FlexWind - Fatigue Life Extension of offshore Wind foundations

Offshore wind turbine foundations are usually designed for an operational lifetime of 20 years. We will soon face the decision of decommissioning or life extension of the wind turbines installed in the North Sea. The task of life extension involves demonstrating that the steel foundation was designed overly conservative, and that the actual loads were lower than considered in the initial design. In this project, we will develop a more accurate fatigue analysis method through detailed consideration of local geometrical features, such as surface degradation and the as-built geometry of the welds, obtained from 3D laser scans of the structure.

• Promotor: Wim De Waele​ | Kris Hectors
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