Offshore Wind Farms

10.4. Design spiral process and loads' analysis

The conventional SSt design process starts with the compilation of the so-called “design basis” document, which details turbine parameters (loads, dimensions, project lifetime, PSFs, etc.), environmental site-specific conditions, and guidance on the choice of reference standards. Based on these specifications and on an initial conceptual layout, a preliminary design is achieved, which verifies simple structural checks (modal performance and ULS criteria, as discussed in the folowing sections). These first few steps in the design spiral process (see Fig. 10.13) heavily rely on the experience of the engineering team. Then, the spiral process itself tends to guide the choices based on the structural ...