Numerical Simulation Of Scour Around The Foundation Of The Offshore Wind Turbine Subjected To Waves And Currents

In recent years, many countries have set their sights on offshore wind powerindustry, which is clean and pollution-free. Large-scale development of offshore windpower has become an inevitable trend. However, the complex ocean environment willpose a threat to the stability of the foundation of wind turbines. The foundation ofwind turbines is easily scoured due to the effect of waves and tidal currents.Furthermore, severe scouring will lead to the instability of wind turbines. Based onDelft3D software, this study simulates the scour around the wind turbine foundationunder the effect of tidal currents alone and the waves and tidal currents together.The main contents and conclusions are as follows.Firstly, through a numerical model for the scour around the foundation of acylinder under the waves and currents, this study analyzes the flow field, bed shearstress, and the changes of topography around the cylinder. The results of numericalsimulation coincide with the experiment well. Thus, the validity of the model isverified.Secondly, through simulating the flow field of the Offshore Wind Farm ofDonghai Bridge in Shanghai by Delft3D, this study obtain results of which providethe boundary conditions for the simulation of the scour around a single wind turbine.Thirdly, through simulating the scour around a single offshore wind turbineunder the condition of tidal currents alone and combining waves with tidal currents,respectively by Delft3D, the results show: under the effect of tidal currents alone, thefoundation of the wind turbine is slightly scoured or deposited, and the topographychanges slowly; the scour depth under the effect of spring tide is slightly larger thanunder the effect of middle tide or neap tide, but the gap is not obvious; under theeffect of waves combining with tidal currents, a large area of the foundation isscoured and the scour depth grows rapidly, and the depth of the scour pole increasesquickly and larger than that under the effect of tidal currents alone. The numericalsimulation results will provide references for the protecting design of the wind turbinefoundation.