Proceedings of the XVIII International Symposium on Dynamic Problems of Mechanics (DINAME 2019),

M.A. Savi, T.G. Ritto and W.M. Bessa (editors), ABCM, Buzios, RJ, Brazil, March 10th to 15th, 2019

Nonlinear Modal Analysis of a Monopile Offshore Wind Turbine

Paulo D. G. Zwierzikowski1 , Elvidio Gavassoni Neto1

1 Department of Civil Construction, Paraná Federal University, Mailbox 19011, CEP 81531-990 Curitiba, PR, Brazil.

Abstract: Offshore wind turbines, due to the environmental loads may present large displacements and rotations, leading
to the presence of nonlinear effects. In this paper is realized the nonlinear modal analysis of a discrete one-degree-of-
freedom model of a monopile offshore wind turbine in the free and forced vibration. The effects of the added mass and
restoring forces are considered in the analysis. The external force is modeling as an acting harmonic load uniformly
distributed along the length of the structure. The harmonic balance method is then applied to the free and forced
vibration. The hardening and jump phenomena are detected, which shows sensibility to the variation of the external force
amplitude and damping ratio parameters. The stability of the solution is investigated through the bifurcation diagrams by
varying the external load amplitude and maintaining its frequency and the damping ratio constant. Unstable branches
in the solution are obtained when the external force amplitude reaches the bifurcation value. The results show that
nonlinear phenomena must be considerate in the future studies and designs of the offshore wind turbines.
Keywords: Nonlinear Modal Analysis, Monopile Offshore Wind Turbines, Nonlinear Phenomenan

INTRODUCTION
Offshore wind turbines are gaining attention for the ability to capture the immense wind-resource available in the sea
locations. The monopile offshore wind turbine is the most common support type in projects of such structures and as being
installed in water with the maximum deep of 20 m (Harriger, 2011). Offshore structures such as the wind turbines due to
environmental loads can present large amplitudes of motion (Gavassoni, 2012). These large amplitudes lead the presence
of nonlinear phenomena as hardening, jumping, internal resonance, limit cycles, modal interaction, and chaos (Kerschen
et al., 2006). The linear analysis is not sufficient to identify and analyze the nonlinear phenomena that will occur in the
offshore turbines, being necessary to consider the nonlinearities. The nonlinear modal analysis of the monopile offshore
wind turbine is conducted for the free and forced vibration to identify and analyze of which phenomena will occur and
their influence in the design of such structures.

SYSTEM MODEL
The model of the monopile offshore wind turbine is based on the discrete system proposed by Stewart (2012), showed
on Fig. 1. whick consiste in a rigid column with length Lt with a constant circular diameter D. In the turbine structure the
circular diameter varies with the length of the tower. All the mass mt of the system is modeled as single mass located at
the column’s free end. The stiffness of the system is modeled as a rotational spring kt accounting the structural stiffness of
the system and the restoring coefficient due to the hydrostatic forces due the monopile being submerged to a water depth
of h. The time dependent movement of the model in all time is describe by one degree-of-freedom: θt that is the rotational
angle of the offshore wind turbine about the y-axis. The equation of motion of the system is equal:

It θ̈t + 2ξ ωn mt θ̇t + kt θt − mtgLt sin(θt (t)) = 0 (1)

LINEAR MODAL ANALYSIS

In this section will be present the linear modal analysis of the monopile offshore wind turbine. The underline linear
equation of motion of the same system is given by:

It θ̈t + 2ξ ωn mt θ̇t + kt θt − mtgLt θt = 0 (2)

Using the parameters showed on Tab. 1. One can observed that for the monopile vibrating it the water will exhibit the
natural vibration frequency ωn =1.588 rad/s (0,253Hz). When vibrating outside the water the natural vibration frequency
will be ωn =1,608 rad/s (0,256Hz). This behavior shows that the monopile will exhibit greater stiffness with less mass
when vibrated outside the water.
Nonlinear Modal Analysis of Monopile Offshore Wind Turbine

Table 1 – Monopile offshore wind turbine parameters

(Jonkman, 2007)

Properties of structure
Material Steel
Column specific mass, ρw 8500 kg/m3
Moment of inertia, It 2.407 96 × 107 kg m
System mass, mt 674 460 kg
Torsional stiffness constant, kt 7.97 × 108 N m
Column length, Lt 107.6 m
Top tower diameter, Dtop 3.87 m
Submerged monopile diameter, D 6.00 m
Base tower diameter, Dbase 6.00 m
Properties of fluid
Added mass coeficient, Cm 1.00
Water specific mass, ρw 1.024 × 103 kg/m3
Water depth, h 20.00 m

Figure 1 – Monopile offshore wind turbine model

NONLINEAR ANALYSIS
The nonlinear analysis is done by considering a Taylor expansion of Eq.1 by including up to 3rd order terms. As one
can note only odd terms appear in this equation:
1
It θ̈t + 2ξ ωn mt θ̇t + (kt − mt gLt )θt + mt gLt θt3 = 0 (3)
6

Free Vibration
The undamped Eq. 3 is used to analyzed the nonlinear free vibration of the monopile. The harmonic balance method
is used to obtained the frequency-amplitude curves, assuming the following approximated solution:

θt = X1 cos(ωt) (4)

The nonlinear algebric system is solved by the newton-raphson method, when the following relation is used to plot the
results:
ω
Ω= (5)
ωn
In can be observed from the Fig. 2 that the system exhibits a hardening behavior. The variation of the frequency of
vibration with the amplitude of motion indicated one of the principals features of nonlinear dynamic systems. The depen-
dence of the energy level with the variation of the frequency (Kerschen et al., 2006, Gavassoni, 2012). The dependence of
the frequency to the amount of energy disponible to the monopile offshore wind turbine is showed n Fig. 3. As one can
observe the same hardening behavior is detected by the shape of the curve in Fig. 3.

