
ferentiating the p-y curve relationship for piles in cohesionless soils
according to DNV (2011), the initial stiffness is given by
⎡ ⎛ kxy ⎞⎤
*p
∂p ∂ soil are a measure of the energy dissipation in the first cycle after the
= = ⎢ Ap u tanh⎜⎜ ⎟⎥ = kx,
y
E ⎟
∂y y =0
∂y ⎢⎣ ⎝ Ap u ⎠⎥⎦
y =0
where pu is the ultimate lateral resistance per unit length at a depth
below soil surface, k is the initial modulus of subgrade reaction de-
termined from the peak angle of internal friction φ , y is the lateral de-
flection and A is a factor accounting for cyclic or static loading
conditions. For cyclic loading, A is 0.9. For clay soils, DNV (2011)
recommends to linearize the non-linear p-y curves from the dis-
cretisation point given by the relative displacement y/yc=0.1 with
ordinate value p/pu=0.23, where yc=2.5ε50D. D is the pile diameter and
ε50 is the strain corresponding to a stress of 50% of the ultimate stress in
a laboratory stress-strain curve.
The Winkler approach is implemented in MATLAB in order to per-
form the modal analysis of the offshore wind turbine. The differential
equation for undamped vibrations of a multi-degree-of-freedom
(MDOF) system is solved.
M&x& + Kx = 0,
where M and K are the mass and stiffness matrix and x(t) is the
generalised displacement vector. The mass matrix M consists of hy-
drodynamic mass, internal tower mass, mass from marine growth,
tower flanges, structural mass from monopile, transition piece, tower,
rotor, nacelle and tower oscillation damper. To accommodate for the
increased mass and stiffness in the presence of the grout annulus be-
tween the pile and the transition piece, an equivalent steel wall thick-
ness is used. Further, the model is fixed in the vertical x-direction
which seems admissible for a monopile structure excited by its first na-
tural frequency. It is assumed that no scour hole is developed around
the monopile.
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Fig. 5. Soil damping estimation: (a) Load-displacement curve for the
first load cycle after the “rotor stop”, (b) Hysteretic loop for the damp-
ing force fd in a harmonic motion with the amplitude A and the circular
frequency ω1. A linear viscous damping model is assumed. After
Nielsen (2004).
Soil Damping Ratio
Besides tower oscillation dampers, soil damping is believed to
contribute with the highest part of the total system damping for off-
shore wind turbines on a monopile foundation when considering “rotor
stop” sequences with vanishing aerodynamic damping. For a “rotor
stop” test, cyclic motion in the soil takes place, which leads to material
damping and geometric damping, i.e. radiation of waves into the
subsoil. However, Andersen (2008) concludes that the geometric damp-
ing can be neglected for frequencies below 1 Hz. In this paper, a
simple method of determining the soil damping contribution of the
considered offshore wind turbine for test No 6 is presented based on the
p-y curves proposed by the design regulations. By performing a static
deformation analysis with a load level based on the measured wind
speed during the “rotor stop” test, the irreversible deformations in the
(5) “rotor stop” takes place. The method assumes that the soil damping ra-
tio ζsoil of the first bending mode shape can be represented by linear
viscous dampers and that the first bending mode shape Φ(1) is equal to
the static deflection of the wind turbine structure. The procedure is sta-
ted below:
1. A 10 minutes FLEX simulation of the operating wind turbine
structure is conducted. A wind speed level equal to the measured
value just before the “rotor stop” takes place is included in order to
determine the load level when the “rotor stop” sequence starts.
2. By performing a static deformation analysis based on the Winkler
approach with non-linear p-y curves, the horizontal pile deforma-
tion in each integration point below the soil surface is determined.
The initial slope of the curves has a large influence on the
deformations, and thus, the non-linear p-y curves for the cohesive
soil stratification are discretised and approximated by a piece-wise
linear curve drawn between the discretisation points according to
DNV (2011).
(6)
3. Based on a load cycle as indicated in Fig. 5a, the area within the
pressure-displacement curve is found by Simpson integration. The
area is used to obtain the so-called hysteretic loop for the damping
force fd as shown in Fig. 5b. A linear viscous damping model is
considered.
4. At each integration point below the soil surface, the damping
constant c can be found from the hysteretic loop. Hence, the global
damping matrix C is determined.
5. Based on the theory of MDOF systems, the soil damping ratio ζsoil
303
 is determined from the global damping matrix C, the circular
eigenfrequency ω1, the bending mode shape Φ(1) and the modal
mass M1 according to Eq. (7).

