ICCM Conferences, The 7th International Conference on Computational Methods (ICCM2016)

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Dynamic Analysis of Heat Exchanger Piles for Offshore Wind Turbines
Arundhuti Banerjee

Last modified: 2016-08-11

Abstract


In order to secure the future generations from energy crisis, it is widely accepted that implementation of renewable energy resources is the urgent need of the day. Renewable energy resources, e.g. wind, ocean wave and geothermal energy provide substantial benefits towards our climate, health, and economy. Heat exchanger piles are deep foundations that combine the structural function as a foundation with a heat exchanger for extracting heat from the earth’s crust. In the proposed study, a novel concept of combined offshore wind turbine-heat exchanger pile foundation technology will be investigated. Coupled temperature-displacement analysis of geothermal energy pile foundations will be carried out using finite element (FE) software ANSYS to understand the interaction between geothermal pile and the surrounding soil subjected to random wave loading and thermal loading-unloading cycles. In this paper, thermal characteristics are evaluated in the ground thermal energy system with steel foundation pile. The average effective thermal conductivity of the surrounding offshore soil is estimated by conducting an extensive literature survey. Pile will be modeled using the linear elastic model where as the soil is modeled using Drucker Prager constitutive model. The thermal loading-unloading cycle will be applied on the pile using temperature cycles. The random wave loading on the pile would be modeled using the Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum. The results of the analyses will be studied for stress, strain and displacement response of the heat exchanger pile foundation for offshore wind turbine and the surrounding soil. Temperature changes in steel and surrounding soil during thermal pile operation will lead to additional steel stresses and displacements within the pile-soil system. Hence proper care has to be taken that the temperatures remain within acceptable limits, while the pile geotechnical analysis should demonstrate that any adverse thermal stresses are within design safety factors and that any additional displacements do not affect the serviceability of the offshore structure.


Keywords


ANSYS, Coupled Temperature-Displacement Analysis, Drucker Prager, Offshore, Steel pile, Wind Turbine.

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