Nonlinear Wave Loads and Wave Hydrodynamic Effects on Offshore Wind Turbine Foundations

The project aims to investigate nonlinear wave interaction with offshore wind turbine foundations, to provide more accurate wave loads and hydrodynamic effects on the structure for the design of the foundation and superstructure. A simplified version of the design methodology for offshore oil and gas platforms is currently applied to most project developments for offshore wind farms. However, most offshore wind turbines will be installed in shallow water regions, in which viscous effects, proximity of the seabed, and other coastal processes will not be negligible.In this project a novel fully-nonlinear Boussinesq-type numerical FVM model based on a Cartesian cut cell grid will be developed to simulate high order, strongly non-linear and highly dispersive wave interaction with the proposed structure. The other advantage of the new Boussinesq formulation is that it will be the ability to accurately estimate the flow vertical velocity profile, which is important for the accurate calculation of wave loads on the structure. The proposed shock capturing, Riemann solver will render the scheme conservative, but also provide a robust approach for the simulation of breaking wave effects. Experimental model tests will also be carried out to verify the numerical simulations. Various wave interactions with the structure, and breaking wave impacts will be investigated to provide insights into the non-linear wave interactions with such structures.