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Abstract

Wind turbines platforms and pillars on offshore wind farms are negatively affected by wave and current action. In Taiwan, the water depth of most planned wind turbine foundations is more than 15 m. At this water depth, scour around offshore wind turbine foundations is mainly subject to the ocean current, which causes damage or collapse of foundations. Therefore, this study focused on the influence of ocean current on the monopile and jacket-type foundations of offshore wind turbines. Hydraulic model experiments were conducted to investigate the maximum scour depth and range around pillars in these foundations. Under the effects of current, the relationships between the dimensionless maximum scour depth corresponding to the Froude number (Fr) and Reynolds number (Re) were calculated and compared with the experimental results. Then, a relationship between the Reynolds number (Re) and the relative scour water depth (ds,max/h) could be obtained as a regression curve. In addition, this regression curve could be used to estimate the maximum scour depth around the monopile and jacket-type foundations under different current velocity (U), water depth (h) and pile diameter (D) conditions. The findings are valuable as a design reference for offshore wind turbine foundations.

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