Forced Vibration
According to Rosenberg (1966) when the amplitude of the external force is small and as a consequence the amplitude
of motion is too, the solution of the forced vibration is appropriated to capture the permanent response of the system in the
forced vibration analysis. In this section a forced vibration analysis of the monopile system is performed by considering
a small amplitude of the external force. The force is modeled as harmonic load uniformly distributed along the length of
the column. The equation of motion of the monopile under de forced vibration is give by:
1
It θ̈t +2ξ ωn mt θ̇t +(kt − mt gLt )θt + mt gLt θt3 = Fo cos(ωt) (6)
6
with Fo being the external amplitude force. Using the parameters showed on Tab.1 and divided the Eq.6 by the acceleration
coefficient. The equation of montion is given by:

θ̈t + 0, 09205ξ θ̇t + 2, 5249θt + 5, 0956θt3 = Γcos(ωt) (7)

 P.D.G. Zwierzikowski, E. Gavassoni

Figure 2 – Frequency-amplitude relationship Figure 3 – Frequency-energy relationship

with Γ=F0 /It . The resonance curves are obteined using the harmonic balance method. For the monopile offshore wind
turbine the resonance curves are given by the folliwing equation.

{(0, 0920ξ ω 2 )2 + [2, 525 + 3, 822X2 − ω 2 ]2 }X2 =Γ2 (8)

The resonance curves of the system are showed in Fig. 4 e 5. Figure 4 shows the parametric study of the external
force amplitude while in Fig. 5 the parametrical study of the damping ratio is showed. It can be observed that the system
exhibits a gain of stiffness with the variation of the vibration frequency. Also, its observed the jump phenomenon which
can be reduced even eliminate according to the variation of the external amplitude force or the ratio of damping parameter.

Figure 4 – The effect of external harmonic magnitude in Figure 5 – The effect of the damping in the resonance
the resonance curves curves

Another import aspect of forced nonlinear system is the stability of the solution. While linear system exhibits only
stable solution, the dynamical nonlinear system may have stable or unstable solutions. The bifurcation diagrams can be
used to study the solution stability in terms of the variation of the external load amplitude, by maintaining its frequency
and the system damping amount constant. The bifurcation diagram is showed in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7. The solution loses its
stability when Γ reaches a value equal to 7,335. The analysis of the phase-plane reveal that the original node critical point
became a saddle point after the bifurcation points as showed in Fig. 8 to Fig. 10.
Nonlinear Modal Analysis of Monopile Offshore Wind Turbine

Figure 6 – Rotations bifurcation diagram (Ω=1,20 and Figure 7 – Rotational velocities bifurcation diagram
ξ =0,01) (Ω=1,20 and ξ =0,01)

Figure 8 – Phase-plane diagram Figure 9 – Phase-plane diagram Figure 10 – Phase-plane diagram

with Γ= 0,50 with Γ= 7,335 with Γ= 8,50

CONCLUSIONS
The nonlinear analysis of a discrete model of a monopile offshore wind turbine was performed in this work, both
in the free and forced vibration cases. The nonlinear system presents some important nonlinear phenomena such as:
multiple solutions, frequency-amplitude and frequency-energy dependence, jumping, hardening and unstable solutions.
Such phenomena show their influence in the system response and must be considerate in the design of such structures.

REFERENCES
GAVASSONI, E., 2012, “Application of nonlinear vibration modes to conceptual models of offshore structures”, 269 p.,
Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
HARRIGER, E. M., 2011, “Dynamic analysis of a 5 Megawatt offshore floating wind turbine”, 55 p., University of
California, San Diego.
JONKMAN, J. M., 2007, “Dynamics modeling and loads analysis of an offshore floating wind turbine”, 233 p., Univer-
sity of Colorado at Boulder.
KERSCHEN, G. et al., 2006, “Past, present and future of nonlinear system identification in structural dynamics”, Me-
chanical systems and signal processing, Elsevier, v. 20, n. 3, p. 505-592.
ROSENBERG, R. M., 1966, “On nonlinear vibrations of systems with many degrees of freedom”, In: ADVANCES in
applied mechanics. Elsevier. v. 9. p. 155-242.
STEWART, G. M., 2012, “Load reduction of floating wind turbines using tuned mass dampers”, 97 p., University of
Massachusetts, Amherst.

RESPONSIBILITY NOTICE
The author(s) is (are) the only responsible for the printed material included in this paper.