Seismic Transient Simulation of an Operating Wind Turbine Considering the Soil-Structure Interaction

In this contribution we present a strategy to investigate the vibrations of onshore wind turbines subjected to simultaneous aerodynamic loads and seismic loads. The latter result from the propagation of seismic waves through the underlying soil and are governed by the Lamé's equations. The structure and its foundation as well as parts of the soil are modeled by Finite Element Method (FEM). The infinite half-space is discretized by Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method (SBFEM). Both methods are coupled at the common interface. The seismic excitation is expressed as a 3D seismic wave field and transformed into boundary tractions, which are then applied at the interface between the near and far fields. The aerodynamic actions are generated with an additional aerodynamic tool and are applied at the tower head. The proposed method can be used also to investigate the 3D nonlinear response of the near field, where nonlinear material properties can be assigned to any element of FEM part.