Reduction of wave load on monopile-supported offshore wind turbine by a gear-type plate

This study investigates the wave diffraction problem of a vertical cylinder with a gear-type plate by using the linear wave theory and the method of eigenfunction expansion. The present model is demonstrated to be accurate, through a comparison with the numerical results of the boundary element method. The horizontal wave force acting on the cylinder can be reduced considerably by the gear-type plate. Meanwhile, the variation in bending moment at the bottom of the cylinder depends on the wave conditions and geometry parameters. A low value of the ratio between water depth and cylinder radius (d/r₀) can result in an increase in the bending moment on the cylinder, rather than a decrease, due to the additional loads exerted by the gear-type plate. The bending moment on the cylinder can be reduced significantly by the gear-type plate as d/r₀ increases. Within d/r₀∈[4,10] of the present monopile-supported wind turbines, the wave loads on the monopile foundation can be reduced significantly by the proposed gear-type plate. Compared with a ring-type plate, a gear-type plate exhibits superior reduction effects over an equal plate area. The loads on the structures are insensitive to the wave exposure angle when the teeth number increases beyond three.