Institute for Steel Construction Research Research projects
Probabilistic Safety Assessment of Offshore Wind Turbines

Probabilistic Safety Assessment of Offshore Wind Turbines

Led by:  Peter Schaumann
Team:  Anne Bechtel
Year:  2009
Funding:  Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur
Duration:  01-12-2009 - 30-11-2014

Projektbeschreibung

The research project "Probabilistic Safety Assessment of Offshore Wind Turbines" is a interdisciplinary project between the ForWind research institutions of the Leibniz University Hannover. The project conducts 8 work packages whereas work package 4 "Foundation and Support Structure" is managed by the Insitute for Steel Construction.Further information are on the project Homepage .

Work package 4 encompasses the performance of a reliability analysis for substructure and tower of Offshore Wind Energy Converters (OWEC) using probabilistic methods. Objective of the project is to establish fault trees concerning different support structures based on ascertained probabilities of failure.

Today the assessment of OWEC consists of the deterministic method using definite values for input parameters. The investigations of the subproject focus on the statistical spread of action and resistance parameters concerning support structures. Furthermore, one aspect deals with the determination and analyses of limit states for the structure. The reliability analysis will be carried out by use of probabilistic methods as for example the First Order Reliability Method (FORM) or the Response Surface Method (RSM). As a result the most likely mode of failure and the failure probability of the structure may be identified. Determination of the probability failure affords to generate failure trees for variable support structures. In the end, gained knowledge and results may be imported to assessment procedures of OWECs.