As the size of offshore wind turbine generators get bigger and the available water depth increases, the weight and cost of traditional monopile foundations will increase substantially. Instead, jacket foundations can be used as they perform better in deeper waters. However, the connections between the tubular legs and cross stiffeners in the jackets, also called nodes, are prone to high loads and fatigue damage thus resulting in a heavy and expensive node design. To decrease the cost of tubular jacket structures, a novel node design using high strength steel will be developed with special attention to the stochastic manufacturing parameters, fatigue methods and post-weld treatment. This is an EUDP project.
A Novel Node using High Strength steel for Jacket Structures