Φ (1)T CΦ (1)
ζ soil = (7)
2ω1 M 1

The elasto-plastic model in Fig. 5a assumes a loading phase where the

soil-pile interaction is described by the p-y curve formulation given by
DNV (2011). The unloading phase follows the initial stiffness of

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the virgin curve. Due to irreversible deformations in this phase, a gap
between the pile and the soil will be created. The pile will then move
towards the initial position and into the opposite soil face. In this phase,
the soil resistance to the lateral movement of the pile is expressed by a
shear drag pdrag developed along the side of the pile. Based on Zang et
al. (2005) the shear drag pdrag can be given by

p drag = Dτ max , (8)

where τmax is the maximum shear resistance. According to Ovesen et al.

(2006), the maximum shear resistance τmax for a steel monopile placed
in cohesionless soils can be expressed as

τ max = 0 .6σ v′ , (9)

where is the vertical effective stress. For cohesive soils the maxi-
mum shear resistance τmax is given by

τ max = 0 .7 c u (10)

Whether the gap will take place for cohesionless soils is difficult to de-
rive from the literature. According to El-Naggar et al. (2007), cohesion-
less soils will cave in and close the gap. However, centrifuge tests car-
ried out for a pile in sand made by Klinkvort (2009) show that the soil
will not cave in completely. This in turn may justify the application of
the elasto-plastic material model in Fig. 5a for both cohesionless and
cohesive soils.

RESULTS
In the following, the results from the considered methods in the pre-
vious chapters are presented. The chapter is divided into two main
fields; a subchapter containing results from the experimental investiga-
tions of the considered offshore wind turbine structure and a subchapter
regarding the numerical results.
Experimental Results
Based on the experimental investigation of the considered wind turbine
structure, the first natural bending frequency f1 as a function of the
average wind speed velocity vwind is shown in Fig. 6a for the thrust-wise
direction y and the sideway direction x. The tests have been carried out
for a wind speed interval between 3 m/s and 13 m/s. As expected, the
first natural bending frequency f1 for the thrust-wise direction y and the
sideway direction x is almost identical. Moreover, the frequencies seem
to be independent of the considered wind speed interval. A mean value
of 0.354 Hz and 0.347 Hz is observed for the first natural bending fre-
quency f1 for the thrust-wise direction y and the sideway direction x,
respectively with a corresponding standard deviation of 0.39% and
1.33%. In spite of some scatter, Fig. 6b indicates a decreasing damping
of the structure for increasing wind velocity. This tendency may be
caused by the fact that the acceleration level increases for increasing
Fig. 6. Experimental results for the considered offshore wind turbine
structure: (a) First natural bending frequency f1 for the thrust-wise
direction y and the sideway direction x, (b) Total system damping of
the first bending mode δ1.
wind velocity. Despite a larger amount of irreversible soil deformation
for a high acceleration level, and thereby more soil damping, the
performance of the tower oscillation damper is reserve; it simply
provides lower damping contribution for high acceleration levels. A
mean value of 14.15% of the logarithmic decrement δ1 of the first
bending mode shape is obtained with a standard deviation of 1.51%.
Based on the total system damping ratio for the first bending mode
ζ1 of test No 6, it is possible to estimate the contribution from the soil
damping. Basically, the total system damping ratio ζ1 can be expressed
as a linear combination of the following parts:
ζ 1 = ζ steel + ζ tower + ζ aero + ζ water + ζ soil , (11)
where ζsteel is the steel hysteretic damping ratio, ζtower is the damping
ratio from the tower oscillation damper, ζaero is the aerodynamic damp-
ing ratio from the tower, ζwater is the wave making radiation and viscous
hydrodynamic damping ratio due to the presence of water, and ζsoil is
the soil damping ratio. According to EN 1991-1-4 (2005), the material
damping for the monopile and tower steel ζsteel can be estimated to

