{"id":8128,"date":"2025-04-09T14:09:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-09T12:09:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ingenius.ecoledesponts.fr\/?p=8128"},"modified":"2025-04-10T09:55:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T07:55:14","slug":"sizing-of-offshore-wind-turbines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ingenius.ecoledesponts.fr\/en\/articles\/sizing-of-offshore-wind-turbines\/","title":{"rendered":"Sizing of offshore wind turbines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"Figure
Aerial view of the Horns Rev 1 farm and wake effects \u00a9<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Offshore wind energy has been a fast-growing sector in Europe since the first offshore wind turbine prototype in the 1990s and the first industrial farms in Denmark, Germany, and the United Kingdom in the early 2000s. In France, the first offshore wind farm was hooked up back in late 2022 off the Saint-Nazaire coast with a maximum electrical production capacity of 480 MW. It has since been followed by other projects on a similar scale. The development of offshore wind energy was accelerated by the increase in turbine size, rising from 2 MW for the first projects to 6 MW (respectively equivalent to the electrical consumption of 700 homes and approximately 2,000 homes) for the French farm in Saint Nazaire. Currently, major wind turbine developers such as Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Vestas are testing 15 MW turbines with rotor diameters of 240 m. The masts of these wind turbines are 150 m tall and weigh close to a thousand tons. We are thus talking about rotating structures of a comparable size to the Eiffel Tower, weighing several express trains, installed offshore on fixed or floating foundations. The many issues involved in the deployment of these offshore farms include the mechanical sizing of structures on this scale. Mechanical sizing, a crucial stage in the development of offshore structures, consists of evaluating mechanical performance to guarantee structural resistance before manufacturing. This phase limits risks of non-compliance, identifies potential failures, and determines optimizations required to guarantee system reliability and competitiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"15
15 MW IEA wind turbine and the Eiffel Tower \u00a9 EDF.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Offshore wind turbine modeling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Offshore wind turbines are structures that interface with a varied and complex environment. They are subjected to wind and wave stresses, as well as soil interaction via their foundations. Consequently, they are naturally warped under the influence of environmental conditions. The sizing of these structures requires multiphysics digital models with the goal of firstly representing the environment, then transforming this environment into structural load (in other words, transforming the wind and waves into forces to apply to the structure), and finally evaluating structural vibration and warping under the influence of these forces over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offshore wind turbine multiphysics models therefore feature 3 types of stresses or forces:<\/p>\n\n\n\n