Effect of wave spectral variability on the dynamic response of offshore wind turbine considering soil-pile-structure interaction

The accurate assessment of the dynamic response of the offshore wind turbine is fundamental to its economical and safe design, where the precise characterization of the incident wind and waves is essential. While reliable aerodynamic models can accurately reproduce wind characteristics, the widely-used empirical JONSWAP spectrum in wave field simulation may not capture the multi-modal feature of the mixed wave field near the wind farm. In this study, the stochastic structural responses based on an integrated FE model of the soil-pile-structure system are assessed employing the empirical and actual wave spectra, along with discussions on the impacts of wave theory and wave-structure interaction. The main conclusions are: (1) The empirical wave spectrum can overestimate the dynamic responses compared with the measured swell-dominant one, but the dominant wind load weakens its influence on displacement. (2) When the wave serves as the decisive loading, using the empirical spectrum overestimates the dynamic performance for the swell-dominant wave spectrum while underestimating it for the wind-induced-wave-dominant one. The approximation of the actual wave spectrum to the JONSWAP spectrum is only recommended when the coupling effect of wind and wave is inapparent. (3) The wave theory imposes an evident effect on the dynamic behavior of the offshore wind turbine subject to joint wind and wave loading, where the JONSWAP wave spectrum is more sensitive. (4) The influence of water-monopile interaction is negligible when using the JONSWAP wave spectrum but prominent for the simulation's actual wave spectrum. •An integrated FE model considering soil-pile-structure interaction is developed.•Response discrepancies induced by JONSWAP and actual wave spectra are analyzed.•Influence of spectral disparities induced by inhomogeneous wave field is discussed.•Sensitivities of spectrum influence to wave theory and wave-structure interaction are studied.