Data-driven assistant for the design of offshore jacket substructures

As the power output of offshore wind turbines increases, more and more influencing factors in the different life phases of the support structure become relevant to improve feasibility, economic viability, and provability. Conventional design methods for offshore wind turbines are complex and expensive. Conventional conceptual designs often rely on the expertise and intuition of engineers, creating a risk of bias due to insufficient design information at the beginning of a project. To minimize this risk, this paper develops a data-driven method to simplify conceptual support structure design. The method is realized by analyzing a self-generated global database of existing wind farms. As an example, the data-driven method is implemented and evaluated for the conceptual design of offshore jacket substructures. It shows that the rated power of the turbine and the water depth of the wind farm should be considered as two structural parameters for the conceptual design of jacket structures for offshore wind turbines. Thus, the process is simplified and made more economical. The result forms the basis for the overall offshore wind turbine's detailed design and structural implementation.