304
ζ steel = 0.19% (12)
In order to evaluate the performance of the tower oscillation damper,
full scale “rotor stop” tests have been performed on a 105 m onshore
tower. The tower accelerations for active and inactive (blocked) dam-
per configurations have been measured which makes it possible to
evaluate the damping performance of the tower oscillation damper. Due
to the fact that the acceleration level is almost identical for the con-
sidered test No 6 and the onshore tests, the damping contribution from
the tower oscillation damper ζtower is determined to
ζ tower = 1.36% (13)
With a measured averaged wind speed vwind of 8.76 m/s and a first na-
tural bending frequency f1 of 0.34 Hz for test No 6, the aerodynamic
damping on the tower structure ζaero is calculated in accordance with
EN 1991-1-4 (2005).
ζ aero = 0.062% (14)
Theoretical estimation of ζwater has been presented by Leblanc and
Tarp-Johansen (2011) based on research performed by Tarp-Johansen et
al. (2009). Due to small relative velocities for an offshore wind turbine
structure, the viscous hydrodynamic damping ratio is small compared
to damping created from wave radiation. According to Leblanc and
Tarp-Johansen (2011), the damping ratio from wave radiation only is
approximately 0.12% when considering an offshore wind turbine with a
first natural bending frequency of 0.3 Hz, a pile diameter of 4.7 m and a
water depth of 20 m. The damping value is assumed to represent test
No 6, i.e.,
ζ water = 0.12% (15)
With a total system damping ratio for the first bending mode ζ1 of
2.31% for test No 6, the soil damping required to make the total theore-
tical damping equal to the total experimental damping is determined to
ζ soil = 0.58%,
(16)
which is equal to a logarithmic decrement δsoil of 3.63%.
Numerical Results
The first natural bending frequency f1 based on the Winkler approach is
shown in Table 2 for test No 6. Due to the fact that the soil strengths
are based on a 5% and a 50% quantile and that a lower and upper
bound exist for the undrained cohesion cu, a total of four estimations of
the first natural bending frequency f1 is shown. In a similar way, the
numerical estimation of the soil damping ratio ζsoil and the logarithmic
decrement δsoil for test No 6 is shown in Table 3. Table 2 shows that the
first natural bending frequency f1 of the wind turbine correlates with the
soil strength properties. Using characteristic soil strengths with a 50%
quantile instead of the common used 5% quantile the natural frequency
f1 increases with approximately 1.5%. Similarly, the numerical estima-
tion of soil damping in Table 3 increases when using a 50% quantile for
determination of the characteristic soil strength because of decreasing
elasto-plastic soil behaviour.
DISCUSISON
When comparing the mean value of the measured first natural bending
305
Table 2. First natural bending frequency f1 based on the Winkler
approach. The frequency is determined with characteristic soil strengths
with a 5% and 50% quantile and for an empirical cone factor Nk equal
to 15 and 20.
f5% f50%
[Hz] [Hz]
cuk,15 0.332 0.336
cuk,20 0.327 0.332
Table 3. Soil damping ratio ζsoil and logarithmic decrement δsoil based
on irreversible soil deformations for test No 6. The damping is deter-
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mined with characteristic soil strengths with a 5% and 50% quantile
and for an empirical cone factor Nk equal to 15 and 20.
ζsoil,5% δsoil,5% ζsoil,50% δsoil,50%
[%] [%] [%] [%]
cuk,15 0.444 2.790 0.482 3.029
cuk,20 0.691 4.342 0.737 4.631
frequency f1 for the thrust-wise direction y and the sideway direction x
with the corresponding numerical values, sensible results are obtained.
However, the numerical frequencies are slightly underestimated. Using
characteristic soil properties based on a 50% quantile and an empirical
cone factor Nk of 15 for the determination of the undrained cohesion cu,
a deviation between the numerical first natural bending frequency f1
and the measured mean frequency in the thrust-wise direction y and the
sideway direction x is 5.4% and 3.4%, respectively. It should be noted
that no scour hole development is taken into account in the numerical
model. In case of local or global scour has taken place when the ten
“rotor stop” tests have been conducted, a larger deviation between the
numerical and measured results will be observed.
The experimental investigation of the total damping ratio of the
first bending mode shape ζ1 of the offshore wind turbine shows a mean
value of 2.25%. Due to the fact that test No 6 represents the mean value
very well with a total system damping ratio of 2.31%, the estimation of
soil damping has been carried out for this test. Using a simple linear
viscous damping model, reasonable soil damping results are obtained
when comparing with the experimental soil damping ratio ζsoil in Eq.
(16). The soil damping ratio ζsoil is underestimated when using charac-
teristic soil properties based on a 50% quantile and an empirical cone
factor Nk of 15 for the determination of the undrained cohesion cu. The
opposite is observed for a 5% quantile and an empirical cone factor Nk
