Design and Optimization of Coastal Wind Turbine Foundation

As a type of clean energy, wind energy has remarkable social and environmental benefits. Recently, world installed capacity of wind power has increased by 27% every year in average, and the wind power off the coast has better exploitable potential. Wind turbine foundation is a key part of the wind turbine structure, its calculation matters contains load combination, foundation bearing capacity, stability, deformation, punching resistance, shearing resistance etc. When pile foundation is adopted, pile body strength should also be checked, and pile arrangement should take the bearing capacity of foundation cap and single pile into account. Because of the wind turbine's high inclination sensitivity, deformation of the foundation will likely be the control target in all calculation matters. Further more, a lot of problems need in-depth study, such as joint design between tower and foundation, accumulated deformation of foundation, seismic and strong wind-resistant design. Taking a wind farm off the coast as example, this arcticle provides some borrowings to other wind power farms, especially those locate on coastland.