Discrepancy study of modal parameters of a scale jacket-type supporting structure of 3.0-MW offshore wind turbine in water and in air

The discrepancy of modal parameters of a scale offshore wind turbine is studied by using the proposed assessment method. One theoretical development is that weak genuine modes can be separated from strong noisy modes; and the other is the size of the reconstructed Hankel matrix will not be changed to ensure the comparability of modal parameters from different scenarios. A numerical signal is synthesized to demonstrate the proposed method. Numerical results indicate that the approach can isolate the two genuine modal parameters respectively, by applying estimated pass band with a 2 by 2 Hankel matrix of the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm, which means it can be used as a criterion to assess modal parameters from different scenarios. An experiment with model scale 15 from a 3.0-MW offshore wind turbine is tested. Experimental results indicate that natural frequencies are considerably reduced and damping ratios are increased, with the rate of frequency change varies from 15.33% to 17.97%. The modal parameters obtained in water with waves are close to those obtained in still water even if the structure is excited by a hammer or waves. The modal parameters estimated from the reconstructed responses of different accelerometers are in excellent agreement. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.