of 20. However, it should be noted that certain assumptions are made in
order to estimate the numerical soil damping ratio ζsoil. Firstly, the
elasto-plastic model representing the load-displacement curve for the
first load cycle after the “rotor stop” in Fig. 5a assumes that a gap be-
tween the soil and the monopile will be developed in the unloading
phase, even for cohesionless soils. Secondly, as the unloading phase
follows the initial stiffness of the virgin curve, it implies that no ir-
reversible soil deformations take place for the cohesive soil stra-
tification for small deflections and thereby no soil damping
development. This is due to the fact that the virgin curve is represented
by piece-wise linear approximation of the p-y curve for clay as recom-
mended by API (2000) and DNV (2011). Using a p-y curve for-
mulation for clay as proposed by UFC (2004) with an initial slope
based on the undrained cohesion cu may result in plastic soil defor-
mations, even for small pile deflections. The method has not been used
in this paper. Finally, it should be noted that the numerical soil
damping ratio ζsoil is a measure of the total system damping only for the
first load cycle. As the damping contribution from soil depends on the
displacement level, the soil damping ratio ζsoil will decrease during the
“rotor stop” sequence.
CONCLUSIONS
Offshore wind turbine structures must be analysed regarding failure in
the fatigue limit state (FLS). Especially for offshore wind farm projects
using monopile foundation, the FLS turns out to be critical. This in turn
necessitates a correct estimation of the dynamic properties of offshore
wind turbine structures in order to decrease the fatigue damage ac-
cumulation during the lifetime of the structure. In this paper, the
dynamic properties of an offshore wind turbine structure supported by a
monopile foundation have been investigated. Based on ten “rotor stop
tests”, the first natural bending frequency f1 and the corresponding
damping ratio ζ1 of the offshore wind turbine have been estimated.
Despite the p-y curves given in offshore design regulations are de-
veloped for slender piles with a slenderness ratio of L/D<34.4, a Wink-
ler beam model has been established in order to verify its applicability
for modern offshore wind turbine structures. The following conclusions
can be drawn:
• Experimental and numerical estimation of the first natural
bending frequency f1 of the considered offshore wind tur-
bine give comparable results. The mean value of the mea-
sured first natural bending frequency f1 for the thrust-wise
direction y and the sideway direction x is 0.354 Hz and
0.347 Hz, respectively.
• A mean value of the total system damping ratio of the first
bending mode ζ1 of 2.25% (14.15% logarithmic decrement)
is identified.
• Qualified estimations of each damping contribution to the
total system damping make it possible to determine the soil
damping ratio ζsoil to 0.58% (3.63% logarithmic decre-
ment).
• By use of a non-linear Winkler approach, the plastic soil
deformations along the monopile are determined just before
the “rotor stop” takes place for a specific test. By assuming
a linear viscous damping model, the soil damping ratio ζsoil
is determined to be in the range of 0.444% – 0.737%
(2.790% – 4.631% logarithmic decrement). The results a-
gree very well with the findings from the experimental ap-
proach.
Overall, the estimation of soil damping presented within this paper is in
agreement with research performed by Cook and Vandiver (1982) and
Tarp-Johansen et al. (2009). However, Versteijlen et al. (2011) have
investigated the dynamic properties of an offshore wind turbine sup-
ported by a monopile foundation from twelve “rotor stop” tests. A soil
damping ratio ζsoil of approximately 1.5% (9.5% logarithmic decre-
ment) was found. Due to the discrepancy, strong conclusions must be
drawn with some care. Uncertainty regarding the damping contribution
from the tower oscillation damper and the hydrodynamic effects are
present in this paper. For further research, it may be relevant to conduct
“rotor stop” tests with a blocked tower oscillation damper and make use
of the Boundary Element Method to estimate the hydrodynamic damp-
ing.
In general, significant research is needed within the field of deter-
mining the dynamic properties of offshore wind turbine structures.
Especially, determination of the dynamic properties within true boun-
dary conditions and actual force and vibration level is crucial in order
to determine the amount of system damping for wind-wave mis-
alignment. The authors will in the near future investigate this topic by
use of operational modal analysis.
306
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work presented within this paper is supported by the research
projects Cost Effective Monopile Design funded by Energiteknologiske
Udviklings- og Demostrationsprogram (EUDP) and Cost Effective
Deep Water Foundations for Large Offshore Wind Turbines funded by
the Advanced Technology Fund.
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